Abstract
Healthcare serial poisoning is defined. The chapter notes the difficulty of accurately determining the scale of healthcare serial poisoning. A study by Yorker et al. (Journal of Forensic Science, 51(6): 1–10, 2006) indicates some demographics of serial healthcare killing in general, which includes poisoning. Motives for healthcare serial poisoning include: power and control, sadism, seeking excitement, and factitious disorder imposed on another. Both professional role and the healthcare setting give perpetrators cover to kill patients or clients. Attempts have been made to identify potential ‘red flags’ implicating healthcare workers’ behaviour and personality. Proposals have been made for improving staff background checks and monitoring, and for communicating concerns. Sometimes, health care workers have been unjustly accused, and other possible miscarriages of justice have been highlighted.
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Farrell, M. (2018). Healthcare Serial Poisoning. In: Criminology of Serial Poisoners. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01138-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01138-3_5
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