Serial killer

Serial killers are individuals who, on multiple occasions spread out through time, murder victims who are generally unknown to them beforehand. Their crimes are committed as a result of a compulsion that, in many but not all cases, has roots in the killer's (often dysfunctional) youth, as opposed to those who are motivated by financial gain (e.g., contract killers) or ideological/political motivations (e.g., terrorists). Many times, this compulsion is linked to the individual's sexual drive.

Prevalence

There have been conflicting reports as to the extent of serial murder. The FBI claimed in the 1980s that at any particular time there were roughly thirty-five active serial killers in the United States, meaning that the serial killers in question have committed their first murders but have not yet been apprehended or stopped by other means (e.g., suicide or a natural death).

Related Topics:
FBI - 1980s - United States - Suicide

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This figure has often been exaggerated. In his 1990 book Serial Killers: The Growing Menace, Joel Norris claimed that there were five hundred serial killers active at any one time in the United States, claiming five thousand victims a year, which would be approximately a quarter of known homicides in the country. These statistics are regarded as suspect and unsupported by evidence. Some have argued that those who study or write about serial killers, be they employed in the judicial profession or journalists, have a vested interest in exaggerating the threat of such offenders.

Related Topics:
1990 - Judicial - Journalists

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In terms of reported cases, there appear to be far more serial killers active in developed Western nations than elsewhere. There are several reasons that may contribute to this:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Detection techniques in developed nations are better. Multiple victims of one offender are quickly identified as being linked, so the apprehension of the offender comes quicker than in a nation where the police are generally more underfunded and have fewer resources.
• Developed nations have a highly competitive news media, so cases are reported more quickly.
• The United States and Western Europe have avoided the large-scale, state-sanctioned censorship that news outlets in certain nations have, in which stories related to serial murder have been suppressed. An example of this is the case in Ukraine of serial murderer Andrei Chikatilo, whose activities continued largely unreported and poorly investigated by police in the former Soviet Union due to the idea that only supposedly corrupt capitalistic Western countries bred such killers. After the collapse of the USSR, there were a number of reports of prolific serial killers whose crimes had previously been hidden from the West behind the Iron Curtain.
• Cultural differences could account for a larger number of serial killers, not just a larger number of reported cases.