International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 12 Number 4

Homicidal poisoning in Japan: offender

and crime characteristics

Wataru Zaitsu
Forensic Science Laboratory, Toyama Prefectural Police Headquarters, 1-7 Shin-Sougawa,
Toyama-shi, Toyama 930-8570, Japan. Email: wataru0112csi@yahoo.co.jp
Submitted 28 November 2009; revision submitted 16 March 2010;
accepted 26 April 2010
Keywords: Japanese homicidal poisoning, instrumental, expressive,
profiling

Wataru Zaitsu is Chief of the Forensic Science INTRODUCTION

Laboratory at the Toyama Prefectural Police
Headquarters, in Japan.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine
empirically those who committed homicidal poi-
soning in Japan (N = 96). Typically, offenders
were middle-aged (mean 43.2 years), had a fixed
residence (99 per cent), had no criminal record
(81 per cent), were employed (68 per cent), and
married (56 per cent): 54 per cent of the
offenders were female. The offenders could be
differentiated by categorical principal component
analysis (CATPCA) into two poisoning themes:
‘instrumental’ (N = 65) and ‘expressive’ (N =
31). In ‘instrumental’ poisoning, the offenders
were likely to induce a coma in a victim using
medical supplies such as hypnotics, and then
murder the victim, usually by strangling or
stabbing. There were more co-offenders among
‘instrumental’ poisoners than among ‘expressive’
poisoners. The offenders who committed ‘express-
ive’ poisoning were inclined to poison victims
serially or collectively in the workplace during
daytime. These offenders were more likely to live
with a parent/parents and exhibit mental
health problems than those who committed
‘instrumental’ poisoning.
The number of victims of homicidal poi-
soning in the United States has ranged from
eight in 2000 to ten in 2007 (US Depart-
ment of Justice, 2004, 2007). This number
is relatively low compared with other types
of homicide (approximately 0.0008 per cent
in total homicides). In Japan, according to
Nishimura (1999), murders related to poi-
son constituted 0.5 per cent (13 cases) of
the total number of homicides from 1973 to
1992.
Although homicidal poisoning is quite
rare, there have been several sensational
crimes in the last 20 years in Japan. For
example, in 1995, members of the religious
group AUM Shinrikyo distributed lethal
poison gas (sarin, a nerve gas) in subway
trains (‘Nerve gas’, n.d.). Nishida (2001)
interviewed four AUM members who were
prosecuted for this attack as well as 76
former members of the group, and con-
cluded that the AUM members had obeyed
their guru completely and had been psy-
chologically manipulated by him. Another
example is that of a high-school girl who
was inspired by Graham Frederick Young, a
British famous poisoner. She investigated
the effects of poison on her mother by International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
intermittently lacing her mother’s food with Vol. 12 No. 4, 2010, pp. 503–515.
DOI: 10.1350/ijps.2010.12.4.191
thallium (‘Schoolgirl blogger’, 2005). In

