NCJ Number
94614
Date Published
1983
Length
69 pages
Annotation
Witnesses provide information on the nature of serial murders, the profile and methods of serial murderers, and the need for a national information system that will contain the information required to connect serial murders committed in different States to the same murderer so as to permit the effective coordination of law enforcement efforts.
Abstract
Testimony is presented by Federal legislators, a former policewoman and author who has investigated and written extensively on serial murders and murderers, the unit chief of the Behavioral Science Unit of the Training Division of the FBI Academy, the father of a victim of a serial murderer (John Walsh), and the author of the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VI-CAP). The criminal method of the serial murderer is said to consist of the killing of victims with similar profiles using similar methods in sequence and often in widely separated geographic areas. The profile of the serial murderer is that of a male of normal and often superior intelligence who has had a troubled childhood that produced a fixated and obsessive hostility toward persons with particular physical characteristics. All of the witnesses support the nationwide development and use of VI-CAP, which will act as a centralized computer information center and crime analysis system designed to collect, collate, and analyze all aspects of the investigation of similar pattern multiple murders on a nationwide basis and regardless of location and number of police agencies involved. Agencies involved in the investigation of similar pattern murders will be notified so they can coordinate their investigations. The material provided includes discussions of the profiling of offenders.