Does the Number of Victims Matter in Defining Serial Murder? An Analysis of Homicide Behavioral Characteristics in US Cases from 1985–2016

ABSTRACT

Historically, definitions of serial murder in the academic and professional literature vary, sometimes considerably, based on numbers of victims, offender intent, and presence or absence of a psychological “cooling-off period.” To date, an agreed upon definition remains elusive. This study uses a multinomial regression analysis to examine important homicidal behavioral characteristics of serial killers (N = 1,258) in the US concerning offenders who killed two victims compared to counterparts who murdered three, four or five, and six or more victims, respectively. Important case characteristics between categories are observed and discussed. Findings support definitional recommendations that include a minimum victim threshold of three.

KEYWORDS:

• Homicide
• serial murder
• serial killing
• victimization
• classification

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Drs Lin Huff-Corzine, Jay Corzine, and Amy Reckdenwald (University of Central Florida) and Dr Eric Hickey (Walden University, Alliant University, and California State University at Fresno) for their assistance, support, and valuable feedback pertaining to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.