Female Sexual Homicide Offenders

Abstract

Limited information exists regarding the criminal phenomenon of female sexual homicide. Using FBI’s Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) data spanning 32 years (1976-2007), 204 female sexual homicide offender cases (27 juveniles and 177 adult offenders) were examined. The offender and victim racial distributions were relatively equal. Similar to their male counterparts, female sexual murderers were more likely to target victims from the opposite gender, 75% of their victims were males. The majority of female sexual homicide offenders’ (SHO) victims were adults (78%) and someone with whom they shared a relationship (81%). Findings show that female SHOs killed intra-racially. Unlike most male sexual murderers, female offenders predominantly used firearms in their sex killings. The choice of murder weapon was primarily determined by the victim gender and age based on the differential of offender-victim physical strength. Interestingly, no intimate partner was murdered using personal weapons for two possibilities: physical strength differential and perhaps to avoid personalization of the killing process. Limitations of the data and future research directions are discussed.