Studies of multiple murderers have until now focused mainly on male
perpetrators. Schurman-Kauflin, founder of the Violent Crimes Institute
and a profiler, tries to remedy the imbalance by offering a disturbing
look, based on personal interviews, at seven women who have committed
multiple murders. Addressing her colleagues in the fields of forensic
pathology and law enforcement, Schurman-Kauflin establishes a sense of
urgency, noting that while females represent a small percentage of all
multiple murderers in the U.S., their numbers have increased in
the second half of the 20th century, to an estimated 26 over the
past 30 years. Clinical, painstakingly detailed and heartwrenchingly
ugly, the book points out such commonalities among these women as early
parental abandonment or abuse and financial instability. Murderous women
tend to gravitate toward typically female roles or occupations like
nursing and babysitting, and also to stripping and prostitution.
They are older than their male counterparts and seem the least likely
villain in any given situation (enabling them to kill over a longer
period of time), target victims who are available and defenseless
(e.g., small children and the elderly), prefer to use "hands-off" methods
of killing (poisoning, smothering) and are meticulous about leaving the
crime scene free of material evidence. Schurman-Kauflin volunteers
professionals a starting point, based on "exploratory research,"
for identifying and capturing female serial killers, because "though it
may sound dismal, no amount of therapy will stop a multiple murderer who
has killed from killing again." (Jan.) Forecast: Schurman-Kauflin's
information may be of interest to the general public and may get some
media attention, but the clinical tone of the writing clearly directs
this book to her fellow forensic psychologists and others involved in
crime prevention.

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