Despite public fascination with, and interest in, the serial murder phenomenon, little research on this topic has been undertaken in Australia. High profile cases such as the backpacker murders in New South Wales and Snowtown murders in South Australia serve to heighten the public's awareness, and perhaps overstate the threat, of serial murder in Australia. Building on earlier research undertaken at the Australian Institute of Criminology, this study aims to examine the circumstances and characteristics of serial murders that have occurred in Australia since the inception of the National Homicide Monitoring Program in July 1989. Results show that between July 1989 and June 2006, there were 11 groupings of serial murders identified in the NHMP, committed by 13 known serial murder offenders, with a total of 52 known victims. This represents one percent of the total number of homicides in Australia over a 17 year period. The paper reports on the characteristics of offenders and victims, including the offenders' modus operandi. The analysis found that the profile of serial murder in Australia is similar to that found in international research. In at least two of the groups of serial murders the victims had been reported as missing to police. It is important to note that the paper reports on known homicides. The paper suggests that further research on the profile of long term missing persons and serial murder victims should be undertaken as well as exploring offenders who commit multiple murders on separate occasions, to identify what prevented them (apart from law enforcement intervention) from committing additional murders.

When we think of serial killing, we tend to think of it as a perversion of contemporary society. The Human Predator makes an eye-opening case for the existence of serial killers throughout time—the motives and methods, the societies that spawned them, and the historical periods in which they lived . . . and killed. From Ancient Rome and the Dark Ages to the open roads of America, from the exploits of French religious zealot Gilles de Rais to such high-profile monsters as Jeffrey Dahmer and Aileen Wuornos, Katherine Ramsland offers a complete chronological record of the serial-killer phenomenon—and the parallel development of psychology, forensic science, and FBI profiling in the serial killer’s evolving manifestation throughout human history. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

This book brings together an international collection of research literature on the topics of criminal profiling and serial violent crime by integrating the respected insights of both scholars and practitioners from around the globe. It explains etiological factors and psychological mechanisms to reveal criminal motives.

This book reframes the study of multicide (that is, serial and mass murder) to use objective measures, and aims to expand our understanding of multicide offending through descriptive and inferential statistical analyses of different homicide patterns of the offenders. Criminal homicide and multiple murders are rare occurrences that typically account for a very small percentage of all violent crimes in most countries. Despite this low occurrence, homicide continues to be an area of intense study, with a focus on subjective measures and classifications. The research and analysis based on a database of over 1,300 cases contributes to the criminological study of violence and draws distinctions between the types of offenders (partnered and solo, serial and mass, male and female, etc.) from a range of different countries and across decades. Traditionally, studies of homicide focus on male offenders and theories of offending are then applied to females and co-offenders. The research presented in this book reveals that women and partnered offenders have very different homicide patterns from men. Looking at the history of multicide offending, this book uses descriptive and inferential statistical analyses to directly compare differences in offending and outcome patterns across multicide offender types. This exploration of the multidimensionality of homicide at an international level is useful for scholars and students interested in criminal justice, criminology, psychology, sociology, or law.

This report examines the nature of contract killings in Australia, with specific attention on documenting its incidence, the level of police intervention in its prevention, differences between successful and attempted contract killings and the various types of contract killings in Australia.

This book provides an integrative and jargon-free understanding of the phenomenon of sexual serial killing to a wide readership.

This book explores the representation of real-life serial murders as adapted for the screen and popular culture. Bringing together a selection of essays from international scholars, Serial Killing on Screen: Adaptation, True Crime and Popular Culture examines the ways in which the screen has become a crucial site through which the most troubling of real-life crimes are represented, (re)constructed and made accessible to the public. Situated at the nexus of film and screen studies, theatre studies, cultural studies, criminology and sociology, this interdisciplinary collection raises questions about, and implications for, thinking about the adaptation and representation of true crime in popular culture, and the ideologies at stake in such narratives. It discusses the ways in which the adaptation of real-life serial murder intersects with other markers of cultural identity (gender, race, class, disability), as well as aspects of criminology (offenders, victims, policing, and profiling) and psychology (psychopathy, sociopathy, and paraphilia). This collection is unique in its combined focus on the adaptation of crimes committed by real-life criminal figures who have gained international notoriety for their plural offences, including, for example, Ted Bundy, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Aileen Wuornos, Jack the Ripper, and the Zodiac, and for situating the tales of these crimes and their victims’ stories within the field of adaptation studies.