In Search of the 'Angels of Death': Conceptualising the Contemporary Nurse Healthcare Serial Killer

Yardley, Elizabeth and Wilson, David (2014) In Search of the 'Angels of Death': Conceptualising the Contemporary Nurse Healthcare Serial Killer. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 13 (1). pp. 39-55. ISSN 1544-4759

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Abstract

Focusing specifically upon nurses who commit serial murder within a hospital setting, this paper aims to establish insights into this particular subcategory of healthcare serial killer. In addition, the paper aims to test the usefulness of an existing checklist of behaviours among this group of serial murderers. Drawing upon existing lists of healthcare serial killers produced by other scholars as well as legal records and an online news archive, we identified and researched healthcare serial killer nurses, collating socio demographic and criminological data and applying the aforementioned checklist to each case. Our findings suggest that to date, the label 'healthcare serial killer' has been applied in too loose a manner, making the understanding of this phenomenon problematic. In further refining the definition and identifying the socio-demographic and criminological characteristics of the victims, perpetrators and crimes, we have developed more specific and therefore useful insights for practitioners and identified a potentially useful checklist which, with revisions, could contribute towards preventative strategies and interventions. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1002/jip.1434
Dates:	Date Event 19 November 2014 Published
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Healthcare serial killers, Hospitals, Nurses
Subjects:	CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-04 - health and social care > CAH15-04-01 - social work
Divisions:	Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Law, Social and Criminal Justice
Depositing User:	Yasser Nawaz
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2016 11:49
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2024 12:50
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1394

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