The psychopathy of a Victorian serial killer: integrating micro and macro levels of analysis
| Published date | 15 March 2013 |
| Date | 15 March 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20093821311307730 |
| Pages | 19-30 |
| Author | David Wilson,Elizabeth Yardley |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Public policy & environmental management,Sociology |
The psychopathy of a Victorian serial killer:
integrating micro and macro levels
of analysis
David Wilson and Elizabeth Yardley
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to respond to a number of pleas for interdisciplinary – or integrative –
approaches to psychology and criminology in exploring the value of simultaneously applying micro and
macro analytical tools.
Design/methodology/approach – The study reported in this paper applies both the revised
psychopathy checklist (PCL-R) and structural analysis to the historical case of Mary Ann Cotton,
a nineteenth century British serial killer.
Findings – Findings suggest that multi-level approaches to analysis are valuable in developing holistic
understandings into serial murder, which are appreciative of both the psychological characteristics of
the individual offender and their location in the broader social and historical context. Micro analysis
would now label Cotton a psychopath, but we need to broaden the analysis and to consider macro
questions related to gender, poverty and the wider social structure in which Cotton operated.
Research limitations/implications – In the absence of an interview with the offender, this study has
supplemented alternative materials and as such, prompts debate into the application of contemporary
tools to historical cases.
Practical implications – The findings imply that the application of PCL-R alongside structural analytical
tools reveals more in-depth and socially rootedinsights into the study of historical cases of serial murder
and as such, provide a valuable addition to both criminological and the psychological methodology
frameworks.
Originality/value – This research prompts academic debate within psychology and criminology into the
potential value of a combined, integrative approach to historical cases drawing upon both micro and
macro analytical tools.
Keywords Psychopathy, Integrative criminology, Macro-micro, Serial murder, Gender, Criminology,
Murder, Criminals, Individual behaviour
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This article presents a case study of a little-known, ‘‘unseen’’, female, Victorian serial killer
called Mary Ann Cotton. At the heart of this case study is a retrospective application of
Hare’s psychopathy checklist (revised) (PCL-R) to Cotton, so as to determine whether or not
she would now be labelled as a psychopath, and if her behaviour can be solely accounted
for in this way. Thereafter, this ‘‘micro’’ analysis is broadened to accommodate wider social
and economic factors within Victorian England which, it is argued, might also have influenced
Cotton’s behaviour. In seeking to analyse Cotton’s activities in this way, we are consciously
responding to Webber’s (2010, p. 3) recent call for a ‘‘critical theoretical synthesis’’ which
could be used to push forward the boundaries of both criminology and psychology
(Wortley,2011). In this Webber was echoing Barak (2001, p. 153) who suggested, at the very
least, that there should be an ‘‘integrated criminology’’ which could ‘‘encompass an
interdisciplinary approach to understanding crime and crime control which incorporates
at least two disciplinary (or non-disciplinary) bodies of knowledge’’ (Barak, 1998), and
DOI 10.1108/20093821311307730 VOL. 3 NO. 1 2013, pp. 19-30, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2009-3829
j
JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY
j
PAGE 19
David Wilson and
Elizabeth Yardley are
based at the Centre for
Applied Criminology,
Birmingham City University,
Birmingham, UK.
This work was supported by the
Centre for Applied Criminology
at Birmingham City University.
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