Sunday, October 1, 2017

What are Serial Killers?



A Serial Killer is a person who commits a series murders of at least two people and or two separate murders over a period of time ranging from hours to years. The definition for serial killers have changed over the years. As it used to be defined by the FBI as four different events separated by a cooling-off period. By the 90's it was lowered to 3, but thus did still exclude those who were caught before continue murdering.

Serial killers aren't a new thing, they've been around since the beginning of time. It's a popular topic among law enforcement, mental health experts, academia, and the general public. It's also been the subject of many shows, movies, books and stories. Many people don't even realize that serial murders take up only 1 percent of  all homicides. Currently there are 35 active serial killers at any given time in the U.S.

There are many myths that come with serial killers.

Serial Killers are loners and a weird.

In reality many serial killers are not loners. Most of them don't appear to be reclusive or to be misfits in their public lives. Some might even seem completely normal and are able to hide in plain site in their communities. They seem so put together that they are often overlooked by Law Enforcement.

For example BTK, or Dennis Rader, was married with two children. He was a boy scout leader, served the U.S. Air Fore, was employed as a local government employee, and was the president of the church. No one had suspected that he had killed 10 victims and sent 16 taunting letters to the news media in a 30 year span in Wichita, Kansas until he was caught.

All Serial Killers are white males.

This is not true as serial killers are of all races and sexes. The diversity of serial killers correlates to the races of population. Women are not immune from being serial killers either. 52. 21% of Serial killers are White, 40.3% are Black, 6.1% are Hispanic, 0.7% is Asian, and 0.8% is Native American. 90.8% are men and 9.2% are women.

Charles Ng is an Asian serial killer and was a native of Hong Kong, China before becoming a serial killer in Northern California with Robert Lake.

Derrik Todd Lee is an African American male who killed at least 6 women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Rory Conde,a Colombian native was a Hispanic serial killer who killed 6 prostitutes in Miami, Florida.

Nannie Doss was a female serial killer who poisoned 11 people between the 1920's to 1954.

Serial Killers are only motivated by sex.

This is a big reason for 46. 11% (including thrill, lust and power) of serial killers, but there are other motives. 31.68% did it for financial gain, 8.12% did it for multiple reasons, 7.84% did it out of anger, 3.28% did it for a criminal enterprise, 1.21% did it to avoid arrest, .62% did it for attention, .73% did it for convenience, .41% did it due to a hallucination, and .21% did it due to a Cult.

Amy Archer- Gilligan killed many of her boarders after they named her  in their life insurance. Between 1911 to 1916 she killed at least 48 people.

Serial Killers travel and operate on interstate. 

Serial killers have defined comfort areas that they kill within or at. Once in while they will kill outside of their comfort zone after they built their confidence. Many of them do not include them traveling on interstate to kill.

All Serial Killers are insane and or evil geniuses. 
This is a common misconception as many of them do have personality disorders, but are not considered insane. The intelectual levels of serial killers also vary from below average to above average levels.

Serial Killers want to get caught.

Serial killers committing their first crime/murder are inexperienced and then learn to develop their skills and get better at not being caught. It isn't until they get too confident that it is their down fall. As in they begin taking short cuts and or have the mind set that they won't get caught.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/serial-murder
http://www.statisticbrain.com/serial-killer-statistics-and-demographics/
https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder

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