Title: Why Do Some Women Kill? - ABC News
Headings: Why Do Some Women Kill?
Why Do Some Women Kill?
Criminologists: Women and Men Kill for Different Reasons
Motive in Sandra Cantu Slaying Still Unclear
Women Less Likely to Use Extreme Violence

Content: "That's not part of what makes women feminine in this culture or in any culture," he said. Though there is no single profile of female killers, mental illness has played a part in many of their high-profile killings. According to Jack Levin, a criminology professor at Northeastern University, female killers are more likely than men to suffer from serious mental illness, while male killers more typically suffer from personality disorders, and are often sociopaths who are unable to empathize with their victims. Andrea Yates, a Houston mother who drowned her five children in 2001, was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a state mental hospital. Her attorneys argued that she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis, believed Satan was inside of her, and was trying to save her children from hell. Women Less Likely to Use Extreme Violence
"There are a number of different roads that lead to someone taking someone else's life," said Xavier Amador, a clinical psychology professor at Columbia University. " In women, in my experience, it tends to be typically related to a history of abuse or psychosis." Women are also less likely to use a violent means of killing or to plan out their attacks, psychologists say. Though women account for roughly 10 percent of all homicides, they are involved in 36 percent of poisonings, according to the Justice Department. Stacey Castor was sentenced to 25 years to life last year for poisoning her husband David Castor with antifreeze, and to another 25 years for the attempt to kill her daughter Ashley Wallace, then 20, with an overdose of drugs and vodka in September 2007.