Understanding Serial Murder: Beyond Demographics and Motivations

INTRODUCTION Serial murder is slowly decreasing in the United States. Looking at statistics most serial murderers are white males aged from twenty to forty years old. However, most serial murderers plan their crime in advance; it is rare they just randomly murder. In the most recent years the characteristics of the offenders have become more diverse. As the characteristics of the victims are not as much; it is almost half females and half males. I believe that serial murder is important to study so we understand the offenders motivation and behaviors for their criminal act. Also self-control theory is a concept used by sociologists which explains differences among people in the amount of engaging in a broad variety of acts that cause harm

DEFINITION OF CRIME TOPIC Over the past thirty years, multiple definitions of serial murder have been used by law enforcement and researchers. While these definitions do share several common themes, they differ on specific requirements. Such as the number of murders involved, the types of motivation, and the earthly aspects of the murders. Previous definitions of serial murder defined a certain number of murders, varying from two to ten victims. This definition distinguishes a serial murder from other categories of murder. For example single, double, or triple murder (Morton & Hilts, 2010). The book, Criminology fourth edition, stated the definition as being a criminal homicide that involves the killing of several victims in three or more separate events (Schmalleger, 2016). There have been attempts to formalize a definition of serial murder through legislation. In 1998, a federal law was passed by the United States

They argue that the typical serial murderer travels around, usually state to state, searching for victims to rape, torture, and murder. Very few murders are driven by delusions and are not medically or legally sick. Serial murderers are usually psychopaths who lack internal control and has an excessive need to control and dominate others. Serial murderers know right from wrong but simply do not care. Their target usually involved innocent strangers who have certain physical features or may just be accessible. The authors study the motivation of mass murders and note difficulties police officers encounter in capturing them. (Levin & Fox,