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‘A cauldron for misogyny’: Criminologist opens up on why women are more likely to be killed in a kitchen

Criminologist David Wilson used several case studies where women were murdered inside their homes while sharing his analysis in his new book
UPDATED APR 16, 2023
Representational photo (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Representational photo (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND: Renowned criminologist David Wilson recently offered a fascinating analysis of why women are more likely to be killed at home than men. In an excerpt from his new book, titled ‘Murder at Home: How Our Safest Space is where we’re Most in Danger', Wilson said that a person, especially a woman, is more likely to be killed inside the “safety” of their own home rather than outdoors, as per Daily Mail.

In his book, the criminologist spoke about a familiar “cliched scene” of a woman being followed on the streets, often seen on film and TV dramas, as a “prelude to a grisly murder” only to reassure that these types of murders are exceedingly rare. “In fact, you’re far more likely to be killed in the ‘safety’ of your own home. Particularly if you’re a woman. ‘Home, sweet home’, in short, is the primary site for murder in the UK – and the figures are doggedly persistent, stretching right back in history,” he wrote.

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‘Kitchen isn’t merely the room where we cook’

In his book, Wilson noted that three-quarters of female victims and four in every ten male victims in England and Wales were murdered at home between 2017 and 2019. He said the majority of these murders were carried out by someone the victims knew. He also mentioned that figures for Scotland were higher. “From 2010 to 2020, it was 83 percent of all female murder victims and 55 per cent of male victims. The vast majority of the killers were male,” Wilson wrote as per Daily Mail.

Criminologist David Wilson (David Wilson/Twitter)
Criminologist David Wilson (David Wilson/Twitter)

“Home may well be where the heart is, but it can also be a cauldron for misogyny and toxic masculinity. As the poet W. H. Auden said, evil is always unspectacular because it shares our bed and eats at our table,” he continued. Wilson then shared that he spent more than 40 years investigating serial killers, murderers, rapists, and sex offenders and even met some of them face-to-face as part of his work as a criminologist.

“I’ve also had to visit houses, flats and lodgings where a murder has taken place. Many of these homes had cosy sitting rooms, children’s play areas, bird-feeders in the garden. If you ignored the bloodstains, they looked familiar and safe,” he noted. However, “their very ordinariness that often raised the hairs on the back of my neck – a feeling akin to taking a shower immediately after watching the Hitchcock suspense thriller Psycho,” Wilson wrote.



 

The criminologist said his mind often buzzed with questions as he surveyed the aftermath of a murder, “some relating to the room in which the victim was found. Why did the killer strangle his victim in the sitting room rather than the bedroom, for instance? Was there any significance to the window overlooking the back garden? Why was she stabbed in the kitchen?” Wilson then revealed that the murderer’s choice of room often offered a great insight on the nature of his crime, “The chilling truth is that the killer’s choice of room often reveals a great deal about the nature of the crime. And not just the rooms; even the front door can have a tale to tell.”

The author also said women are more likely to be murdered in the kitchen than men. “The kitchen isn’t merely the room where we cook; it’s also the centre of our homes, the place where the kitchen-sink drama of our lives is played out on a daily basis,” he wrote. “Historically, the kitchen was viewed as a woman’s place. These days, most prefer to have careers and aspirations beyond sink and stove. Some men, however, have yet to catch up – and in those cases, the room can become a metaphorical stage for a broken or abusive relationship with their partner. The kitchen, I need hardly remind you, is also where we keep our sharp knives. So it’s no surprise that women are more likely to be murdered there than men,” Wilson added.



 

‘We’re more likely to be murdered in the place where we feel safer’

Wilson used several case studies where women were murdered inside their homes while sharing his analysis in his book. He referenced the cases of Hollie Kerrell, a make-up artist and mother-of-three, who was killed in the kitchen of her home in Knucklas, Wales, in April 2018, the murder of Janice Sheridan and her mother Connie, who were stabbed to death at their isolated cottage in Upwell, Norfolk, in 1999 and the murder of 74-year-old widow Alice Rye, who was killed in her bedroom in Spital, on the Wirral, among other examples.

The criminologist then asked, “What, then, are we to conclude from this rather gruesome tour of the home?” He added, “My most important message is that murder is relatively rare, even when a home is not sweet but troubled and problematic. The vast majority of men and women will never become killers.” Wilson continued, “However, this doesn’t change the fact that we’re more likely to be murdered in the place where we feel safer than anywhere else.” “And if the worst happens? Experience allows detectives and psychological profilers to build up a picture of the killer – simply from where the victim was attacked or buried,” he concluded.

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