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Homicidal poisoning in Japan: offender and crime characteristics
addition, she recorded her mother’s condi-
tion in an internet diary. This girl was
obsessed with poisons (toxicomania), and
her poison of choice, thallium, was the
same as that used by Graham Young
(Emsley, 2005). Cases of these types are
extremely rare; nonetheless, similar events
may occur in the future.
Westveer, Jarvis, and Jensen (2006) and
Trestrail (2007) pointed out that homicide
by poisoning is one of the most difficult
crimes to investigate and prosecute. Because
the offenders often disguise this kind of
crime as a natural death, there may be little
evidence that the victim was murdered with
poison. Good and Goreck (1995) also high-
lighted the difficulty of investigating poi-
sonings. In particular, in cases where
victims are selected randomly, it is difficult
for investigators to identify the perpetrators.
Moreover, investigators may be inexperi-
enced in investigating such cases because of
their rarity. Nishimura (1999) stated that the
percentage of arrests for poisoning cases in
Japan was lower (53.8 per cent) than that for
other types of homicide (95 per cent). For
the assistance of investigation of unsolved
homicidal poisonings, such as through
offender profiling, it is therefore necessary
to analyse solved cases and offender
characteristics.
To date, there have been several studies
of the characteristics of individuals who
have used poison to murder. Rowland
(1960) indicated that such individuals are
likely to have had an unhappy married life,
are not successful in life, may be connected
to the medical profession, are vain, exhibit
little sympathy or imagination and are likely
to have been spoiled by their parents.
Wilson (1988) described poisoners as weak-
willed, prone to daydreaming and fantasy,
possessing an artistic temperament and
being cowardly and avaricious. However,
these reports mainly focused on the psycho-
logical aspects of offenders while, in an
actual investigation, police officers require
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more concrete information concerning
characteristics of offender, such as age,
employment status and criminal record.
Furthermore, empirical data is more appro-
priate to this type of information.
Westveer, Jarvis, and Jensen (2006) stat-
istically analysed the characteristics of poi-
soners and victims. They concluded that
typical poisoners were likely to be male,
from 20 to 34 years of age and white.
Victims were often aged from 25 to 44
years. Trestrail (2007) empirically proposed
a classification scheme comprising four
types of poisonings (S/S, S/Q, R/S and
R/Q) based on target (‘specific individual’
or ‘random target’) and planning (‘slowly
planned’ or ‘quickly planned’). Thus, poi-
soners of type R/S were likely to select a
poisonous substance carefully and poison
a random victim; Trestrail stated that
offenders of this type were typically terror-
ists. Such typological study is useful to
understand crime phenomena. However,
the method of Trestrail’s classification is
arbitrary and obscure, and crime character-
istics should be classified more clearly and
objectively by statistical methods.
Santtila, Häkkänen, Canter, and Elfgren
(2003) classified 502 Finnish single hom-
icides by Multi-Dimensional Scale (MDS)
into two themes according to the crime
scene: instrumental and expressive. ‘Instru-
mental’ means actions to accomplish a set
goal such as revenge or crime concealment,
whereas ‘expressive’ means relieving the
offender’s emotional distress or frustration.
These themes were also observed in several
kinds of crime: British stranger homicide
(Salfati & Canter, 1999), Greek homicide
(Salfati & Haratsis, 2001), arson (Canter &
Fritzon, 1998), and bomb threat (Zaitsu,
2010). Moreover, both themes showed dif-
ferences in offender characteristics. For
example, stranger murderers of the express-
ive type were likely to be female and to
have previously committed various offences
including violence, traffic offences, drug

offences and damage to property (Salfati &
Canter). This kind of research is called A-C
studies, which refers to examining the rela-
tionship between ‘actions’ and offender
‘characteristics’ (Canter & Youngs, 2009).
These studies are useful for offender profil-
ing, but there have not been any studies
related to the A-C relationship in homicidal
poisoning in Japan.
The purpose of this study was, therefore,
to empirically examine the relationship
between Japanese homicidal poisoning and
offender characteristics. Analyses of crime
characteristics and offender characteristics
were performed under the following
assumptions.
● Poisoning themes such as ‘instrumental’
and ‘expressive’ are extracted from crime
characteristics.
● Offender characteristics are likely to dif-
fer between themes.
METHOD
Data
In this study, the author uses the term
‘poisons’ to refer to chemical substances
that act on human beings, including med-
ical supplies (eg, hypnotics) and non-
medical supplies (eg, thallium). Secondly,
the author defines ‘homicidal poisoning’ as
follows: (a) murder of a human being using
poison, not including suicide; (b) murder-
suicide is excluded; and (c) euthanasia by a
medical doctor, nurse, or another individual
is excluded.
In line with these definitions, the author
gathered data about homicidal poisonings
and offenders, mainly from the Japanese
National Police Register, which accumu-
lated information about offenders arrested
by Japanese police forces. The data gathered
concerned 106 offenders who had mur-
dered with poison from 1989 to 2009 in
Japan. Data on 10 offenders were excluded
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Zaitsu
because of missing values: the data of 96
offenders were therefore used to analyse.
Offender characteristics were gender,
age, employment status, education level,
fixed residence, marriage status, cohabita-
tion with parent(s) or spouse, parental
status, criminal record, mental health prob-
lem and involvement of co-offenders.
Crime characteristics were day of the
week, time of homicidal poisoning, type of
poison, route of uptake of poison, place
where offender poisoned or murdered the
victim, sleeping victim, serial or spree
poisoning, gender of victim, result of hom-
icidal poisoning for offender and relation-
ship between offender and victim.
In this study, if the offenders committed
a series of murders with poisons, only data
on the first crime were analysed. If a hom-
icidal poisoning was committed by more
than one offender, only data on the prin-
cipal offender in each case were analysed.
Statistical data analysis
Categorical principal components
analysis
Categorical principal components analysis
(CATPCA) is a non-linear multivariate
analysis, suited to non-metric (nominal and
ordinal) measurements, and results in the
reduction of variables as any dimension
(Gifi, 1990). The author used CATPCA to
analyse the data in this study for the follow-
ing two reasons. First, all data in this study
were of nominal measurement level, except
for data of ‘time of homicidal poisoning’,
which were of ordinal measurement level.
Second, these variables consisted of several
mutually exclusive categories such as
‘morning’, ‘daytime’ and ‘evening and
night-time’.
CATPCA scores variables (ie, compon-
ent loadings) and categories of variables (ie,
category quantifications) in accordance
with dimension. Next, an analyst interprets
and labels these dimensions on the basis of
component loadings of variables. Moreover,
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CATPCA gives object scores against each

