Serial Murderer
A Killer that kills over time. Work in confines a city or state. May even travel from state to state. has killed three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time (a "cooling off period") between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification.
Mass Murderer
Murders a large number of people (four or more), typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders.Happens in single location.
Spree Killer
Someone who embarks on a fatal assault on two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders".
Mass Murderer Classifications
Family Slayer or Annihilator�a person who kills his family and commits suicide.
Murderer for Profit�a person who kills in order to profit materially. May kill their family or other groups of people such as coworkers or friends.
Murderer for Sex�a person with the primary goal to sexually torture, rape, and murder the victims; a comparatively rare typology. Richard Speck forced his way into a nurse's residence and raped and tortured eight nurses to death
Pseudo-Commando�a person with an obsession for guns and a fantasy for murder. James Huberty walked into a McDonald's restaurant, shot 21 people to death, and wounded another 19 victims.
San Antonio Symposium
FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit at NCAVC hosted a conference with 150 experts in psychiatry, forensic psychology, law, criminal investigation, and behavioral analysis to help create a working definition of serial murder.
Media/Hollywood Myths
Myth;Fact
1. They are nearly all white;One in five serial killers is black.
2. They are all male;Nearly 17% are female.
3. They are insane;Insanity is a legal term. Very few offenders (2%-4%) are legally insane.
4. They are all lust killers;Many are, but several cases do not
involve sexual assaults, torture, or sexual mutilations.
5. They kill dozens of victims;A few have high body counts but
most kill under 10 victims.
6. They kill alone;About one in four have one or more partners in murder.
7. Victims are beaten, stabbed,strangled, or tortured to death.;Some victims are poisoned or shot.
8. They are all very intelligent;Most are of average intelligence.
9. They have high mobility in the U.S.;Most offenders remain in a local area.
10. They are driven to kill because they were sexually abused as Children;Many kill as a result of rejection and abandonment in childhood.
Serial Murderer Typologies
Organized-Average to high intelligence, socially competent and more likely to have skilled employment, may have girlfriends or married and with kids, plans ahead of offense, may socialize with victims, usually 3 sites; where met victim, where kills victim, where disposes of body, follows crime thru media to study and perfect skills. Ted Bundy.
Disorganized-Little or no planning, much less predictable, inability to interact with victim, murder is committed much quicker, usually body is left where murder occurred, usually below average intelligence, may live with guardian or parent, kills near home, victims usually mutilated.
Cults
Groups of people who share intense admiration or adoration of a particular person or principle. A group typically characterized by (1) distinctive ritual and beliefs related to its devotion to a god or a person, (2) isolation from the surrounding "evil" culture, and (3) a charismatic leader.
Occult
Mysterious, magical, supernatural; secret, hidden from view; not detectable by ordinary means; to hide, conceal; eclipse; matters involving the supernatural.
When Good Embraces Evil
When good people become interested in evil people. Young women become interested in killers especially if they're good looking. "Dean Man Walking" Nun tries to help a murderer find God because she thinks it's what God wants her to do.
When Evil Embraces Good
Criminals become interested in doing good after having seen the error of their ways. Tries to do good even if it's from jail.
Biogenic Explanations of Crime
Early thought process of what made a criminal;body type, phrenology. Now such things as chromosome theories, in which criminality has been linked to the existence of an extra chromosome in the genetic constitution of some males.
Franz Gall
Invented phrenology, claimed bumps on the skull could reveal our mental abilities and our character traits
Cesare Lombrosco
Referred to as the "father of criminology," studied physical characteristics of criminals who he believed inherited them from degenerate family types and sometimes tempered by environmental factors.
Phrenology
The idea that there exists a relationship between persons head shape and their mental capacities/deficiencies. this theory was widely used for both intelligence determination and personality assessment in the 1800's. Franz Gall.
Born Criminal
According to Lombroso, a person born with features resembling an earlier, more primitive form of human life, destined to become a criminal.
Allergies, Eco System and Diet
Combination of Eco system and diet influenced criminality. Certain criminals had allergies to certain things that other people are not.
Hormone Research
Belief that different types of hormones and different levels cause criminality. Higher levels of testosterone means more aggression and results in crime. Treatment leads to zero out testosterone in criminals to decrease sexual tendencies and they lose interest in committing crimes.
Chromosome Studies
Studies attempting to link an abnormal number of Y chromosomes (XYY) in men to violent behavior, but findings always remain tenuous.
Neurobiology
The research being conducted on the relations of the function of the brain to the psychological behavior leading to the theory that genes influence a person's personality and mental behavior.
Insanity Rulings
The legal system uses this term to define the state of mind of an offender at the time of the offense, offenders may fall under this category at the moment of the crime and only for that period of time. Less than 1% of all criminal cases use this defense and most of these are unsuccessful. Less than 7% actually win.
