| Summary: | <p> Homicides linked to serial killers comprise a small percentage of the total number of murders committed in the United States, as well as overseas; however, there has always been an immense interest in these type of killings due to the mysterious nature of their perpetrators and their motives for killing. This small percentage could be due to the decreased incidence of the mental illnesses usually associated with serial killers (i.e., Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy), and advances in police investigative methods such as DNA matching that have resulted in a higher rate of solved murders, and consequently fewer serial killers still at large. Many theories have been proposed to try to explain why serial killers murder their victims. The most popular of these theories is the organized and disorganized dichotomy of serial killers’ methods. By using this theory and linking it with both Alfred Adler’s (1928) theory of birth order and Michael Kirton’s (1976) adaptor and innovator theory the relationship between a serial killer’s birth order and the types of victims he chooses can be explored. </p>
|
|---|
