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Poisoners and Their Characteristics

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Criminology of Homicidal Poisoning
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Abstract

Here, we consider a small-scale attempt to identify characteristics of poisoners then look at observations based on published poison cases, and at a typology of victims and perpetrators . Discussing poisoners’ gender, age and race, for each we look at statistics for homicide overall and for poison homicide, as well as citing illustrative poisoning cases. The chapter examines illustrative instances of the poisoner’s occupation/social background . In the context of multiple homicides and multiple poisoning we focus on simultaneous and serial poisoning and also consider ‘team poisoning ’. Acute and chronic poisoning is discussed. Where relevant we refer to theories of poisoning.

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Correspondence to Michael Farrell .

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Farrell, M. (2017). Poisoners and Their Characteristics. In: Criminology of Homicidal Poisoning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59117-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59117-9_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59116-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59117-9

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