Dissociative Disorders
A class of disorders in which people lose contact with portions of their consciousness or memory, resulting in disruptions in their sense of identity.
Sociopath
A person who lacks moral responsibility, such that he cares not for other people or groups and hence becomes a threat or danger to them. , someone with a sociopathic personality. Lack of conscience.
Psychopath
A person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.
Primary Psychopath
Antisocial-aggressive, manipulative, sensation seeking, under-socialized, LACK of anxiety, guilt, or depression. low in all emotions., Primary: A "true" psychopath
Has a score greater than or equal to 30.
Aspergers Disorder
Deficits in social interactions and by restrictive, repetitive, stereotyped interests and behaviors. No language delay.
Problems with social relationships (use of nonverbal gestures). Obsessive and restricted interests
Neurobiology is unknown - under-diagnosed
Social Structure Theory
A person's position in the social structure controls his or her behavior. Those in the lowest socioeconomic tier are more likely to succumb to crime-promoting elements in their environment, whereas those in the highest tier enjoy social and economic advantages that insulate them from crime-producing forces.
Social Class Theory
Examines the status aspiration of serial murders.
Examines power and suggests that females are selected as victims because of their powerlessness.
Serial killers frequently came from working and underclass.
Choose victim from several social standing or lower.
Males victim are picked based on a lower social class and females for their gender.
Social Process Theory
The view that criminality is a function of people's interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society. Crime is learned.
Neutralization Theory
The view that law violators learn to neutralize conventional values and attitudes, enabling them to drift back and forth between criminal and conventional behavior.
Social Control Theory
The view that most people do not violate the law because of their social bonds to family, peer group, school, and other institutions. If these bonds are weakened or absent, they become free to commit crime.
Labeling Theory
The idea that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions. Focuses on how individuals come to be identified as deviant.
The MacDonald Triad
The triad links animal cruelty, obsession with fire setting, and persistent bedwetting past the age of five to violent behaviors, particularly homicidal behavior. J.M. Macdonald
Trauma-Control Model
Traumatizations (unstable home life, death of parents, divorce, corporal punishments, sexual abuse, and other negative events) occur during the formative years of the offender's life and gradually influence that person to kill.
Crime Facilitators
Offenders may immerse themselves in alcohol, drugs, pornography, books on the occult to ease into the criminal act or to alleviate feelings of responsibility. Cannot be definitively called causal factors of crime.
Sex Offender
A person who has committed a sexual act prohibited by law, such as rape, child molestation, or prostitution, for economic, psychological, or situational reasons
Sex Predator
This type of criminal commits multiple sex crimes, preys on multiple victims or multiple counts on a victim over time, frequently has both stranger and/or familial victims, is progressively sexually exploitative, poses a threat to the general community, usually exhibits psychopathic traits, frequently has multiple paraphilias, and is seldom amenable to treatment.
Forms of Paraphilia
Exhibitionism: the recurrent urge or behavior to expose one's genitals to an unsuspecting person, or to perform sexual acts that can be watched by others.
Fetishism: the use of inanimate objects to gain sexual excitement. Partialism refers to fetishes specifically involving nonsexual parts of the body.
Pedophilia: strong sexual attraction to prepubescent children.
Sexual Sadism: the recurrent urge or behavior involving acts in which the pain or humiliation of a person is sexually exciting.
Voyeurism: the recurrent urge or behavior to observe an unsuspecting person who is naked, disrobing, or engaging in sexual activities, or who is engaging in activities usually considered to be of a private nature.
Predatory Paraphilia
A paraphilia in which sexoeroticism hinges on forcibly abducting the sexual partner, irrevocably defiling the relationship.
Attack Paraphilia
Sexual violence involving others, including children.
Relational Paraphilia Attachment
Non-consensual sexual relationships that are borne in fantasy and explored in sexually deviant behaviors. Developed through fantasy and acted out in paraphilic behaviors.
Serial Rapist Typologies
Date rapist, gang rapist, marital rapist, incestual rapist, child sexual abuser, prison rapist, acquaintance rapist, war rapist and statutory rapist.
Lust Killers
Erotophonophilia, sexually sadistic murder involving sexual arousal and gratification as part of the killing
Seek out strangers for victims
Generally target prostitutes, hitchhikers, or students, sometimes nurses, models, or waitresses
Experience a degree of sexual arousal and gratification but sex is not primary motivation.
Genuine Necrophile
Persons who have persistent urges to have sex with corpses. Usually either have just have the fantasies but make no contact, or actually use corpses for personal sexual gratification. Occasionally will involve killing others in order to obtain bodies for sexual purposes
Pseudo-Necrophile
In most cases sex acts with corpses occur during violent assaults on a living person during a frenzied attack where the victim if often killed brutally. This sex act usually is not the result of prior sexual fantasy or a primary motive for killing.