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What Really gets Serial Killers Caught?
The top ten reasons, in order of probability and according to a statistical study.
A serial killer is someone who kills at least three people on separate days and at separate locations with a cooling-off period between victims. This is how a recent study defined the criminal for the purpose of selecting a group of 200 perpetrators to analyse.
The aim of the study was to draw indicative statistics of what actually leads to the capture of serial killers. The study was western-centric and examined serial killers across several decades. There are obvious limitations to the study for these reasons, but the findings remain compelling and fascinating.
The main shock is the small part played by DNA and fingerprinting in identifying a killer. While these elements play an enormous role in securing an arrest, trial and conviction, they rarely pull a name from a database. This seems to be a misrepresentation in fiction and entertainment series such as CSI and Dexter.
Below you’ll find the top ten reasons a serial killer will be identified and apprehended, with a discussion of the first five in more detail.
