South African Serial Homicide: Offender and Victim Demographics and Crime Scene Actions |
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| Authors: | C. Gabrielle Salfati Gerard N. Labuschagne Amber M. Horning Marina Sorochinski Jackie De Wet |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, New York City, USA;2. Forensic Services Division, South African Police Service, Pretoria, South Africa;3. Division of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;4. John Jay College of Criminal Justice & The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York City, USA;5. Department of Criminology and Forensic Studies, University of KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa |
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| Abstract: | There is an abundance of literature on serial homicide from a Western perspective that outlines operational definitions, types of offenders and how they prey upon their victims. However, currently, there is a lack of studies that compare serial homicide in different countries. The current study aims to give an overview of the demographics of serial homicide offenders and victims in South Africa and compare these to the demographics of offenders and victims from other currently available empirical studies of other countries. The sample consisted of 33 out of the total 54 solved series in South Africa between 1936–2007, which includes a total of 33 offenders, 302 victims, and 254 crime scenes. Results of the sample as a whole showed that South African serial homicide offenders are similar to offenders in other countries in terms of their actions at the crime scene and victim choice, with some notable exceptions. Additional analysis looked at the offender's consistency of targeting certain types of victims across their homicide series in comparison with the patterns of serial homicide offenders in other countries. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | serial homicide offender/victim demographics crime scene behaviours |
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