After having studied serial murder for more than two decades, I have authored several manuscripts on serial homicide.
I am the director of the Atypical Homicide Research Group, a think tank that strives to understand the modern-day multiple homicide offender through the systematic collection and analysis of data.
We organize and maintain the Consolidated Serial Homicide Offender Database, the largest open repository for information on atypical homicide offenders which has been used in several academic manuscripts.
We even helped to bring the Felix Vail serial murder case to a resolution.
My current work with the Murder Accountability Project aims to educate Americans on the importance of accurately accounting for unresolved homicides within the USA by using the Supplementary Homicide Report to help uncover suspicious clusters of potential serial homicide activity.
I have been quoted in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and USA Today and was profiled in a Boston Magazine article titled Profiler 2.0.
Summary of First Authored Manuscripts
Can a demographic make you psychopathic?
Over the decades, African American serial killers have been neglected in academic literature. This exploratory article reports the results obtained in two studies of a large sample of serial homicide offenders while comparing African American and Caucasian offenders. The question guiding this research was whether current offender profiles are equipped to cope with shifting patterns and trends. Previous research, such as Eric Hickey’s 399-offender study, suggested that black males represented only 20% of serial murderers. The author’s present research asserts instead that 46% of American serial killers since 1995 have been black, commensurate with the number of white serial killers. This conclusion is derived from case-by-case analysis of one hundred and five American serial killers. Data was collected from a primary source – a survey administered to eleven professionals in the criminal justice field – and secondary sources including newspaper articles, FBI case files, databases from Dr. James Alan Fox, and various scholastic resources. African Americans’ characteristics were assessed by examining variables such as victim selection, prevalence of drug use, evasion techniques, and methods of detection. The results of study I demonstrate significant differences and commonalities between African American serial killers and their Caucasian counterparts. Study II revealed an overall disdain for current profiling methods among criminal justice professionals.
Addressing the Challenges and Limitations of Utilizing Data to Study Serial Homicide
Conducting systematic research on serial homicide is complicated by variations in definition, sample size, data sources and collection procedures. This review will identify the challenges of utilizing data to study serial homicide and propose new methods to address these limitations. Almost three decades ago, Kiger (1990) highlighted the limitations of employing then existing data to study the social problem of serial murder and called for the creation of new sources to allow for quantitative assessments that used empirical data. In response, serial homicide researchers - previously operating in 'information silos' - contributed information to the 'Serial Homicide Expertise and Information Sharing Collaborative' to build a comprehensive record of serial homicide offending in partnership with the 'Radford/FGCU Serial Killer Database Project'. Providing serial homicide data in an open access format empowers users to increase data reliability by interacting with the information to supply edits and corrections. Statistical evidence generated from the data enables analysts to disprove ingrained myths and stereotypes about serial murderers using valid data. Impaneled experts applied the Modified Delphi Technique and proposed adopting the broad term 'multiple-event murderer' to counter some institutionalized definitional differences. The exploration of creating a dashboard to track instances of serial homicide alongside further study of serial offenders committing revenge murders, witness elimination and robbery homicides, organized crime, contract and gang killings is recommended.
Detecting a Decline in Serial Homicide: Have We Banished the Devil from the Details?
The current research provides perspective regarding the true prevalence of serial murderers in modern society and addresses the conflict between the evidenced decline in serial homicide and the viewpoint that the phenomenon is increasing. The likelihood that serial murderers are responsible for most unresolved homicides and missing persons is examined in the context of a declining prevalence. A mixed methods approach was used, consisting of a review of a sample of unresolved homicides, a comparative analysis of the frequency of known serial homicide series and unresolved serial homicide series, and semi-structured interviews of experts. In failing to become serial killers, aspiring and probable serial killers and spree killers have impacted the rate of serial murder by not reaching their potential. The past decade contained almost half the cases (13%) that existed at the 1980s peak of serial homicide (27%). Only 282 (1.3%) strangled females made up the 22,444 unresolved homicides reviewed. Most expert respondents thought it unreasonable that any meaningful proportion of missing persons cases are victims of serial homicide. Technology, shifts in offending behavior, proactive law enforcement action, and vigilance of society have transformed serial killing and aids in viewing offenders as people impacted by societal shifts and cultural norms. The absence of narrative details inhibited some aspects of the review. An exhaustive list of known unresolved serial homicide series remained elusive as some missing persons are never reported. Future research should incorporate those intending to murder serially, but whose efforts were stalled by arrest, imprisonment, or death.
