Men and women speak differently, use social media differently, and, apparently, also kill differently. According to a new study in the International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, women have their own ways of carrying out murders.
The study examined 1,570 homicides in Sweden from 1990 to 2010. Overall, murder rates went down, but one thing remained consistent: about nine out of ten murders were committed by men. Despite this, about one of three murders of children under 15 years was committed by a woman.
In terms of their chosen methods, women were more likely than men to use knives to attack adults and to suffocate children. Their adult victims were more often men and intimate partners, and their crimes were more likely to take place in their homes. Other research has found women tend to be more meticulous about their killings, so you definitely do not want a female murderer as your housemate.
Women were also more likely than men to commit suicide after killing children, though studies outside Sweden haven't found this same result, and to have severe mental disorders. Both men and women were usually under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they committed the crime, though victims of women were more likely to be under the influence of some substance.
"One possible explanation to the differences seen between male and female murder is that the act of killing among females is more of a reaction to inner and outer pressure and stress," lead author Thomas Nilsson told Complex. "It is more of an impulsive and desperate action."
Though there isn't data directly supporting this explanation, he said it might fit with the tendency for women to use knives. "There is a knife in almost every home, easily accessible, so in the heat of the moment, it is a second's work to grab the knife and chop it into your antagonist."
Murders committed by men, he said, are often "part of a larger aggressive, antisocial lifestyle, where the act of the killing is more of a means to achieve goals, such as, for example, revenge, power, desired objects, and so on. ... Women don’t seem to use violence as a mean to reach goals as males do, and that’s why they don’t kill as often as males do."
Nilsson said in a press release that hopefully, these findings can help keep us safe from the deadly grips of female murderers. "The social and criminological differences we found between male and female perpetrators of deadly violence should be taken into account in the implementation of preventative measures," he said. "These measures should focus in particular on issues relating to the relationship between the victim and the perpetrators as well as the crime scenes, since the primary differences between male and female perpetrators appear in those areas."
UPDATED 11:52 a.m. ET: This story was updated to include comment from Thomas Nilsson.
