British nurse Lucy Letby was last week sentenced to life in prison for murdering seven infants in her care, and attempting to murder a further six.
As a forensic criminologist, many people have asked me why a medical professional would murder their patients.
While they're very rare, serial killer health care workers often share common traits, and they target a specific, and very vulnerable, victim pool. While limited research has been conducted on serial killer medicos, there are some trends among serial killers that can help us understand the role of the profession in the act of serial murder.A serial killer is usually defined as someone who kills at least three people in a series, but not in a single event—there needs to be a cooling-off period between the killings.
Custodial killers are often health care workers who murder helpless or dependent people in their care."The most common examples include 'angel of death' cases involving nurses in hospitals or nursing homes who surreptitiously murder ill or, usually by asphyxiation or medication overdose. This group is likely to contain the highest number of female serial killers."
It's likely the method of murder is linked to their profession. Health care workers have access to medications not available to others, as well as the knowledge to hide their crimes more effectively.
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