Serial Murder in US

1
Serial Murder in US

• http//www.liveleak.com/view?i85ea652232
• 1970s
• Appearance of sudden serial murder wave
• Ex. Hillside Stranglers (9 victims)
• Post Vietnam/Watergate Era
• Led to several beliefs
• White
• Male
• US
• Recent Phenomenon
• Believed up to 5000 victims/yearly

2
Murder in General

• Murder rate has been declining
• 1987 20,096 8.3
• 1999 15,533 6.0
• Ticked up slightly to about 16000
• Most murders (75) between associates
• Most murders by males against males
• Most murders occur in urban environments and in
  the South
• Motive is usually minor squabble
• http//www.liveleak.com/player.swf?autostarttrue
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3
Why a drop in violent crime?

• Economic improvements
• Lower unemployment
• Increases in police officer recruitment and
  training
• Harsher laws for repeat offenders
• Freakonomics theory
• Obviously controversial
• But rates of mass-killings may be increasing
• True increase or better detection?

4
Attention to Serial Murder

• After 1980s sudden skyrocket in attention to
  serial murder
• Movies and books
• Silence of the Lambs, Seven, etc
• Social Constructivist arguments
• But serial murder
• Occurs in all countries
• Probably has not changed in rate over time

5
Homicide

• Taking of human life by another human
• Includes
• Accidents
• Vehicular homicide
• Self-defense
• Executions
• Negligence
• Manslaughter
• 2nd degree murder
• 1st (i.e. capital) degree murder
• Felony murder (committed during another crime)

6
Special Circumstances

• 1st degree murders that qualify for death penalty
• Killing of police officer/judge/prosecutor/witness
  
• Use of torture
• Hate crimes
• Multiple murders
• Use of poison
• Most death row inmates never executed

7
Defining Mass Murder

• Mass Murder and Serial Murder often used
  interchangeably by media
• Both require death of 3 victims
• Mass murder occurs in single incident
• Otherwise motives differ
• reaction to stress and depression
• Serial murderers kill for amusement
• loss of social support
• Serial murderers typically have intact social
  networks
• disinterest in own survival
• Serial murderers do NOT intent to be
  caught/punished
• Little desire to torture victims
• Serial murderers typically enjoy watching victims
  suffer

8
Personalities of Mass Murderers

• Long histories of aggression and non-compliance
• domestic violence
• discharge from military
• Have difficulty fitting in well with others, due
  to bullying and view of self as victim
• Problems with authority
• Lack of coping skills for dealing with depression
• View self as unfairly treated by others
• typically are incompetent in some realm, social
  or occupational
• blame others for problems
• View violence as only means to reassert control
• History of problems with depression and
  alcoholism

9
Sulejman Talovic

• Feb 12, 2007
• Utah Mall
• 5 dead, 4 wounded
• Killed by police
• Motive unknown
• Bosnian war survivor
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vtXIY5UUoye8

10
Spree-Murder

• Similar in most ways to mass murder
• 3 victims
• reaction to stress, social isolation
• paranoid ideation and depression
• However, killing occur over protracted time, not
  one incident
• See own stress as license to break with societal
  norms regarding murder
• Begin to view murder as stress-relief
• Do try to get away
• Little effort to hide own identity however

11
Other Rule Outs

• From Ferguson, White, Cherry, Lorenz, Bhimani,
  (2003)
• Serial Murderers are not
• Terrorists
• Professional Killers
• Difference is in motive
• Profit, politics and pleasure
• Murder by serial murderers is typically hidden or
  unsanctioned

12
Our Definition

• Three or more victims killed during multiple and
  discrete events.
• Causing death to the victim, at the time of the
  killing, was considered to be pleasurable, stress
  relieving or otherwise consistent with the
  perpetrators internal set of values. The attacks
  themselves did not fulfill only functional
  purposes.
• The murders did not occur under the discretion or
  blessing of any political or criminal
  organization.

13
Serial Murder distinctions

• FBI (Ressler et al., 1988)
• Organized versus disorganized
• Holmes DeBurger (1988)
• Visionary schizophrenic
• Mission-Oriented
• Hedonistic
• Pleasure focused
• Lust murderers
• Power/Control
• Enjoy watching fear in victims