The Folly of Counting Bodies: Using regression to transgress the state of serial murder classification systems
This commentary addresses misconceptions present in Too Few Victims: Finding the Optimal Minimum Victim Threshold for Defining Serial Murder and seeks to limit the damaging effect that the authors' recommendation of reverting the victim threshold will have on researchers, practitioners and law enforcement. To classify serial homicide offenders by a metric such as deadliness unnecessarily segments a population of offenders that share similar pathologies. Upper level statistics that neglect to account for the narrative factors responsible for the offender's homicidality cannot elucidate the true differences between the groups of serial murderers identified by the authors. In analyzing an offender's number of kills and motive the authors ignore the relationship between victim and attacker and the time period between murders. The authors discount thousands of serial homicide offenders due to the absence of information on formative events and disregard intent and markers associated with serial homicide, all to manufacture an inflection point and command the future direction of serial homicide offender research and apprehension efforts. This will curtail the foray of new researchers into an area rife with potential discoveries while also restricting efforts by law enforcement organizations to form task forces to intervene earlier in an offender's career.
Moving Past Sporadic Eruptions, Discursive Killing, and Running Amok: Recognizing the Convergence of the Serial and Spree Killer
Rapid sequence homicide offenders (RSHOs), formerly spree killers, are an understudied population due to the confusion surrounding their classification in relation to serial murderers. The paper aims to discuss this issue. An exploratory, comparative analysis of 56 RSHOs and 60 serial murderers was conducted on US-based data from 2014 to 2018 derived from the Consolidated Serial Homicide Offender Database to determine similarities and differences between the cohorts. RSHOs and serial murderers are similar in that they often kill their victims using a singular method, have limited mobility, kill a similar number of victims both known and unknown to them and are both supremely motivated by domestic anger. There is an inverse relationship between serial murderers and RSHOs: as one group increases in prevalence the other decreases. In order to divert men into more pro-social activities, attention must be dedicated to increasing mental health services that provide them with the tools to diffuse their hatred and couple that with effective gun control strategies and ways to enhance the compromised anger management skills of a generation of volatile men. Academicians have been hesitant to juxtapose these offenders but based this conclusion on surface-level differences. A reimagining of these categorical structures is needed. The once clear delineation between these cohorts may continue to shrink and synchronize until one subsumes the other.
Statistical Study of Time Intervals Between Murders for Serial Killers
The “cooling-off period”, or inter-murder interval, has been used to differentiate between serial, spree, and mass murderers for decades. The present research examines the utility of this concept by studying the distribution of 2837 inter-murder intervals for 1012 American serial homicide offenders using data from the Consolidated Serial Homicide Offender Database. The distribution is smooth, following a power law in the region of 10–10,000 days. The power law is cut off in the region when inter-murder intervals become comparable with the length of human life. Otherwise there is no characteristic scale in the distribution. The decades long inter-murder intervals are not anomalies, but rare events described by the power-law distribution and therefore should not be looked upon with suspicion. This study found there to be no characteristic spree or serial homicide offender interval, only a monotonous smooth distribution lacking any features. This suggests that there is only a quantitative difference between serial and spree killers which represent merely different aspects of the same phenomenon.
