DDT - Deambulações DeMentes Teóricas 57

The Serial Killer - Part XXXVII

Some statistics, before we go to the juicy parts:

The serial killer is a recidivist of murder. Usually one is considered a serial killer after committing more than 3 murders.

Until the beginning of the 80’s multiple homicides were classified as “mass murders”, whithout any distinction between, for example, Albert DeSalvo, the “Boston Strangler” or Charles Whitman, who shot 16 people with a rifle in Austin, Texas.

Currently there is a fine distinction between three kinds of violent murders:

Mass murder – Four or more victims in the same place triggered by the same reason

Spree killer – Murders in different places in a very short period of time. The murders are triggered by a single event and its succession may extend for a certain amount of time

Serial killer – Three or more distinct events, with a time lapse between them. During those events, the serial killer might kill several victims at the same time

Like a true predator, the serial killer chooses his victims. He believes he will never be captured and sometimes he is right. A serial killer controls events, unlike the spree killer, who does not dominate the situation he himself created. Sometimes a serial killer may become a spree killer, when he feels the police identified and is after him.

There are no official statistics regarding serial killing, except for a map designed by the FBI in the 90’s which regards the period between 1977 and 1989. It indicates 112 mass murderers, 169 serial murderers and 50 spree murderers. This number is, of course, below the average, since we may suppose that many isolated murders have not been identified as belonging to a series.

Officially the number of serial killers opperating currently in the USA, for example, is according to the FBI of 35 to 100. Between 1900 and 1960 the police uncovered an average of 1.7 cases of serial killers every year. At the end of the 60’s 5 new cases per year. In the 70’s 14 cases per year. In the 80’s 2 new cases every month, which adds to 24 cases a year. Since then, the number has increased to 36 new cases a year.

65% of serial killer’s victims are women

35% of victims are men (in other types of crimes it goes up to 78%)

65% are inter-racial murders

89% of the victims are white, 10% are black and 1% belong to other ethnic groups

83% of serial killers are white, 17% are black and oriental are very rare

89% of serial killers are male and 11% female

The serial killer prefers contact with his victim, which makes him fonder of knives, strangling and hitting objects. As he kills in many different occasions, he might change his method several times and that is particularly true of the psychotic who doesn’t premeditate the crime and improvises in the crime scene. Female serial killers are usually less violent than men, preferring poison in 45% of cases, the choice weapon for “black widows” and “death nurses”.

The serial killer is a young man. The average age is 27,27 at the moment of his first crime and 31,44 at the moment of his last crime. He kills in a specific territory, a city or state, close to his home in 63% of cases, and in any part of the country in 29% of the cases. He also kills in his home or place of work in 8% of the cases.