Killer Data

Killer Data examines the phenomenon of serial murder using data collected from a variety of sources to examine serial homicide offender (SHO) patterning, focusing on contemporary cases. This allows for a broader understanding of serial homicide and dispels some of the myths around offenders. The current serial murder classification scheme incorrectly types serial killers as supremely intelligent killing machines while discounting their socialization, experiences, and choices. This book exposes them as run-of-the-mill hometown losers, brutalizers of women, lucky to escape apprehension, and propelled forward by a deep sense of entitlement, easy access to firearms, and a nonchalant attitude toward using murder to attain their goals. Readers should come away with a deeper understanding not of the ultra-rare deadliest" offenders but of the more common murderers who pose a consistent threat to day-to-day life. The book utilizes the Consolidated Serial Homicide Offender Database, one of the largest and most robust open access databases of multiple murders available, presenting new thinking on areas such as: myths and stereotypes the impact of entertainment on the perception of SHOs inaccurate prevalence estimates spree/serial hybrid offenders the classification of two and three victim SHOs how SHOs pursue longevity the characteristics of aspiring SHOs whether hitmen and gang members are SHOs if and why serial homicide is in a state of decline how many SHOs are responsible for the homicides that sent innocent people to prison luck as a factor of 'success' for SHOs These findings are illustrated with 210 narrative vignettes of SHO's series that occurred between 2011 and 2021, such as Itzcoatl Ocampo, Charles Severance, Nikko Jenkins, and Pamela Hupp, offenders that may be unfamiliar to many but represent the next iteration of serial murder. Correcting decades of flawed assumptions about serial killers, and written in an accessible and concise style, Killer Data is essential reading for students and scholars of criminal justice and criminology, law enforcement professionals, and the interested general reader"--