Table 1: Characteristics of 96 offenders
offender on the basis of vector coordinates,
in this study
which are calculated by the products of
category quantifications and component Offender characteristics N = 96 (%)
loadings.
In this study, first, the author analysed Gender
data by CATPCA (using SPSS categories Male 44 (46)
(SPSS Japan Inc.)) to extract dimensions, Female 52 (54)
Age
then interpreted and labelled the dimen-
16–19 2 (2)
sions. Second, the author differentiated 20–29 11 (12)
the offenders into groups with reference to 30–39 28 (29)
positive or negative object scores. Lastly, 40–49 28 (29)
these groups were interpreted in terms of 50–59 14 (15)
60–77 13 (14)
themes of poisoning with reference to the Employment status
dimensions and vector coordinates of Employed 65 (68)
variables. Unemployed 31 (32)
Education level
Chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test, High-school dropout 46 (48)
Higher level 40 (42)
and t test Unknown 10 (10)
After CATPCA, the offender characteristics Fixed residence
between themes of poisoning were exam- None 1 (1)
Any 95 (99)
ined using the following tests.
Marriage status
For categorical data (eg, gender), a chi- Unmarried 24 (25)
square test was carried out, except for the Married 54 (56)
analysis of mental health problems. With Divorced 18 (19)
regard to mental health problems, Fisher’s Parental status
None 52 (54)
exact test was used because the expected Any 44 (46)
value was less than five in a cell. Cohabitation
In cases of quantitative data (eg, offender’s None 23 (24)
age), a normality test (Kolmogorov– Any 73 (76)
Criminal record
Smirnov test) was conducted to confirm the
None 78 (81)
normality of data in each cell. After con- Any 18 (19)
firming the normality of the data, a t test Mental health problem
was performed. None 84 (87)
Any 12 (13)
Co-offenders
None 66 (69)
RESULTS Any 30 (31)

Offender characteristics
Table 1 shows characteristics of 96 offenders Age
in this study. The average age of 96 offenders was 43.2
years (SD = 12.4). Classified by gender, the
Offender’s gender average age of the 44 male offenders was
Overall, there were more female offenders 42.5 years (SD = 10.6), whereas for the 52
(54 per cent) than male (46 per cent). female offenders, the average age was 43.7

