Serial killings are not a strange occurrence in most parts of the world although they are minimal and add up to not more than 1% of total murders annually (FBI pr. 32). A serial killer is defined as a person who has killed at least three persons consequently to satisfy personal aims. The murderers are mostly sexually, financially, motivated, or do it to get thrilled or due to anger.
Usually, the murders are similar in form as victims may be from the same sexual or racial backgrounds. The macabre concern regarding the matter is extensive, given attention by not only the law enforcers but also by individual scholars, journalists, through movies, and other aspects. This began during the 1880s due to mysterious series of killings in Whitechapel, London performed by a mysterious person dubbed “Jack the Ripper”.
This continued in the 1990s after cases regarding Green River serial murder, Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgeway who had murdered 48 women in Seattle. BTK, Dennis Rader had killed ten victims in Kansas in the nineteenth century. All these cases have sexual aspects where serial murders killed their victims, who were especially prostitutes after having their sexual encounter (FBI pr. 39).
Law Enforcement Response to Serial Killing
Law enforcement agencies are constantly demanded to handle murders in all nations in the world. Specifically, many homicide cases are usually tragic, particularly ones that involve serial killers. These cases have been constantly studied by scholars as well as law enforcers since Jack Ripper’s cases during 1800, California’s “the Zodiac Killer” and including the most recent sniper murders that occurred in 2002 (Newton 386). Studies have tried to evaluate the cases in relation to the causes, patterns, and effects of serial murders.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has tried to analyze serial murder in relation to profiles through the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and partnering with local and international agencies to curb serial killings through teamwork to achieve their goal. Serial killer cases are critical especially when the media is involved. Investigation of such cases is usually hard and such studies are usually done independently by expatriates and there have been limited efforts for law enforcers and experts to agree on the outcome.
As a result, the FBI has tried to link together the controversial viewpoints regarding serial murders through the establishment of a multi-disciplinary approach in a symposium held in Texas in 2005. This symposium was meant at connecting experts in the field in various specialties to gather enough information regarding serial killers (FBI pr. 22). The expertise incorporates law enforcers for successful apprehension as well as in investigations regarding the matter. Additionally, mental health practitioners, scholars, and other experts such as media personalities and judges made their contributions. Here they discussed the international viewpoint regarding serial killers since experts came from different parts of the globe (FBI pr. 25).
To successfully handle the issue of serial murders, the law officials have gathered knowledge on common myths, forms, forensics, cause, motivation, characteristics, effects, prevalence, media role, prosecution as well as serial killer profiling to allow the criminal justice system to effectively respond to the issue through recognizing, investigating and adjudicating the cases.
The FBI Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) through The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) for instance has acted as an operational aid to the federal, state as well as international agencies to investigate such crimes through behavioral, forensic as well as investigative aspects for law enforcers to be better equipped with the necessary knowledge on serial killers. The legal officers are equipped with descriptive as well as behavioral traits of suspects and offer advice regarding investigative procedures for accurate identification of offenders. NCAVC engages in research to acquire knowledge on criminal thinking, motivations as well as behaviors, where the outcomes are incorporated to become investigative as well as innovative procedures meant to enhance the effectiveness of law enforcers.
Future of Serial Killing
Dr. Richard von Krafft-Ebing was the mastermind to document his research regarding violence, sexual assaults, and consequential crimes. He recorded various case studies, which included serial murders. The law enforcement agencies such as the FBI maintain that there are several serial killers in the United States and they are expected to increase and hit an epidemic proportion with many people losing their lives as a result of serial killers (FBI pr. 25). Serial killers are predicted to be on the rise as the geopolitical world order changes.
The future of serial killing is promising from a legal perspective. The law enforcers have up-geared their efforts to put the vice into halt not only in the United States but also in the other parts of the world. Moreover, the public has increasingly become aware of serial murders. This will be enhanced through the media such as movies, which trigger audience curiosity through portraying serial killings. This captivates the public, which overemphasized the need to be critical about serial killers.
However, most of the information about serial killers in the movies is inaccurate, which results in various misconceptions concerning the matter. Even though the information is based on speculations it creates public awareness of the issue. These speculations may in fact affect the credibility and efficiency of law enforcers in their investigations.
The media enhance related myths such as “serial killers are all dysfunctional loners, are all white males, are only motivated by sex, all serial murderers travel and operate interstate, cannot stop killing, are insane or are evil geniuses, and that they want to get caught” (FBI pr. 15). These are nothing but myths that are spread by movies, based on speculations and not on accurate evidence from experts. The gain of more insight regarding serial murders will prove vital to prosecutors and pathologists as well as crime investigators.
The causality of serial murders is still an unresolved issue but it is thought to be environmental, biological, and social as individuals interact towards them. A person however, might be genetically predisposed and causality is liked to their progress during development. Free will is also crucial in the aspects and dictates the behaviors as serial killer choose their victims keenly and very timely based on their preferences. In future, neurobiologists will be in a position to evaluate the contribution of the nervous system and its interaction with the environment as it is structured in a manner to crave for killings. With the rising cases of drug and substance abuse, child assault cases and social-economic constrains might further result to a rise in serial murders since social coping ways are compromised, causing violence (Newton 25).
The means of killing for serial killers may take forms such as asphyxiating, drowning, strangling, use of torture, hanging or stabbing, which they may improvise to achieve their desires. This may be achieved through methods such as using the internet as in dating sites to search their ideal prey. They may change their targets as well as methods of killing in order to create illusions and hinder their identification.
Although there is no generic template for such an offender, psychopath plays a crucial role. Therefore, physicians should recognize psychopath and offer timely therapeutic measures before individuals become extreme. In identifying such cases, law enforcers should collaborate and network with different investigative agencies locally and internationally in order to be able to face future challenges posed by political system, media and the public. With the increased use of forensic however, extensive media coverage as well as rising crime laboratories, serial killings will decline in future.
With more technological advances in future, there will be accurate investigations and identification of serial killers via innovative processing and ways of gathering evidence. These forensic tests could be compared with database cases of unresolved suspects. The computerized models will be crucial in solving such cases with the now increasing systems e.g. Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) as well as National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network (NIBIN) (FBI pr. 43).
Works Cited
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “Serial.Murder.” Reports and Publications. 2005. Web.
Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. New York: Infobase Publishing. 2006. Print.