NCJ Number
191356
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Dated: 2001 Pages: 294-297
Date Published
2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article examines studies of serial homicide to determine whether it is increasing and compares it to trends in contract murder.
Abstract
Homicides with unknown motives (i.e., the motivation for the murder is uncertain and does not fit into any of the categories used by the Uniform Crime Reports) have increased significantly for several decades. In 1976, 8.5 percent of murders were committed for unknown motives; in 1981 this figure increased to 17.8 percent, in 1984 to 22.1 percent, and in 1986 to 22.5 percent. In 1990 and 1998, the number of murders committed for unknown motives increased to 38 percent. The researchers cited in this article reason that serial killings often appear to be motiveless; therefore, the number of serial homicides has increased. The conclusion that declining clearance rates for homicide indicate an increase in serial homicide is not warranted on the basis of these data alone, since the clearance rates for other violent crimes have also decreased. Moreover, if serial homicides were increasing, there should be a proportionate increase in the number of female murder victims, since serial murderers are overwhelmingly men who kill women. This is not the case, however; the overall percentage of female homicide victims has actually decreased according to crime-victim data. On the other hand, contract murder may be increasing and could explain some of the striking changes in the homicide rates over the past 40 years. Social changes over the past 40 years, particularly the increase in drug use and related criminal activity, could, at least in principle, account for a possible increase in contract murder. There must be a concerted effort to study contract murder, an offense about which little is known but which appears to be having a significant impact on society. 41 references