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years (SD = 13.8) (t(94, N = 96) = 0.47,
p = 0.64, r = 0.05).
Employment status
Among the employed offenders (n = 65),
various types of employment were re-
corded, for instance, sex-related business or
snack bar owner (22 per cent), office
workers (18 per cent), and nursing staff or
pharmacists (14 per cent). Furthermore,
almost all of the sex-related business or
snack bar owners were female (93 per cent),
78 per cent of the nursing staff or pharma-
cists were female, and most office workers
were male (92 per cent).
Education level
The education level of 10 offenders was not
known because of the absence of data in the
Japanese National Police Register. Among
86 offenders, some had only graduated
from junior high school (49 per cent), 30
per cent were high-school graduates, and
only six offenders had graduated from
university.
Fixed residence
Only one offender had no fixed residence.
Marriage and parental status
Over half of the offenders were married (56
per cent), 25 per cent were unmarried and
19 per cent were divorced. There was no
difference between males and females in
terms of marriage status. 46 per cent of the
offenders had children.
Cohabitation
73 offenders cohabited. Among these 73
offenders, 62 per cent lived with a spouse,
and 30 per cent lived with their parent(s).
Criminal record
19 per cent of the offenders had been
previously arrested at least once prior to
their arrest for poisoning. However, none of
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Zaitsu
the offenders had a criminal record involv-
ing murder, arson or rape. Among 18
offenders who had a criminal record, the
most common crime was theft (78 per
cent). Classified by gender, 27 per cent of
the male offenders had a criminal record,
compared with 12 per cent of female
offenders. As a result of a chi-square test,
this difference of criminal record between
genders was found to be statistically sig-
nificant (χ2(1, N = 96) = 3.87, p<0.05,
ϕ = –0.20).
Mental health problem
Thirteen per cent of offenders had a men-
tal health problem. For example, some
offenders suffered from schizophrenia (four
cases), personality disorder (four cases), or
depression (two cases).
Co-offenders
Thirty-one per cent of cases were com-
mitted with a co-offender.
Crime characteristics
Table 2 shows crime characteristics in this
study.
Day of the week
70 per cent of the murders with poison
were committed on a weekday.
Time of homicidal poisoning
The most common time of murder with
poison was in the evening and night-time
(64 per cent), followed by the morning (20
per cent).
Type of poison
In this study, 66 per cent of the offenders
used medical supplies (hypnotics, narcotics,
muscle relaxants and so on), whereas 34 per
cent used chemical poisons (non-medical
supplies). 62 per cent of the offenders who
used medical supplies for homicidal poison-
ing were female. On the other hand, 61 per
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this constitutes a statistically significant dif-

Table 2: Crime characteristics of 96 ference (χ2(1, N = 96) = 4.42, p < 0.05,
offenders in this study ϕ = –0.22). This result is similar to the
finding of Westveer, Jarvis, and Jensen
Crime characteristics N = 96 (%)
(2006).
Day of the week Ohtsuru (2005) stated that poisons can
Weekday 67 (70) be roughly classified into five groups
Weekend or holiday 29 (30) according to their effects on human beings.
Time of homicidal poisoning Among the cases in this study, the types and
Morning 19 (20) frequency of poison used were as follows:
Daytime 16 (17)
Evening and night-time 61 (64)
nerve poison (67 per cent), organic poison
Type of poison (19 per cent), caustic poison (6 per cent),
Medical supply 63 (66) enzyme poison (6 per cent) and blood poi-
Chemical poison 33 (34) son (2 per cent). Nerve poisons act on the
Uptake of poison nervous system of human beings, especially
Ingested with food or drink 75 (78)
the central nervous system (eg, sleep-
Breathing 10 (10)
Transdermal absorption 6 (6) inducing drugs, chloroform, ethanol and
Injection 5 (5) stimulants). Organic poisons directly
Place where offender poisoned victim degrade the internal organs (eg, arsenic,
Offender's house 36 (38) antimony, organic phosphorus compounds
Car 20 (21) and agricultural chemicals). Caustic poisons
Victim's house 19 (20)
Workplace 10 (10)
directly destroy the skin or mucous mem-
Other place 11 (12) branes of the body (eg, sulphuric acid,
Place where offender murdered victim hydrochloric acid, caustic soda, mercury
Same place as offender poisoned 82 (85) and zinc). Enzyme poisons disturb specific
Different place from where offender 14 (15) enzymes (eg, insecticides including organo-
poisoned
phosphates). Blood poisons act on the
Threat victim
None 86 (90) blood, disturb blood coagulation and pre-
Any 10 (10) vent oxygen from being transported
Sleeping victim throughout the body (eg, carbon monoxide
None 31 (32) and cyanides such as potassium cyanide). In
Any 65 (68) this study, these five classifications of poi-
Serial or spree poisonings
None 80 (83)
sons were used in analysis.
Any 16 (17)
Victim's gender Uptake of poison
Male 64 (67) The method by which the poison was taken
Female 32 (33) up by the victim can be divided into four
Result of homicidal poisoning
categories: ingested with food or drink (78
Consummated 70 (73)
Attempted 26 (27) per cent), by breathing (10 per cent), by
Relationship between offender and transdermal absorption (6 per cent), and
victim by injection (5 per cent).
Not acquaintance 4 (4)
Acquaintance 92 (96) Place where offender poisoned or
murdered victim
The offenders poisoned victims in the fol-
cent of those who used chemical poisons lowing places: offender’s house (38 per
were male. A chi-square test showed that cent), car (21 per cent), victim’s house (20