A heuristic study of the similarities and differences in offender characteristics across potential and successful serial sexual homicide offenders
This heuristic study examined potential serial sexual homicide offenders (SSHOs), an unacknowledged offender group comprised of aspiring and probable SSHOs, and compared them with successful SSHOs. Data were collected on six aspiring SSHOs who each failed a single homicide attempt, 16 probable SSHOs who committed 17 homicides in separate events, and 13 successful SSHOs who killed 90 victims in separate events. The study results indicate that while potential SSHOs share more in common with successful SSHOs than they do with single-victim nonsexual homicide offenders, and that there is an overlap between potential SSHOs and successful SSHOs, there is currently insufficient evidence to suggest that there are discreet transitions among categories. While few potential SSHOs strive to become successful SSHOs, this may be due to weak or nonexistent emotional triggers. Being a potential SSHO does not appear to be a predictable first step on a pathway towards becoming a successful SSHO, as potential SSHOs cannot reliably be thought of as prospective SSHOs if all things were equal. The present study could not foresee all potential SSHOs becoming successful ones. An as yet unidentified number of factors still appear to separate potential SSHOs from successful SSHOs.
How Much Damage Do Serial Homicide Offenders Wrought While the Innocent Rot in Prison? A Tabulation of Preventable Deaths as Outcomes of Sentinel Events
The criminal justice system has allowed serial homicide offenders (SHOs) to commit additional homicides by failing to identify them after their initial homicide. Recidivism has been possible in instances where the SHO benefited from the wrongful incarceration of an innocent person for one of their homicides. Data from the National Registry of Exonerations was utilized to tabulate the full extent of these sentinel events, defined as the number of deaths that could have been prevented. Additional research was conducted to identify where victims fell in the offender’s killing sequence. This ancillary data revealed the number of victims whose deaths could have been prevented had the offender been apprehended earlier in their series of homicides. Sixty-two SHOs were responsible for 249 deaths, 114 of which were committed after an innocent person was incarcerated for the SHO’s initial homicide. To prevent further loss of life, law enforcement must: act upon accurate information; lower the SHO evidentiary threshold; prevent personal bias from influencing investigative steps; obtain training in the behavior of SHOs; admit mistakes; and re-examine convictions if wrongdoing is suspected.
Time after time: Factors predicting murder series’ duration
The duration of time that the serial offender remains free in the community to commit murders may be seen as a direct measure of their longevity; a sign of their success. The aim of this study is to predict the duration of the serial homicide series by examining the factors that contribute to the length of time a serial murderer is able to remain free of police detection. Generalized estimating equations with a negative binomial link function were used to examine factors predicting the duration of series in a sample of 1258 serial murder cases. Results showed that offenders' criminal history, race (i.e., White and Hispanic), and victims of minority backgrounds significantly predicted longer duration in their murder series. A combination of multiple killing methods and atypical methods also predicted longer murder series, while the moving of the victim's body predicted shorter duration in the series. This study builds upon the serial homicide literature, particularly the duration of the series. Results from this study help inform investigative efforts in serial homicide cases.
Evaluating the Use of Data-based Offender Profiling by Researchers, Practitioners and Investigative Journalists to Address Unresolved Serial Homicides
The purpose of this article is to improve the use of evidence-based practice and research utilization in the offender profiling process. The use of offender profiling has been met with increasing resistance given its exaggerated accuracy. The “Investigative Journalist/Expert Field Micro Task Force” model, a collaborative method that incorporates offender profiling and is designed to address unresolved serial homicides, is introduced and evaluated alongside recommendations on attaining adherence. The model was field tested in 17 instances. The measures used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gauge the usefulness of their case consultations, whether their input helped catch the offender, offer new leads, move the case forward, provide new avenues or give new ideas, were used to evaluate the model. The model established likely patterns of serial murder activity among strangulations of women in Chicago, Cleveland, and Panama and resulted in convictions of suspects in Louisiana and Kansas City. This model is valuable when used to parse modern-day offenders from those who committed unresolved homicides as the latter display different behaviors that can make investigations difficult endeavors. Results from the field tests mirror those from the literature in that profiling alone did not result in the capture of serial killers. Instead, profiling was used in conjunction with other efforts and mainly as a means to keep the investigation moving forward. Unresolved homicides are at a point of crisis and represent a significant but largely unaddressed societal problem. The success of this model may compel law enforcement to restore faith in offender profiling.
