Homicidal poisoning in Japan: offender and crime characteristics

Criminal Poisoning and Product Tampering: Toward an Operational Definition of Malicious Contamination

“…As with previous studies of homicidal poisoners (e.g. Westveer et al 2004;Zaitsu 2010) the cases of poisoning in the current sample, when committed by known single actors, were roughly equally divided between male and female perpetrators, whose ages fell within a similarly broad range. Female poisoners in the current sample were more likely to attack male victims and family members than their male counterparts.…”

“…However, this is difficult to confirm from the literature, as many past studies of poisoning focus on 'successful' homicidal poisonings only, without the consideration of non-lethal cases (Adelson 1987;Shepherd and Ferslew 2009;Westveer et al 2004;Zaitsu 2010).…”

“…Finally, there may have been no intended victim, for example in hoaxes, where no genuine contamination has taken place. As previously mentioned, research has suggested that in traditional poisoning crimes, the victim is likely to be previously acquainted with the perpetrator, and thus selected specifically based on their identity, rather than on their occupation or their consumer habits (Adelson 1987;Zaitsu 2010). We therefore used these variables such that cases where there was no intended victim (n=47), or victims were unspecified (n=130) were taken to be more associated with product tampering, whilst a specified (named) victim (n=180) was taken to be more likely to reflect a poisoning.…”

“…Shepherd and Ferslew (2009) found that homicidal poisonings in the US occurred at a rate of 0.26 per million people per year over a seven year period, and that victims were more likely to be infants and the elderly. Studies conducted on homicidal poisonings in Japan and the US have found that the gender of the perpetrator is related to the gender of the victim and that the perpetrator is likely to be someone previously known to the victim (Westveer et al 2004;Zaitsu 2010). A 30 year sample of poisoning cases in the US concluded that homicidal poisoning is "an intimate type of crime, occurring most often in family or domestic settings" (Adelson 1987:249).…”

“…Indeed, attacks against romantic partners (Fitness 2001) and within the workplace (Aquino et al 2001) have often been found to be motivated by revenge. However, Zaitsu (2010) argues that both instrumental and expressive aggression can be observed in poisoning cases. In cases of instrumental aggression the intent to harm the victim still exists, although this is considered secondary to achieving an external goal, such as financial gain (Bushman and Anderson 2001).…”