2023-05-22 00:49:45
The journey that Victoria Pascual proposes in her book “Murderers: Why do women kill?” (Editorial Pinolia) is far from placid, but it is very enlightening. With an attractive rhythm, the author “dives” into the past and the dark motivations that led different criminals from different times and countries to enter the so-called “black chronicle”.
-In your book you present the cases of 23 homicidal women. What is the criteria you have followed to choose them?
I have chosen the assassins in such a way that there was a representation of different types of motivation and women from different periods of history and countries of the world. This criterion allowed me to situate them in different individual, socioeconomic and historical contexts, factors that explain why they came to commit the crimes. My choice had to be such that, following reading each case, it was the reader who came to the conclusion regarding the reasons that led that specific and real woman to kill.
– Do you think that there are different traits between a woman and a man when it comes to killing?
I think that there are differences between the motivations that, in general, move the different sexes to commit a murder. Likewise, I also consider that they differ, once more if I may generalize, in the «modus operandi». Women tend to commit more functional murders, less passionate, so they allow more time for planning. Their star motivation is economic, and poison, or the use of some toxin, is the modus operandi they use the most. Male homicides tend to have a more violent component, more physically aggressive. This does not mean that it is always so. We found numerous exceptions in both cases, but there are clear trends.
-Which of the two genders – sorry for the frivolity – kills “better”?
It depends on what we mean by “better” killing. If we understand successful murder to be one that goes unpunished, it is possible that women are the ones who kill best for two fundamental reasons: the first is that, traditionally, women have not been considered capable of committing certain crimes, especially the most violent, such as homicide or sexual assault, which is why some women have not been suspected of being the material or intellectual perpetrators of a crime. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, one of the ways most chosen by women to murder their fellow men is the use of toxins, which are more difficult to trace, leave less evidence and can be confused with a natural or accidental death.Both situations occur less and less, women are now suspected just like men and advances in toxicology and forensic medicine prevent, in many cases, a crime from going unpunished.
-What methods have you observed that are more common in females when it comes to killing?
Women have historically had fewer opportunities to commit murder. Traditionally, a woman’s life has developed in a more private space in which she had access to fewer people, therefore fewer potential victims, and fewer situations in which to commit a murder, therefore fewer opportunities and less motivation to commit murder. commit murder. Furthermore, if their goal is to kill a man, the most common thing is that they have less physical strength than their victim, so the methods to choose should solve that problem. The poison met, and meets, those needs.
-Why are the cases of homicidal women less visible in the media?
I think they are less visible because they give less. The data is clear, there is a much higher percentage of homicides perpetrated by men than by women. To this day I do not believe that homicides perpetrated by women are not disseminated in the media. In fact, from my point of view, it generates more public interest that she is a homicide since, given these gender inequalities, women are expected to play the role of caretakers, not executioners. A murderous woman impacts more because she is stepping out of that established role.
-What are the most frequent motives in a homicide?
The most frequent, following self-defense, is economic. We also find murders related to her role as her caretaker, the so-called angels of death, or the famous black widows, who murder members of her family or very close acquaintances.
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