Understanding Serial Killing: How Important are Notions of Gender?
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X0207500202 |
| Published date | 01 April 2002 |
| Author | Keith Soothill,Elizabeth Ashburner |
| Date | 01 April 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ELIZABETH ASHBURNER
Graduate, School
of
Independent Studies, Lancaster University
KEITH SOOTHILL*
Professor
of
Social Research, Department
of
Applied Social
Science, Lancaster University
UNDERSTANDING SERIAL
KILLING: HOW IMPORTANT ARE
NOTIONS OF GENDER?**
To understand serial killing, we must move beyond the indi-
vidual and consider background structural and cultural factors.
Elliot Leyton's structural approach is seductive but problem-
atic. In analysing serial killing as a cultural phenomenon, Mark
Seltzer points to the United States as an information society
characterised by 'wound culture'. However, theorists have
largely neglected the area of gender. Serial killing illustrates
the nature of gender relations within our culture. Nevertheless,
feminist theories and texts tend to focus solely on men
murdering women, but such approaches need to be extended to
cover the whole spectrum of serial killing, whether it involves
heterosexual or homosexual relations, male or female killers.
To understand why one individual becomes a serial killer
while another will not there is a need to combine sociological
and individual approaches. Using Tony Jefferson's concept of
subjectivity, which combines social and psychoanalytical
influences on human behaviour, is one way forward in trying
to explain the phenomenon of serial killing.
Modem society continues to be fascinated by serial killers, both
real and fictional. What is it about our culture that promotes the
idea of the serial killer as some sort of hero or celebrity despite
the fact such individuals commit some of the most horrendous
crimes imaginable? In fact, we argue that serial killing is deeply
related to culture: both in the social forces that contribute to the
prevalence of the act and the public fascination with such killers.
This analysis is underpinned by the fact that most serial killing
involves men killing and mutilating women and the focus here is
that we need to consider sexuality in general, especially as it is
socially constructed by cultural messages which fuse sex and
violence.
The Police Journal, Volume 75 (2002) 93
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