The FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP), based in Quantico, Va., released the data at the request of Scripps Howard News Service. FBI agent Mark Hilts, head of the bureau's Behavioral Analysis Unit No. 2 that profiles serial killers, said a large number of serial killers act with a sexual motive.
''Sex can be a motivation, but it's a motivation in conjunction with anger, power, control,'' Hilts said. ''Most serial killers derive satisfaction from the act of killing, and that's what differentiates them'' from those who kill to help commit or conceal another crime. The Justice Department defines a serial killer simply as someone who kills two or more people in separate incidents. The FBI has been compiling victim data for 25 years. It also released information showing that nearly half of the victims of known serial homicides were in their 20s and 30s, although people of every age and from every region of the country have been victims. ''We look at homicides and attempted homicides. We look at sexual assaults. We look at unidentified human remains cases where homicide is suspected," said special agent Michael Harrigan, who headed ViCAP from 2007 to 2010 and agreed to release the data. ''We catalog this in a database ... to try to identify serial killers or serial offenders that transcend jurisdictional boundaries.'' New York leads in a grim statistic: It has had 137 victims of serial murder since 1985. Illinois has 74, Indiana 41 and Wisconsin has 21. |
