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Encounter and death: The spatial behavior of US serial killers

Maurice Godwin (The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK)
David Canter (The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK)

Policing: An International Journal

ISSN: 1363-951X

Article publication date: 1 March 1997

3221

Abstract

The locations at which each of 54 US serial killers, who had each killed at least ten people, first encountered their victims (PFE) and later dumped their bodies (BD) were examined in relation to the residence of the offender in order to test three hypotheses: the home tended to be a geographical focus for the crimes; the PFE is more a part of the offender’s daily activities than the BD; and over time the PFE and BD both become incorporated into the offender’s lifestyle. Uses smallest space analysis (SSA) and t‐tests to support all three hypotheses. The home is the center of a two‐dimensional SSA plot. The overall mean distance from home to PFE was 1.46 miles and to BD 14.3 miles. Further, while the means of these distances were significantly different for the first eight offenses they were not for the last two. Discusses implications of these results for police investigations.

Keywords

Citation

Godwin, M. and Canter, D. (1997), "Encounter and death: The spatial behavior of US serial killers", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 24-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639519710161999

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1997, MCB UP Limited

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