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per cent), offender’s or victim’s workplace
(10 per cent) and other places (12 per cent).
Among these cases, 85 per cent of the
victims died in the same place as they were
poisoned.
Threat victim
10 per cent of the offenders threatened the
victim before poisoning him or her.
Sleeping victim
Sleeping victim indicates an offender
putting a victim to sleep or into a coma
with medical supplies, such as hypnotics, in
order to murder the victim subsequently.
Various methods for these murderers
(n = 65) were recorded, including stran-
gling (29 per cent), stabbing (18 per cent),
suffocation (14 per cent), drowning (12 per
cent) and poisoning (8 per cent).
Serial or spree poisonings
83 per cent of the offenders committed a
single homicide by poisoning, 15 per cent
committed serial murders with poison. Two
offenders committed spree crimes.
Victim’s gender
67 per cent of the victims were male. When
victims were male, 61 per cent of the
offenders were female. In contrast, in cases
of female victims, 59 per cent of the
offenders were male (χ2(1, N = 96) = 3.55,
p = 0.06, ϕ = –0.19).
Result of homicidal poisoning
27 per cent of the offenders were arrested
on a charge of attempted murder with
poison.
Relationship between offender and
victim
Only four offenders were not acquainted
with the victim. In the other cases (n = 92),
the relationship between offender and vic-
tim could be classified into five categories:
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Zaitsu
kinship (47 per cent), intimacy or unrecip-
rocated romantic interest (16 per cent),
friend or acquaintance (12 per cent), co-
worker (8 per cent) and others (17 per
cent). This variable was not used for ana-
lysis, because the investigator cannot deter-
mine this relationship pending the
settlement of a poisoning case.
Dimension obtained by CATPCA
Eleven homicidal poisoning variables in
Table 3 were used for analysis. CATPCA
showed an eigenvalue of 3.27 (Cronbach’s
coefficient alpha = 0.76) in dimension 1
and an eigenvalue of 1.39 (Cronbach’s
coefficient alpha = 0.31) in dimension 2. In
this study, the author did not deal with
dimension 2 because of the lowness both of
eigenvalue and of Cronbach’s coefficient
alpha of dimension 2.
Table 3 shows the category quantifica-
tions and component loadings in dimension
1 obtained by CATPCA. In dimension 1,
absolute values regarding ‘five types of poi-
son’ (–0.89), ‘sleeping victim’ (0.87), ‘place
where offender poisoned victim’ (0.70) and
‘result of homicidal poisoning’ (0.68) were
higher in component loadings; therefore,
the author interpreted dimension 1 as cer-
tainty of homicide.
Themes of homicidal poisoning and
classification of offenders
According to the vector coordinates in
Table 3, categories of ‘caustic poison’,
‘organic poison’, ‘blood poison’, ‘serial or
spree poisonings’, ‘workplace’, ‘morning’,
‘daytime’, and ‘attempted homicide’ were
arranged in the positive direction in dimen-
sion 1. Therefore, this positive direction was
interpreted as the theme of ‘expressive’ poi-
soning, because this direction refers to the
expression of the offender’s frustration and
resembles the features of ‘expressive’ arson
(Canter & Fritzon, 1998), for which vari-
ables of ‘serial’, ‘spree’, ‘daytime’, and ‘pub-
lic’ were arranged.
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Homicidal poisoning in Japan: offender and crime characteristics

Table 3: CATPA crime characteristics of homicidal poisonings

Category Component loadings Vector coordinate

Crime characteristics N = 96 (%) quantifications (Dimension1) (Dimension1)

