Defining Poisoning and Product Tampering

What is it about?

While the distinction between poisoning and product tampering may initially seem obvious, there are several areas of overlap which make it difficult to separate these two types of crime from one another. This paper provides a method of distinguishing between product tampering and poisoning crimes, and also provides some basic demographic data on those who commit these crimes.

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Why is it important?

To our knowledge this is the first paper that clearly differentiates between acts of poisoning and product tampering, providing definitions that can be used in future research and by those in law enforcement. This paper also offers additional support for some of the past work on criminal poisoners, and provides data on what characteristics we might expect of a prototypical product tamperer.