# Why don't women go on shooting sprees? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 19, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474 "2012-12-19T00:47:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/21 "2012-12-19T03:27:50Z")
Because women seeking mental help are not as stigmatized as men are. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/22 "2012-12-19T03:32:42Z")
Since you’re looking for opinions, let’s move this to IMHO (from MPSIMS). ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/23 "2012-12-19T03:33:42Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I’ve also wondered in the past, why we never hear about women pedophiles. They are [out there](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8022861.stm), in larger numbers than you think. The first one I ever heard of was poet Anne Sexton who abused her daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/24 "2012-12-19T03:44:03Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > This is not surprising, as women are also in the minority when it comes to committing murders. According to the [FBI’s 2011 data on murder](http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-3), a little under 8% of murders were committed by women. Meh, they’re just as likely to murder people, they just never get convicted. Its like with speeding tickets, they start crying and the investigators let them go with a warning. ---
**Author:** ![living\_in\_hell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@living\_in\_hell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/living_in_hell)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/25 "2012-12-19T03:48:09Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I’ve also wondered in the past, why we never hear about women pedophiles. We do. Just usually they are sensationalized, like Mary Kay Letourneau and other such teachers. [like these women](http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/news/Sexual%20Abuse_NewsWeek_3_29_08.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/26 "2012-12-19T03:49:10Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I’ve also wondered in the past, why we never hear about women pedophiles. What? You never had that kid in middle school who had a full beard at 14 and wouldn’t shut up about how he banged a 30 year old chick? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/27 "2012-12-19T05:09:21Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I’ve also wondered in the past, why we never hear about women pedophiles. This will be gross to read, but here goes; according to Dr. WIlliam Marshall, a leading epert in the field (I think he’s retired now) and who studied sexual offenders, a major part of their attraction to children was that children are inherently feminine in appearance - soft, not hairy, not a lot of musculature. Such characteristics would explain why pedophiles are overwhelmingly heterosexual men. ETA: Teachers who have sex with teenaged students are not pedophiles. They are ebebophiles. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/28 "2012-12-19T05:47:17Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Statistically speaking, it comes down to nature and nurture (6 of one, half a dozen of the other, and don’t ask me which one is which). However, I don’t think it’s really possible to figure out which of nature/nurture is more responsible–and I think that’s what you’re wondering. Perhaps we chicks are genetically prone to be more caring because of the whole babymaking thing. Perhaps parents also raise their girls to be more caring and emotionally expressive than their boys. Certainly both are likely factors, but there’s no way to tell how much of one or the other. I agree. I also think that insofar as women have had more constraints on them (less freedom in general), mixed with more of a sense of lurking danger from other people, that can be part of the “less extremes” phenomenon; that women’s behavior tends to cluster tighter around the expected norm. Having less freedom and feeling less safe probably makes a person at least somewhat more inclined to value safety; and there’s safety in conformity. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/29 "2012-12-19T05:57:27Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I’ve also wondered in the past, why we never hear about women pedophiles. Reporting bias, among other things. Even when it is reported that one or more women were involved in sexing kids, it often isn’t coached quite in those terms. I’ve heard it called “sexual abuse” but the word pedophile was never invoked. I’ve personally encountered at least one female pedophile (but she would have been called a “cougar” by many people), Gabriel García Márquez’ account of the whores his brother visited asking to “train the boy” once he was “old enough” (the age at which it actually happened would be illegal in most countries) turned me off his biography because it sounded too much like my Grandfather from Hell’s own accounts of his initiation (in this case, not by whores but by the wifes of several of the officers and NCOs at the post, and with his mother organizing it)… ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/30 "2012-12-19T06:32:40Z")
This may just be a WAG, but it seems to me based on suicide rates and suicide attempts, disturbed women are much more likely to kill themselves (or at least try) than men are. So maybe any woman who would be inclined to kill other people decides to just kill herself instead? I think this kind of goes along with a general feeling that men tend to blame other people and take out their anger on others, whereas women tend to blame themselves. Yes I know this is stereotyping and no I don’t have any cites, so I know it’s as useful as an asshole on an elbow… but take it how you will. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/31 "2012-12-19T07:16:23Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > In a twisted way I think spree killings are linked to our hunter instinct which across time and cultures is a predominately male activity. and so women take to shopping sprees like they gather berries? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/32 "2012-12-19T08:07:04Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > This may just be a WAG, but it seems to me based on suicide rates and suicide attempts, disturbed women are much more likely to kill themselves (or at least try) than men are. Actually IIRC women are more prone to suicide attempts that are at least partly done to attract attention/sympathy (consciously or unconsciously); as such they tend to pick methods that are more likely to send them to the hospital instead of just kill them, like an overdose or poorly slitting their wrists. Men who make suicide attempts tend to be more focused on just trying to die, and tend to pick more certain methods like shooting themselves in the head. ---