Serial Murder
Serial murder has had a storied history which has complicated society’s understanding of the topic. Much of what is known about serial murder by the general public has been generalized, filtered through the realm of entertainment, and converted into myths and stereotypes. Half a century after the term was reconceptualized, basic concepts – such as how to properly define serial murder and what constitutes a series – are still a matter of great debate. For the purposes of this article serial murder is defined as the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same individual(s) over a period of more than 14 days. Better data and efforts to collaborate more widely have recently led to discoveries that have shown serial murder to be the result of a multifaceted, complex process involving the offender’s unique socialization, experiences, and fantasies that develop over the course of their maturation. It is now believed that the majority of serial murderers are not criminal masterminds but rather ‘street smart’ individuals, employed in often menial jobs, who accumulate life-altering issues, and come to embrace a self-centered lifestyle punctuated by manipulation, shallow emotion, impulsivity, and pathological lying. They need to work serial killing into a life occupied by other tasks and objectives such as family, work, and community obligations. Data has shown that modern serial murderers tend to be local undereducated men of average intelligence, who are often convicted of intimate partner violence, are lucky to escape apprehension, and propelled forward by a deep sense of entitlement, fragile masculinity, easy access to firearms, and a nonchalant attitude toward using murder to attain their goals. There has been a decline in serial murder globally, but an increase in cultural fascination. The height of serial murder has come and gone because the situational factors that contributed to the success of serial murderers from previous eras have been indirectly addressed by our heavily surveilled society, the proliferation of tracking technology, a better prepared and connected police force, and an aware and vigilant public. Globally there are similarities between the racial, cultural, and ethnic characteristics of serial murderers.
The Perpetual Influence of Dark Traits on Alienists
The current chapter examines how various subject matter experts behave in dark, quasi-psychopathic ways and engage in rites of passage to protect access to the sanctity derived from possession of credentials. It highlights six dark personality-derived profiles specific to the expert fields: Phony Charlatans, Mystic Defenders, Harboring Imposters, False Mentors, Foraging Collaborators, and Disreputable Profiteers. Suggestions for improved relations among those who study psychopathy and homicide are offered.
Book Review - Edelstein’s Mass Murder and Serial Murder: An Integrative Look
Atypical homicide research has been a tumultuous endeavor over the past half-century as scholars reconciled with a dearth of data, competing personalities, and the transfiguring of murder into entertainment. These obstacles collectively incentivized independent analysis and mythmaking. Edelstein echoes timeworn myths. Edelstein centers most discussions on childhood, incessantly questioning how people with similar humiliations develop differently. Even motives are thought to originate in youth, with pornography prompting sexual murders and a paucity of wealth inspiring professional killings. Trauma is theorized to create a “schism” and crack the personality where once “broken,” dissociative identity disorder (DID) detaches the normative and deviant halves. Edelstein's image of the serial murderer mirrors the inaccurate 1980s profiles. Here, offenders are again predominately Caucasian men with no overt motives, whose crimes fit the storied organized/disorganized typology. They are psychopaths controlled by addictive sadistic impulses that relieve aggression by torturing animals, and strangle and stab mostly female strangers for sexual reasons, and a “lust to kill” repeated from crime to crime. Their actions are “automatic,” resulting from fantasies caused by trauma, abuse, humiliation, an inability to connect with maternal figures, and animosity for being adopted and institutionalized. Edelstein views serial murderers as thoughtless automatons endlessly seeking ideal victims and more intense stimuli given their tolerance to fantasies. This compels an ever-easier ceaselessness to kill. Homicides are supposedly completed with ease today since offenders are credited as being highly intelligent, mobile, forensically aware, and sophisticated, without criminal records, guilt, or regret, who engage with police—high achievers who Edelstein labels “mentally abnormal.” The inclusion of Freudian terminology and the operationalization of unscientific language led offenders to be called “bloodstained,” “monsters,” and “beasts of prey” with “sick psyches” whose “compulsion takes over” and whose “bloodthirst becomes ravenous.” Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are sillily used to illustrate DID, and victims are referred to as punching bags. With its postulated innovations and an overwrought “integrative explanation,” Edelstein exceeds no further in supplanting decades of serial murder research than the original myth perpetuators. While this book is a more than acceptable historical recounting, being mired in the stereotypes it seeks to rectify limits its implications on modern thought.