Day of the week

Weekday 67 (70) 0.66 0.09
0.14
Weekend or holiday 29 (30) –1.52 –0.21
Time of homicidal poisoning
Morning 19 (20) –1.32 0.47
Daytime 16 (17) –1.32 –0.35 0.47
Evening and night-time 61 (64) 0.76 –0.27
Five types of poison
Nerve poison 64 (67) 0.69 –0.61
Organic poison 18 (19) –1.50 1.33
Caustic poison 6 (6) –1.76 –0.89 1.56
Enzyme poison 6 (6) 0.55 0.54
Blood poison 2 (2) –1.48 1.31
Uptake of poison
Ingested with food or drink 75 (78) –0.47 –0.19
Breathing 10 (10) 0.93 0.38
0.41
Transdermal absorption 6 (6) 3.16 1.30
Injection 5 (5) 1.44 0.59
Place where offender poisoned victim
Offender's house 36 (38) –0.46 –0.32
Car 20 (21) –1.32 –0.92
Victim's house 19 (20) 1.25 0.70 0.87
Workplace 10 (10) 1.50 1.05
Other place 11 (12) 0.39 0.27
Place where offender murdered victim
Same place as offender poisoned 82 (85) 0.41 0.16
0.40
Different place from where offender 14 (15) –2.42 –0.96
poisoned
Threat to victim
None 86 (90) 0.34 –0.03
–0.10
Any 10 (10) –2.93 0.29
Sleeping victim
None 31 (32) 1.45 1.26
0.87
Any 65 (68) –0.69 –0.60
Serial or spree poisonings
None 80 (83) –0.45 –0.20
0.44
Any 16 (17) 2.24 0.98
Victim's gender
Male 64 (67) 0.71 –0.24
–0.34
Female 32 (33) –1.41 0.48
Result of homicidal poisoning
Consummated 70 (73) –0.61 –0.41
0.68
Attempted 26 (27) 1.64 1.11

In the negative direction opposite to this places where offender poisoned victim’,
direction, there were categories of ‘different ‘car’, ‘nerve poison’, and ‘consummated

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homicide’. The author considers that this
direction refers to planned and certain mur-
der, because the offenders may use poison
to control victims to commit murder subse-
quently by other means. Therefore, this
negative direction was interpreted as ‘instru-
mental’ poisoning.
With reference to object scores on
dimension 1, 96 offenders were differenti-
ated into the two themes of ‘instrumental’
(n = 65) and ‘expressive’ (n = 31).
Offender characteristics of
‘instrumental’ and ‘expressive’
poisoning
Table 4 shows the offender characteristics of
both poisoning themes.
Offender’s gender
Table 4 indicates that there were more
female offenders (57 per cent) in cases of
‘instrumental’ poisoning. Conversely, there
were more male offenders in cases of
‘expressive’ poisoning (52 per cent). How-
ever, the difference of offender’s gender
between themes was not statistically sig-
nificant (χ2(1, N = 96) = 0.62, p = 0.43,
ϕ = –0.08).
Age
The average age of the 65 offenders who
committed ‘instrumental’ poisoning was
42.3 years (SD = 10.9). The average age of
the 31 offenders in cases of ‘expressive’
poisoning was 45.0 years (SD = 15.0). The
t test revealed that the effect of age was not
statistically significant (t(45.7) = –0.88,
p = 0.39 (two-tailed), r = 0.13).
Employment status
There was no statistical difference of
employment status between ‘instrumental’
and ‘expressive’ (χ2(1, N = 96) = 0.22,
p = 0.64, ϕ = –0.05).
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Zaitsu
Education level
The education level of 10 offenders was
unknown. Among the remaining 86
offenders, the chi-square test did not show a
statistically significant difference of educa-
tion level between themes (χ2(1, n = 86) =
0.20, p = 0.65, ϕ = 0.05).
Cohabitation with spouse or parent
A chi-square test revealed that there was
not a statistically significant difference of
cohabitation with spouse between themes
(χ2(1, N = 96) = 0.004, p = 0.95,
ϕ = 0.01). But, with regard to cohabitation
with parent(s), the chi-square test showed a
statistically significant difference between
‘instrumental’ (17 per cent) and ‘expressive’
(35 per cent) (χ2(1, N = 96) = 4.01,
p < 0.05, ϕ = 0.21).
Marriage and parental status
The Fisher’s exact test revealed that a differ-
ence of marriage status between the two
themes was of no statistical significance
(χ2(2, N = 96) = 1.82, p = 0.40, Cramer’s V
= 0.14). Table 4 shows that the percentage
of offenders having parental status was
higher in cases of ‘instrumental’ poisoning
(51 per cent) than in cases of ‘expressive’
poisoning (35 per cent). However, the dif-
ference was not statistically significant (χ2(1,
N = 96) = 1.98, p = 0.16, ϕ = –0.14).
Criminal record
As shown in Table 4, offenders who com-
mitted ‘instrumental’ poisoning were more
likely to have a criminal record (23 per
cent) than those who committed ‘express-
ive’ poisoning (10 per cent). But, as the chi-
square test shows, the difference of criminal
record between themes was not statistically
significant (χ2(1, N = 96) = 2.47, p = 0.12,
ϕ = –0.16).
Mental health problem
Table 4 shows that 23 per cent of the
offenders in cases of ‘expressive’ poisoning
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Homicidal poisoning in Japan: offender and crime characteristics