**Author:** ![andrew\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@andrew\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrew_1)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/33 "2012-12-19T10:44:32Z")
As far as why there aren’t many stories of women massacring schools, it’s probably because it’s hard to have a Wikipedia article called 2012 Toronto High School Massacre and convenient table for information on the victims when instead of being shot all at once, the deaths were 1 in 2012 from suicide, 1 in 2015 from bulimia, 1 in 2017 from anorexia, 1 in 2018 from liver failure brought on by alcohol abuse, and so on. The popular girls bullying the ugly ducklings may not be as dramatic as gunfire but who’s to say it’s any less deadly in the long run. If all of the deaths are peppered throughout the decade after graduation it’s hard to point the finger at any one person in particular. …or at least that was what I was going to post as a joke, until I realized that it wasn’t funny at all and that there is probably some small scrap of truth to it. How many times have we all heard how men can have fights with buddies and be back to pals again in 20 minutes while women can be spiteful enough to hold grudges for years over similar issues? It’s not exactly a new debate, the big hairy male creatures attacking through violence and the small, noisy female creatures preferring psychological warfare. I think **Der Trihs** ’ point is a good one, that women might tend to think more in terms of hurting someone than simply killing them. Maybe that’s a big part of what the OP is asking? Women don’t tend to go on shooting sprees because simple murder isn’t usually the goal? ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/34 "2012-12-19T10:56:13Z")
Women don’t go on shooting sprees because they don’t have dicks. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/35 "2012-12-19T11:11:47Z")
Men are violent, women are mean. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/36 "2012-12-19T13:08:13Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Statistically speaking, it comes down to nature and nurture (6 of one, half a dozen of the other, and don’t ask me which one is which). However, I don’t think it’s really possible to figure out which of nature/nurture is more responsible–and I think that’s what you’re wondering. Perhaps we chicks are genetically prone to be more caring because of the whole babymaking thing. Perhaps parents also raise their girls to be more caring and emotionally expressive than their boys. Certainly both are likely factors, but there’s no way to tell how much of one or the other. > > On the whole, women are more empathetic and less violent. We also cart around less testosterone (and thereby, lower levels of aggression) than men. The end. Testosterone doesn’t cause aggression in humans, or at least hasn’t been shown to do so. Honesty and fairness, yes, violence no. In fact women are frequently paedophiles, and it’s frequently on the news. How many times have you heard of a female teacher raping a 12 year old male student, and similar? We just act like the kid’s lucky rather than giving her the “to catch a predator” treatment. As for spree killings, when women do those they tend to kill their children, and such cases occasionally make the news, like Andrea Yates however many years ago, drowning her four or five or however many kids in the bath. Women typically commit their violent crimes against those close to them, partners, children, elders, colleagues. Women are just as likely to be violent against their partners as men, almost as likely to kill their partners, almost as likely to rape or murder children in their care, considerably more likely to beat children in their care, and so forth. Men are, of course, much more likely to commit violent crimes against strangers. That also goes in the case of spree killings, women target those around them, most often their children. Men target large public areas. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/37 "2012-12-19T14:03:06Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Extremes tend to be predominently male. That is, the male bell curves tend to have fatter, longer tails than the female ones. Spree shooters are far into the extreme end of a few bell curves at the same time. I think you need several extreme dysfunctions that fit together just right to become a spree shooter. Think of a spree shooter as the statistical equivalent of a 2 meter tall mathematical savant. You’ll find some 2 meter tall women and some female mathematical savants but very nearly all or all 2 meter tall mathematical savants will be male. > Males may be more biologically inclined towards confrontation and violence and are certainly more culturally inclined to it. > > Men are more likely to own guns and be comfortable using them. > > Men are more likely to keep feelings bottled up and blow up. What this appears to be to be saying is it may be evolutionarily advantageous to pair a more stable group of individuals with a less stable group of individuals, for a better common good. That paring would seem to naturally fall on gender lines. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/38 "2012-12-19T14:42:56Z")
In American society, shooting sprees tend to be done by single, white males in the age range of 16 - 30 (roughly). So it’s not just the ladies who are more mellow in that particular violence department. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/39 "2012-12-19T14:56:08Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Men are violent, women are mean. I hate the fact that such a simple generality has a bit of truth to it. I was thinking about books I’ve read - the one from a couple of years ago about the advances in forensics and poison analysis in the early 20th century through the Jazz Age/Prohibition comes to mind - where they discuss women as more likely to be poisoners… I think the two genders have an equal propensity for evil; it just manifests in different ways. ETA: oh, and I wonder if this will change over time. While women are still fighting for equality on a number of levels, it feels like there have been advances over the past decade or so, in parallel with the increased acceptance of same-sex marriage. If this trend continues, and women end up as likely as men to be in power positions within families and organizations, might there be an increase in women committing crimes via violent behavior? Greater equalilty shows its dark side? Just thinking out loud… ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474/40 "2012-12-19T16:15:34Z")
[Then there was the Hungarian village where the women killed everyone they didn’t like by boiling flypaper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Angel_Makers_of_Nagyr%C3%A9v) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-women-go-on-shooting-sprees/644474.md?page=3)