Korean J Leg Med.  2020 Feb;44(1):1-6. 10.7580/kjlm.2020.44.1.1.

Defining and Explaining Serial Murders in the United States

• Choo TM
• Choi YS

• KMID: 2471738
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2020.44.1.1

Abstract

Serial murder cases in the United States, due to the fact they are rare in numbers and each case has complex nature of the crime, have presented challenges to law enforcement officers and investigators. Academic scholars also have faced obstacles explaining causes of murder within a specific theoretical framework. A steadily rising number of serial murders in recent years prompted this paper to examine the nature of serial murders and their causes in search of answers to questions of "˜who they are' and "˜why they commit such crimes' Reviewing research studies on serial murder and/or empirical tests of typology of serial murder provided a mixed results and presented a difficulty of classifying serial murders into mutually exclusive categories.

Keyword

Serial murder; Theory of murder; Crime analysis

MeSH Terms

Crime
Homicide*
Humans
Police
Research Personnel
United States*

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