Table 4: Offender characteristics in ‘instrumental’ and ‘expressive’

Frequency and percentage of two themes

‘Instrumental’ poisoning ‘Expressive’ poisoning

Offender characteristics n = 65 (%) n = 31 (%) By each test

Offender's gender
Male 28 (43) 16 (52)
ns1
Female 37 (57) 15 (48)
Age
16–19 0 (0) 2 (6)
20–29 8 (12) 3 (10)
30–39 21 (32) 7 (23)
ns2
40–49 22 (34) 6 (19)
50–59 9 (14) 5 (16)
60–77 5 (8) 8 (26)
Employment status
Employed 43 (66) 22 (71)
ns1
Unemployed 22 (34) 9 (29)
Education level
High-school dropout 33 (51) 13 (42)
Higher level 26 (40) 14 (45) ns1
Unknown 6 (9) 4 (13)
Cohabitation with spouse
None 34 (52) 16 (52)
ns1
Any 31 (48) 15 (48)
Cohabitation with parent(s)
None 54 (83) 20 (65)
p < 0.051
Any 11 (17) 11 (35)
Marriage status
Unmarried 14 (22) 10 (32)
Married 37 (57) 17 (55) ns1
Divorced 14 (22) 4 (13)
Parental status
None 32 (49) 20 (65)
ns1
Any 33 (51) 11 (35)
Criminal record
None 50 (77) 28 (90)
ns1
Any 15 (23) 3 (10)
Mental health problem
None 60 (92) 24 (77)
p < 0.053
Any 5 (8) 7 (23)
Co-offenders
None 40 (62) 26 (84)
p < 0.051
Any 25 (38) 5 (16)

Note:
1
Chi-square test, 2 t test, 3 Fisher’s exact test

had a mental health problem, compared test showed a statistically significant differ-
with 8 per cent of those who committed ence between the two themes (p < 0.05,
‘instrumental’ poisoning. The Fisher’s exact ϕ = 0.21).