To Know and Cage the Devil: Policing Serial Murder in the Attention Age
Policing serial murder in today’s Attention Age is aided by vast improvements in forensic tools, surveillance, cellular, and tracking technology, better connected, equipped, and knowledgeable law enforcement organizations, and an informed and vigilant public. But scholars and expert practitioners have made few contributions to understanding and policing modern-day serial murderers. They are instead preoccupied with transforming offenders from the Golden Age (1970-2000) into entertainment and profiting from their reintroduction to a new generation. ‘Pop’ psychologists and pseudo-criminologists inflate the phenomenon’s occurrence to benefit themselves and enhance their own stature through inaccurate and sensationalized descriptions of serial murder. These individuals are not well-versed in the current literature, base ideas on outmoded beliefs, and repeat outdated viewpoints which presents a skewed view of who serial murderers are in the 21st century and leads to unfounded statements. Given chatter of a coming “new wave” of serial murder, this chapter recommends the entertainment industry end the constant barrage of content that distorts the phenomenon, and urges commentators to discontinue references to decades-old research, cease reliance on Golden Age profiles, and use data to produce new empirical research.
The Serial Murder Phenomenon Half a Century On
This chapter examines a phenomenon that has become a cultural feature and source of entertainment – serial murder. Discussed within are promising avenues for research alongside shortcomings in the field. The chapter highlights tensions between academic theories, data, and applied experiences. The trite, old guard serial murder profile remains a mainstay on television programs and podcasts featuring self-proclaimed experts despite important innovations and research initiatives. It is appropriate to ask if our responsibility is to operationalize our beliefs about serial murder no matter the cost or repercussions of promulgating false statements. When our overarching goal is advancing ourselves, we place potential victims at a disadvantage. Serial murder researchers must reverse course and hold ourselves accountable by creating and adhering to an ethical code of conduct when dealing with such a sensitive topic.
Killer Data: Modern Perspectives on Serial Murder
Killer Data examines the phenomenon of serial murder using data collected from a variety of sources to review offender patterning with a focus on contemporary cases. This type of attention will allow for a broader understanding of modern-day serial murderers and will help to dispel some of the myths that surround offenders. The current serial murder classification scheme incorrectly types serial murderers as supremely intelligent killing machines while discounting their socialization, experiences, and choices. This book exposes serial murderers as run-of-the-mill hometown losers, who brutalize women, and are lucky to escape apprehension. Like other atypical homicide offenders, modern-day serial murderers are propelled forward by a deep sense of entitlement, easy access to firearms, and a nonchalant attitude toward using murder to attain their goals. Readers should come away with a deeper understanding not of the ultra- rare or “deadliest” serial murderers but of the more common offenders who pose a consistent threat to day-to-day life. The book utilizes the Consolidated Serial Homicide Offender Database, one of the largest and most robust open access databases of multiple murders available, presenting new thinking on areas such as:
• myths and stereotypes
• the impact of entertainment on the perception of serial murder
• inaccurate prevalence estimates
• spree/ serial hybrid offenders
• the classification of two and three victim serial murderers
• how serial murderers pursue longevity
• the characteristics of aspiring serial murderers
• whether hit men and gang members are serial murderers
• if and why serial murder is in a state of decline
• how many serial murderers are responsible for the homicides that sent innocent people to prison
• luck as a factor of “success” for serial murderers.
