Definitions Serial killer: A person who kills three or more people in three or more separate events...

Definitions

Serial killer: A person who kills three or more people in three or more separate events over a period of time including an "emotional cooling-off" period in between the homicides (FBI definition)

Mass Murder: The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass murder as "[involving] the murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event

The Serial Murderer: A General Profile

• One of the most disturbing features of the phenomenon of serial killing is that the murderers themselves seem rather ordinary -- at least on the surface.

• Often of average height, weight and appearance. • They can seem calm and reasonable, polite and friendly • Most are of good intelligence, though few are educated

beyond high school or vocational school• Usually middle- to lower-middle class


• The great majority of serial killers are Caucasian and male.

• A small fraction have been women.

• About ten percent of serial murderers have been African American, although their numbers seem to be growing.

• Between two to three percent have been Latino, Asian, or Native American.


• The thinking of these offenders is dominated by violent, sexualized fantasies of revenge and control, which often start in childhood.

• Emotionally, they are characterized by deep-seated frustration, fear, hostility, anger, lack of self-esteem, and depression.

• Many are loners and self-preoccupied.

John Wayne Gacy

Defining Serial Murder

• Serial murders are generally viewed by law enforcement to be sexual homicides

• Some argue that serial murderers should include any offenders, male or female, who kill repeatedly over time

Defining Serial Murder: The Number of Serial Killers

• The FBI estimates the number of offenders in any given year to be thirty-five, though it may be as high as 100 -- or even more

• The number of identified serial killers has surged since the late-1960s

The Number of Serial Killers

Difficult to determine due in part to: Serial murderers are often active for a

period of a year or more. The pattern linking individual homicides

may not be apparent at first to law enforcement.

The killings may occur in several different legal jurisdictions, which may hamper efforts at detection

Categorizing Serial Murders and Murderers

The FBI identifies serial killers as:

“Organized" (those who carefully plan and execute their murders)

or “Disorganized" (those who kill

spontaneously).

Categorizing Serial Murders and Murderers

Other classifications are based on psychology, motive, or behavior.

One typology divides serial killers into four "types": Visionary - responding to voices or visions Mission-oriented - those who see themselves as

ridding society of certain groups, such as prostitutes or the elderly

Hedonistic - those who derive some form of pleasure (particularly sexual) from killing

Power or control-oriented - whose primary source of pleasure is not sexual, but the ability to control and exert power over a helpless victim

Categorizing the Killers: The Organized Killer

The hardest to catch. Socially adept Average in appearance, height, and

weightDresses neatlyPrefers to use verbal means -- rather than

force -- to capture his victims and very often succeeds.


Methodically planned murders A sexual sadist whose main goal is to gain

control over his victim through rape, other sexual assaults, and eventually murder.

Control over the victim is seen in the use of restraints, including rope, chains, tape, belts, handcuffs, chemicals, gags, and blindfolds.

Fantasy and ritual predominate in the organized offender.


Obsessive, compulsive traits surface in the commission of the crime.

The killer carefully avoids leaving evidence behind and often moves the body from the death scene.

During the commission of his crimes, he reports being calm and relaxed.


Comes from a relatively stable, lower-income family and is often the firstborn son

Inconsistent parental supervision. Usually better-than-average intelligence,

sexually active, and lives with a partner. Follows the investigation of his crimes in

the media.

Ted Bundy

Categorizing the Killers: The Disorganized Killer

Typically, the disorganized offender:• Is preoccupied with recurring obsessive thoughts • Seems confused and distressed at the time of the crime. • Fearful of people and has developed a highly-defined

delusional system. • Acts impulsively under stress. • Is of below average intelligence and has a poor history of

work. • Frequently lives alone or with a parental figure and lives

in close proximity to the site of his murders. • Is socially inadequate and often incompetent sexually. • May have pronounced sexual aversions.

Categorizing the Killers: The Disorganized Killer

The disorganized offender:• Commits crimes suddenly• Leave the crime scene in great disarray; it has a

spontaneous, symbolic, unplanned quality• Generally, kills quickly in order to have control, catching

the victim completely off guard. • Depersonalizes the victim and specific areas of the body

are targeted for extreme brutality. Overkill (the infliction of more injury than necessary to kill) and mutilation of the face are common.

• Generally performs sexual acts after death. These may include mutilation of the genitals and breasts, disembowelment, vampirism, or substitute sex acts such as the insertion of objects into the victim's body cavities.

Richard Trenton Chase

Categorizing the Killers: Team Killers

• Over one third of all serial murders are committed by teams

• Most involve two offenders, and some groups have as many as five

• One third of all team murderers are legally or blood-related (siblings, husbands and wives, lovers, even parents and their children)

• Women make up thirty-eight percent of these groups.

• Eleven percent have been African American


Examples:

• Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono's "Hillside Stranglers"

• Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole

• Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy

• Charles Manson and his "Family."


