The reality concerning the gender of serial killers is quite different than the mythology of it. Although there have been many more male serial killers than females throughout history, the presence of female serial killers is well documented in the crime data. In fact, approximately 17 percent of all serial homicides in the U.
Therefore, relative to men, women represent a larger percentage of serial murders than all other homicide cases in the U. This is an important and revealing fact that defies the popular understanding of serial murder. Reality: Contrary to popular mythology, not all serial killers are white. Serial killers span all racial and ethnic groups in the U. The racial diversity of serial killers generally mirrors that of the overall U.
African-Americans comprise the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total.
Significantly, however, only white, and normally male, serial killers such as Ted Bundy become popular culture icons. Real-life serial killers are not the isolated monsters of fiction and, frequently, they do not appear to be strange or stand out from the public in any meaningful way. Many serial killers are able to successfully hide out in plain sight for extended periods of time. Those who successfully blend in are typically also employed, have families and homes and outwardly appear to be non-threatening, normal members of society.
Because serial killers can appear to be so innocuous, they are often overlooked by law enforcement officials, as well as their own families and peers. In some rare cases, an unidentified serial killer will even socialize and become friendly with the unsuspecting police detectives who are tracking him. Serial killers who hide out in plain sight are able to do so precisely because they look just like everyone else.
It is their ability to blend in that makes them very dangerous, frightening and yet very compelling to the general public. Reality: The roaming, homicidal maniac such as Freddy Krueger in the cult film A Nightmare on Elm Street is another entertainment media stereotype that is rarely found in real life.
Among the most infamous serial killers, Ted Bundy is the rare exception who traveled and killed interstate. Bundy twice escaped from police custody and committed at least thirty homicides in the states of Washington, Utah, Florida, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and California. Articulate, educated, well-groomed and charming, Bundy was truly atypical among serial killers in his cross-country killing rampage.
Unlike Bundy, most serial killers have very well defined geographic areas of operation. They typically have a comfort zone—that is, an area that they are intimately familiar with and where they like to stalk and kill their prey.
Jack the Ripper provides the classic example of this geographic preference because he stalked and killed exclusively in the small Whitechapel district of London in the fall of The comfort zone of a serial killer is often defined by an anchor point such as a place of residence or employment. Crime statistics reveal that serial killers are most likely to commit their first murder very close to their place of residence due to the comfort and familiarity it offers them.
Serial killers sometimes return to commit murder in an area they know well from the past such as the community in which they were raised. Over time, serial murderers may extend their activities outside of their comfort zone but only after building their confidence by executing several successful murders while avoiding detection by law enforcement authorities.
As noted by the FBI in its report on serial murder, the crime data reveal that very few serial predators actually travel interstate to kill. The major difference between these individuals who kill serially and other serial murderers is the nature of their traveling lifestyle which provides them with many zones of comfort in which to operate.
Most serial killers do not have such opportunities to travel and keep their killings close to home. Reality: The images presented in the news and entertainment media suggest that serial killers either have a debilitating mental illness such as psychosis or they are brilliant but demented geniuses like Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Neither of these two stereotypes is quite accurate. Instead, serial killers are much more likely to exhibit antisocial personality disorders such as sociopathy or psychopathy, which are not considered to be mental illnesses by the American Psychiatric Association APA.
An examination of psychopathy and sociopathy, and a discussion of the powerful connection between antisocial personality disorders and serial homicide is presented in chapter 4.
In fact, very few serial killers suffer from any mental illness to such a debilitating extent that they are considered to be insane by the criminal justice system. To be classified as legally insane, an individual must be unable to comprehend that an action is against the law at the exact moment the action is undertaken.
In other words, a serial killer must be unaware that murder is legally wrong while committing the act of murder in order to be legally insane. This legal categorization of insanity is so stringent and narrow that very few serial killers are actually included in it. Psychopathic serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy and Dennis Rader are entirely aware of the illegality of murder while they are in the process of killing their victims. Their understanding of right and wrong does nothing to impede their crimes, however, because psychopaths such as Gacy and Rader have an overwhelming desire and compulsion to kill that causes them to ignore the criminal law with impunity.
When they are apprehended, serial killers rarely are determined to be mentally incompetent to stand trial and their lawyers rarely utilize an insanity defense on their behalf. Once again, this is due to the extremely narrow legal definition of insanity which simply does not apply to most psychopathic killers.
Even David Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam, who told his captors tales of satanic rituals and demonic possession, was found to be competent to stand trial for his murders following his arrest in Fact : If you are under 40 , on average you are safer now than you have ever been.
Myth 2 : Suburbs are safer than cities. Fact : True, on average, but the trend is better for cities than suburbs. At the peak of the crime wave in , there were homicides in Prince George's County and in Washington, D. Last year, there were 82 homicides in PG down 40 percent and 82 in D. Myth 3 : Criminal investigators have enormous data systems at their fingertips that track virtually everything about all of us.
Fact : Police do have access to lots of data, but typically use it to find a known suspect rather than identify an unknown suspect. Myth 4 : Forensic examiners CSIs investigate crimes, carry weapons, and can process complex crimes in minutes. Fact : The typical piece of DNA collected from a crime scene takes months to process if it is at all and the civilian processing it is not aware of the facts of the crime.
Myth 5 : Most crimes are solved by fingerprints and DNA. Fact : Less than 1 percent of all serious crimes are solved by DNA, and fingerprints do only slightly better. Myth 6 : Fingerprints can definitively match a person to a crime scene. Myth 7 : There is an epidemic of children being kidnapped from their homes in the dead of night. Fact : The FBI estimates that in a total of children were kidnapped by strangers. A child is more than five times more likely to drown than be kidnapped.
Myth 9 : Serial killers account for many murder victims. Fact : Out of almost 15, homicides in , perhaps 1 percent were victims of a serial killer, while four times as many were victims of infanticide.
Myth 10 : There are a lot of adolescent predators on the loose. Fact : At any given time, there are very few juveniles whose behavior has warranted a placement in secure confinement.
In New York City, on any given day there are only about youth in secure confinement. Crime scene photo from Shutterstock.
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