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Co-offenders
As can be seen in Table 4, the difference of
involvement of co-offenders between
‘instrumental’ (38 per cent) and ‘expressive’
(16 per cent) was statistically significant
(χ2(1, N = 96) = 4.87, p < 0.05, ϕ =
–0.23).
DISCUSSION
According to the National Police Agency
(2009), over 60 per cent of Japanese mur-
derers were unemployed (749 of 1211
murderers in 2008) and nearly half of them
had a criminal record (538 of 1211 mur-
derers in 2008). Generally, these figures
described Japanese murderers as antisocial
individuals. In addition to this, the National
Police Agency (2009) indicates that among
859 murders using a weapon, most mur-
derers used a knife (66 per cent), with a
rope being the next most common (6 per
cent). This study conversely showed that
Japanese homicidal poisoners are typically
employed (68 per cent) and do not have a
criminal record (81 per cent). These char-
acteristics identify Japanese poisoners as
relatively social individuals. Why did such
social offenders use poison, rather than con-
ventional methods involving a knife or
rope? The use of poison helps an offender
not to be detected, because the lack of
noise of poisoning reduces the number of
potential witnesses and there are no visible
signs of violence (Trestrail, 2007). However,
homicidal poisoning requires time because
of the necessity of planning, obtaining poi-
son and executing the crime. Such social
individuals may be more calm and meticu-
lous than those who commit other kinds of
murder.
Furthermore, almost all of the Japanese
murderers are male (National Police
Agency, 2009), whereas this study indicated
that over half of the poisoners were female.
The most likely explanation for this is that
female offenders are less physically strong
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Zaitsu
than male offenders; therefore, they used
poison to control victims in order to
guarantee the success of the murder.
With regard to gender, if the victim was
a female, the offender was usually a male.
This result matches the finding of Trestrail
(2007). However, in the case of a male
victim, our findings did not match those of
Trestrail (2007) in that the author found a
higher incidence of female offenders. Fur-
ther study of this relationship is necessary,
because this discrepancy between studies
may be attributable to a number of factors
(eg, nationality).
In this study, homicidal poisonings were
differentiated into two poisoning themes:
‘instrumental’ and ‘expressive’. There were
three main differences of offender char-
acteristics between these themes. First, the
offenders who committed ‘expressive’ poi-
soning more frequently exhibited mental
health problems than those who committed
‘instrumental’ poisoning. This result coin-
cides with the characteristics of offenders
who commit ‘expressive’ arson (Canter &
Fritzon, 1998), and suggests that ‘expressive’
offenders poison victims to relieve the
offenders’ emotional distress or frustration
caused by mental health problems. Second,
the frequency of the involvement of co-
offenders in cases of ‘instrumental’ poison-
ing was higher than that in cases of
‘expressive’ poisoning. ‘Expressive’ offenders
would be motivated by more personal and
internal reasons such as mental health prob-
lems, so there may be a lower likelihood of
the involvement of a co-offender. It is sug-
gested that cases of ‘instrumental’ poisoning
were caused by external incidents or situ-
ations and their purpose may be revenge or
to gain certain benefits (eg, a life insurance
policy). To accomplish this purpose, ‘instru-
mental’ offenders must carefully work out
plans, obtain medical supplies, induce a
coma in victims, let victims move to a
different place and then execute murder.
For these reasons, it may be more necessary
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Homicidal poisoning in Japan: offender and crime characteristics
to join forces with someone else to execute
this process. Lastly, with regard to cohabita-
tion with a parent/parents, ‘expressive’ poi-
soners were more likely to live with a
parent/parents than ‘instrumental’ poi-
soners. One explanation for this is that
‘expressive’ poisoners had more mental
health problems than ‘instrumental’ poi-
soners, so it may have been more necessary
for them to live with a parent/parents for
the assistance that they can provide.
Salfati and Canter (1999) found that
stranger murderers of the ‘expressive’ theme
were more likely to be female and to have
committed previous offences. Their findings
are inconsistent with those of this study
which found that ‘expressive’ poisoners
were more likely to be males than females
and most did not have a criminal record.
However, the differences between the poi-
soning themes in this study were not statist-
ically significant, so it is necessary to
undertake further research on the relation-
ship between poisoning theme and poisoner
characteristics.
In the case of homicidal poisoning, there
is a high possibility that such cases can be
solved by conventional methods of invest-
igation, because most offenders poison close
acquaintances, as this study indicated. How-
ever, in cases of ‘expressive’ poisoning, the
victim is often less well acquainted with the
offender than in cases of ‘instrumental’ poi-
soning. If unsolved cases are thought of as
‘expressive’ poisoning, then there is the
possibility that the offender exhibits mental
health problems. For this reason, police
officers should keep in mind the import-
ance of focusing some part of the investiga-
tion on psychiatric matters.
In this study, if the offenders committed
serial poisonings, only data on the first
crime were analysed. For that reason, data
concerning attacks committed by the reli-
gious group AUM Shinrikyo did not
include the sarin gas subway attack, but
instead referred to an earlier incident of
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attempted poisoning. Over time, the status
of this group changed from specific family
to unspecified large number of people (ie,
the sarin gas subway attack). Similar to this
change of target, a high-school girl, inspired
by Graham Young, also conducted experi-
ments on animals before poisoning her
mother (‘Schoolgirl blogger’, 2005). Does
the range of targets of poisoners tend to
broaden as the number of poisonings com-
mitted increases, especially serial ‘expressive’
poisoners? Longitudinal research of poison-
ings is necessary to resolve this issue.
Police officers tend to be inexperienced
in identifying offenders because homicidal
poisonings are rare. Homicidal poisonings
in Japan have not been sufficiently invest-
igated yet; more research is necessary to
develop a deeper understanding of this
phenomenon. As such, the author hopes
that this study contributes to the field, and
stimulates further research of homicidal
poisonings.
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