Without exception, every group of offenders has one person who maintains

control of the other members, whether through coercion, intimidation, or other

persuasive techniques. Nearly all of these "leaders" are men. Although women are

frequently involved with serial murder teams, they generally are not the decision-

makers or main enforcers.


At what point does a person agree to murder victims? What enables someone to convince others to murder? It seems unlikely that some male and female offenders would ever have committed these crimes if they had not been exposed to group dynamics and the power of

persuasion and manipulation. Some people who led groups of team offenders experienced a

sense of power and gratification not only through the deaths of victims but also through getting

others to do their bidding.

Ian Brady & Myra Hindle

Categorizing the Killers: Female Serial Killers

• Women represent only a small fraction of the total number of serial murderers who have been apprehended

• Since the 1970s there has been a notable increase in the number of female serial killers


• Female serial murderers are usually white• They are generally older when they start

killing and tend to keep active over a longer time.

• They are as likely to kill within their families as they are to kill strangers.

• When killing within the family, husbands are their primary victims

• Twelve percent kill children only


The majority of these killers fall into two categories:

• “Black widows" Women who kill their husbands, children, or

other relatives.

• Nurses and caretakers Victimize people over whom they have controlElderly men and women, and especially

babies, are their primary targets.


• Women do not, as a rule, sexually assault their victims.

• Fantasy may play a role in their murders• Female serial killers are generally less violent

than male serial killers. • Nearly half of female serial killers poison their

victims• Although some women do commit the brutal acts

more commonly associated with serial murder, it is usually when working in tandem with men.

Aileen Wuormos

Categorizing the Killers: Roaming Serial Killers

• Only a minority of serial murderers travel widely in committing their crimes

• Half of all male serial killers are so-called "local" offenders, staying within the general area of their cities or counties and never carrying on their killing in more than one state

• Twenty percent of serial murderers are "place-specific," using their homes or places of employment as killing sites.

• Less than one third kill victims in more than one state• Female serial killers are predominantly place-specific• early half of all victims were murdered by local killers

Pedro Lopez

Family History and Childhood Trauma

• Childhood poverty was not a factor for most serial murderers. The majority of them report growing up in homes with stable, if modest, incomes.

• Over three quarters of convicted serial killers come from families with histories of alcohol and drug abuse.

• Over half had family histories of psychiatric disorders • Half of their families had members who were involved

with criminal activities, from selling drugs to murder. These were homes characterized by violence and neglect.

• Nearly all offenders experienced a high level of physical and psychological abuse from their parents and older relatives.

Family History and Childhood Trauma

• A majority were sexually abused as children, often by members of their families.

• Many were subjected to strict discipline and humiliating punishment.

• Seventy percent had to undergo psychiatric evaluation or confinement as children and teens.

• These troubled homes were further disrupted by divorce or separation and often by re-marriage.

• One third of these offenders grew up in a single location. • Forty percent of serial murderers had lived outside of

their family homes before the age of 18 -- in foster homes, state homes, detention centers, or mental institutions.

Charles Manson

Childhood Behavior

Common attitudes and behaviors of children who grow up to be serial murderers are:

• Rebelliousness• Aggression• Assaultive actions towards adults • Chronic lying • Daydreaming• A sense of privilege or entitlement• Compulsive masturbation and other autoerotic activities

are also commonplace. These behaviors intensify with adolescence and ultimately become habitual by adulthood.

Childhood Behavior

Cruelty towards animals and other children often sets the stage for greater abusiveness in the future.

Arson and bedwetting -- when seen in combination with expressions of cruelty are believed by some experts to be crucial contributors to the development of a serial murderer.

Henry Lee Lucas

Sexual Fetishes

Fetishism is the finding of sexual gratification through substituting objects for a sexual partner.

• In one survey of convicted serial murderers, seventy-two percent report having sexual fetishes.

• As young boys, many adult serial murderers report having had strong attraction to high-heeled shoes, female underwear, and rope. As adolescents and into adulthood, they take repeated sexual interest in these items. Eventually, these objects become part of the ritualized aspects of their murders.

• Some offenders remove the breasts of their victims and keep them as fetish objects. Others keep hair, teeth, heads, fingers, and sexual organs.

Jerome Brudos

Committing Serial Murder: The Role of Fantasy

• For both the organized and disorganized serial murderer, early fantasies combining violence and sex become more elaborate with time.

• By adulthood, they are the central feature of his life, the means through which he encounters the world and validates his own actions.

Committing Serial Murder: The Role of Fantasy

• For the serial murderer, early fantasies combining violence and sex become more elaborate with time. By adulthood, they are the central feature of his life, the means through which he encounters the world and validates his own actions.

Definitions Serial killer: A person who kills three or more people in three or more separate events...

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Transcript of Definitions Serial killer: A person who kills three or more people in three or more separate events...