These findings are illustrated with 210 narrative vignettes of serial murder series that occurred between 2011 and 2021, such as Itzcoatl Ocampo, Charles Severance, Nikko Jenkins, and Pamela Hupp, offenders who may be unfamiliar to many but represent the next iteration of the serial murderer. Correcting decades of flawed assumptions about serial murderers, and written in an accessible and concise style, Killer Data is essential reading for students and scholars of criminal justice and criminology, law enforcement professionals, and the interested general reader.
Summary of Co-Authored Manuscripts
Serial sexual murder by juveniles and the role of sexual sadism: An international study
This is a descriptive study of 21 cases of serial sexual murder by children and adolescents spanning nearly the past century and a half. No earlier cases worldwide were identified. Each of these youth committed two or more sexual homicides prior to age 18. Their psychopathological, psychosocial, crime scene behaviors, and offender–victim relationship characteristics are presented. Additionally, the role of sexual sadism and its measurement using the SADSEX-SH rating scale is addressed. Nearly all of the sample had conduct disorder, a paraphilic disorder, and sadistic fantasies, and two-thirds had sexual sadism disorder. Family dysfunction, serious school problems, and average or above IQ levels were typical. Their modus operandi generally reflected predatory behavior and direct contact methods of killing were most common. Two case reports are provided to illustrate the breadth and complexity of these offenders. Juvenile Serial Sexual Homicide is an extremely rare but persistent phenomenon. Prognostic implications and future research directions are discussed.
Evaluating the Dispersion Strategies Used to Locate Serial Homicide Offenders
Spatial analysis has long been a valuable tool within the criminal investigation process. The aim of the present research is to analyze three dispersion distribution strategies and to build a geographic profile model on the base of set theory that can determine a reference area where the search for the anchor point of a serial homicide offender (SHO) can begin. In the present study, models of circular profiles with variable distance and ellipticals generated for 84 SHOs were tested. In general, the present study found that the elliptical model performed better than the circular models, most likely due to the larger area of the ellipses. When considering police utility purposes, circular models may perform more efficiently.
One ‘two’ many: An examination of solo perpetrator vs. team perpetrator serial homicides
The current study examines the offender, victim, and crime characteristics between solo perpetrators and team perpetrators of serial homicide. Cases on 1,137 solo perpetrators and 254 team perpetrators were collected from the Consolidated Serial Homicide Offender Database. Results showed team perpetrators were more likely to be older than those who committed serial homicides alone. Offenders who never confessed their crimes were less likely to participate in teams. In terms of victim and crime characteristics, team perpetrators were more likely to target employees or customers, have a lower victim count, and were more likely to exhibit sadistic behaviors compared to solo perpetrators.
Survival of the Recidivistic? Revealing Factors Associated to the Length of Multiple Homicide Offenders' Criminal Careers
Relying on a sample of 1,381 US-based multiple homicide offenders (MHOs), we study the duration of the careers of this extremely violent category of offenders through Kaplan–Meier estimation and Cox Proportional Hazard regression. We investigate the characteristics of such careers in terms of length and we provide an inferential analysis investigating correlates of career duration. The models indicate that MHOs employing multiple methods, younger MHOs and MHOs that acted in more than one US state have higher odds of longer careers. When controlling for career-based attributes, female MHOs are also correlated with longer careers.
Hierarchical cluster analysis of the behavioral patterns of serial violent offenders
During the development of bolshevistic doctrine in criminal’s personality and behavior in USSR/Russia, some tough problems and contradictions arose in the field of criminological (criminal-anthropological) approaches to the analysis of patterns and modus operandi elements of violent offenders. In the article the authors attempt to generalize the causes of mentioned methodological inconsistencies. Also, based on the empirical material represented in Consolidated Serial Homicide Offender Database, using the methods of hierarchical cluster analysis, the authors prove the existence both of structure of modus operandi elements and a number of neuropsychological patterns of serial behavior killers. Moreover, a connection is established between traumatic stress exposure, forms of maltreatment of the subject of crimes in childhood and modus operandi elements.
