Serial Killers

Both James Alan Fox and Jack Levin work at Northeastern University in the field of Criminal Justice and Sociology. These men have put together a survey reviewing the topic of serial killers in the article entitled "Serial Murder: A Survey". This paper will cover the main topics discussed by these two intelligent men.

For starters, media is said to have boosted the fears in human beings when it comes to serial killers. Estimates of victims were made from 3,500 to 5,000 deaths a year. This will sooner or later scar the public to great lengths. From looking at evidence, it was noted that a usual serial killer would take six lives a year. This figure forms about 240 deaths a year in total throughout this country resulting in about 1% of all murders. To some this may seem like "good news".

Next, Fox and Levin look at the profile of a serial killer. It´s a scary thought but most serial killers come off as very ordinary people of society. Mostly white males ranging from the ages of late twenties to thirties and these men can be extremely intelligent and even charming. Though, on the other hand some killers are dropouts of school and could be perceived as ugly individuals. No matter what the type of killer both appear beyond suspicion resulting in a number of difficulties in detecting these people. Some killers may travel a lot from state to state seeking out new victims and others may just stay put in their society ridding of any victims by burying them in their back yards.

What motivates these people to kill so much? Most people think it would be for love or money or even revenge but it usually isn´t any of these things. Serial killers will kill for the fun...