Scientists have found differences between male and female serial killers.

Overwhelmingly serial killersthey turn out to be men, but history also has a lot of evidence that they can be women. In general, the first serial killer in history can be considered a woman named Locusta, who has committed many poisonings in ancient Rome. Psychology professor Marissa Harrison believes that women and men deal with their victims in different ways and for different reasons. It turned out that there are really a lot of differences, and they are associated with the evolutionary characteristics of the sexes.

Historically, men arehunters on large prey, and women - skilled collectors of plants, grains and other similar food. On this basis, psychologist Marissa Harrison asked herself: did the ancient roles influence the principles of murders committed by female and male criminals?

To find out, she teamed up with hercolleagues Adam Jordan Gott and Susan Hughes. They collected historical data on 55 male serial killers, and about the same number of female killers. From 1856 to 2009, all of them committed the murder of three or more people at weekly intervals.

Locusta - ancient Roman poisoner

The archives showed a sharp difference between the principles.kill them. As it turned out, the majority of female serial killers had a secondary or higher education, then both men were representatives of the lower classes. Women chose poisons as a murder weapon, while men choked or shot at their victims.

The fact that evolution did affect theirmethods of killing, psychologists were convinced by looking at other statistics. Women murderers, like their "ancestors-gatherers", did not go far from their usual environment. Their victims turned out to be close people who were not even to be prosecuted. Men, in turn, in most cases, pursued their victims.

In our sample there were two serial female killers,who committed similar persecution behavior during their crimes. However, archival records indicate that men were also involved in these crimes.

Marissa Harrison, Psychologist

Psychologists believe that they have foundfeatures will help investigators to catch dangerous killers and solve particularly complex cases. When it comes to solving crimes, the police often turn to science and technology - in March 2019 it became known that the department of New York had been using artificial intelligence for three years to identify the robbers.

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