The Math of Serial Murder: Understanding Victim Numbers and Series Duration
This study addresses the complex task of determining the level of danger posed by serial killers in a murder series by introducing the Lambda (l - rate of killings) to adjust for the time span in a murder series. It focuses on examining factors related to the offender and the crime-commission process that influence victim count in a series. Generalized estimating equations with a negative binomial and a gamma log link function were used to examine factors predicting victim count in a sample of 1,376 serial murder cases. Results showed that offender criminal history did not predict higher levels of dangerousness when assessing victim count alone, but did predict a lower l value when series length was accounted for. Killing methods were also significant predictors of a higher l but were less useful when only number of victims was considered. Findings highlight the importance of the rate of killings along with total victim count for a more comprehensive understanding of dangerousness and operational tempo. This approach has implications for law enforcement and criminal profiling as it offers a more detailed perspective on the immediate threat posed by serial killers.
Violence is Rare in Autism: When it Does Occur, is it Sometimes Extreme?
A small body of literature has suggested that, rather than being more likely to engage in offending or violent behavior, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may actually have an increased risk of being the victim rather than the perpetrator of violence (Sobsey, Wells, Lucardie, & Mansell, 1995). There is no evidence that people with ASD are more violent than those without ASD (Im, 2016). There is nevertheless a small subgroup of individuals with ASD who exhibit violent offending behaviors and our previous work has suggested that other factors, such as adverse childhood experiences, might be important in this subgroup (Allely, Minnis, Thompson, Wilson, & Gillberg, 2014). Fitzgerald (2015) highlights that school shootings and mass killings are not uncommonly carried out by individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, with frequent evidence of warning indicators. The aim of the present review is to investigate this in more detail using the 73 mass shooting events identified by Mother Jones in their database for potential ASD features. There are 73 mass shooting events but there are two events where there is a pair of shooters which meant that 75 mass shooter cases were investigated. This exercise tentatively suggests evidence of ASD in six of 75 included cases (8%) which is about eight times higher when compared to the prevalence of ASD found in the general population worldwide. The 8% figure for individuals with ASD involved mass killings is a conservative estimate. In addition to the six cases which provide the 8% figure, there were 16 other cases with some indication of ASD. Crucially, ASD may influence, but does not cause, an individual to commit extreme violent acts such as a mass shooting episode.
Using Behavior Sequence Analysis to Map Serial Killers’ Life Histories
The aim of the current research was to provide a novel method for mapping the developmental sequences of serial killers’ life histories. An in-depth biographical account of serial killers’ lives, from birth through to conviction, was gained and analyzed using Behavior Sequence Analysis. The analyses highlight similarities in behavioral events across the serial killers’ lives, indicating not only which risk factors occur, but the temporal order of these factors. Results focused on early childhood environment, indicating the role of parental abuse; behaviors and events surrounding criminal histories of serial killers, showing that many had previous convictions and were known to police for other crimes; behaviors surrounding their murders, highlighting differences in victim choice and modus operandi; and, finally, trial pleas and convictions. The present research, therefore, provides a novel approach to synthesizing large volumes of data on criminals and presenting results in accessible, understandable outcomes.
A Behaviour Sequence Analysis of Serial Killers’ Lives: From Childhood Abuse to Methods of Murder
The aim of the current research was to provide a new method for mapping the developmental sequences of serial killers’ life histories. The role of early childhood abuse, leading to types of serial murder and behaviors involved in the murders, was analyzed using Behavioral Sequence Analysis. A large database (n = 233) of male serial killers with known childhood abuse (physical, sexual, or psychological) was analyzed according to typologies and crime scene behaviors. Behavior Sequence Analysis was used to show significant links between behaviors and events across their lifetime. Sexual, physical, and psychological abuse often led to distinct crime scene behaviors. The results provide individual accounts of abuse types and behaviors. The present research highlights the importance of childhood abuse as a risk factor for serial killers’ behaviors, and provides a novel and important advance in profiling serial killers and understanding the sequential progression of their life histories.