Serial Murder/Serial Killers

Types of Serial Murder/Serial Killers

Not all serial killers are alike. Criminologists have identified various types of serial killers, distinguishing them on the basis of their motives, although researchers caution that some serial killers may be classified as more than one type or may change motives over time.

One type of serial killer is the visionary serial killer. Visionary serial killers maintain that they hear voices or see visions that command them to kill. For example, David Berkowitz, known as “Son of Sam,” killed six young women and their boyfriends as they were parked in “lovers' lanes” in New York, claiming that a dog that he thought lived in a hole in the wall of his apartment told him to do it. Visionary serial killers typically suffer from severe mental illness.

A second type of serial killer is mission oriented. These serial killers are motivated to eliminate certain types of people. They do not hear voices or see visions commanding them to kill. Rather, they view their victims as “undesirable,” and killing them is fulfilling a “noble” mission. Victims of mission-oriented serial killers may be homosexuals, prostitutes, members of a particular religion, or members of a specific racial or ethnic group.

The third type of serial killer is the hedonistic serial killer. Hedonistic serial killers derive pleasure- frequently, sexual pleasure-from the act of killing. In fact, many hedonistic serial killers include some type of sexual torture or abuse of their victims, either before or after the murder. One example of a hedonistic serial killer was Edmund Kemper, who in the early 1970s killed at least six young women whom he picked up while they were hitchhiking, as well as his mother, whose head he cut off and used as a dart board. Hedonistic serial killers include sexual sadists, as well as mysopeds (i.e., sadistic child killers).

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