Addressing the challenges and limitations of utilizing data to study serial homicide

Abstract

Conducting systematic research on serial homicide is complicated by variations in definition, sample size, data sources and collection procedures. This review will identify the challenges of utilizing data to study serial homicide and propose new methods to address these limitations. Almost three decades ago, Kiger (1990) highlighted the limitations of employing then existing data to study the social problem of serial murder and called for the creation of new sources to allow for quantitative assessments that used empirical data. In response, serial homicide researchers – previously operating in ‘information silos’ – contributed information to the ‘Serial Homicide Expertise and Information Sharing Collaborative’ to build a comprehensive record of serial homicide offending in partnership with the ‘Radford/FGCU Serial Killer Database Project’. Providing serial homicide data in an open access format empowers users to increase data reliability by interacting with the information to supply edits and corrections. Statistical evidence generated from the data enables analysts to disprove ingrained myths and stereotypes about serial murderers using valid data. Impaneled experts applied the Modified Delphi Technique and proposed adopting the broad term ‘multiple-event murderer’ to counter some institutionalized definitional differences. The exploration of creating a dashboard to track instances of serial homicide alongside further study of serial offenders committing revenge murders, witness elimination and robbery homicides, organized crime, contract and gang killings is recommended.