Serial Killers and Mass Murderers: Characteristics of Organized and Disorganized Killers

This presentation discusses the characteristics of organized and disorganized killers, clues to find in each type of killing, and examples of each. It also provides information on how evidence left behind can assist in the investigation.

SERIAL KILLERS AND
MASS MURDERERS

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZED
KILLERS
 One of the main characteristics of organized killers is that they
plan their offense from beforehand.
 Another characteristic is that they engage in killings because
of personal reasons.
 Moreover, in organized killing there is use of restrains where
the victim is immobilized (Woodiwiss, 2017).

CHARACTERISTICS OF
DISORGANIZED KILLERS
 One of the main characteristics of disorganized killing is
that the offense is spontaneous in nature.
 In disorganized killing, the killer does not have any
personal grudges with the victims (Woodiwiss, 2017).
 Third, there is minimal or no communication in
disorganized killing.

CLUES TO FIND IN ORGANIZED
KILLING
 In order to understand that a killing was pre-planned, the clue to look for is the
personal records of the victims. If the killer had a personal relation with the victim,
then it is organized killing (Chadee et al., 2017).
 Secondly, in organized killing the weapon of interest usually goes missing.
 Another clue which indicates that it is an organized killing is if the body of the victim
is hidden.

CLUES TO FIND IN DISORGANIZED
KILLING
 If the crime scenes are random and very messy then it is an indication of
disorganized killing.
 In disorganized killing, the weapon of interest is not hidden.
 If the body of the victim is found at the crime scene then it is an indication of
disorganized killing.

ASSIST IN THE INVESTIGATION
• More often that not the killers leave some kind of evidence back in
the crime scene which leads to their arrest.
• The weapon of interest shows the preference of the killer. For
instance, if a gun is used, it means the killer wanted it to be over
quickly. Use of knives mean that the killer wanted the victim to die
slowly (Holmes, 2016).

EXAMPLE OF ORGANIZED KILLING
 Theodore Robert Bundy is a prime example of organized killier.
 He was a serial killer in the United States during the 1960s and
1970s.
 His modus operandi was that he killed young women and sexually
exploited them. He even kept some of their severed heads as
mementos in his home (Kleemans & Soudijn, 2017).

 This is considerd to be organized killing because the serial
killer was meticulous in his actions. He had a certain way
of carrying out his executions.
 Moreover, the victims choden were personal in nature. He
only targeted young women of a certain age.

EXAMPLE OF DISORGANIZED
KILLING
 An example of disorganized killer is Herbert Mullin.
 He confessed to his crimes of killing nearly thirteen people.
 According to him, he killed them because their death prevented
the occurrence of earthquakes

 This is considered as disorganized killing because there
was no particular logical reason for carrying out the evil
act.
 The killer was disassociated with the killings and he was
considered to be mentally unstable.

REFERENCES
• Chadee, D., Ali, S., Burke, A., & Young, J. (2017). Fear of crime and community
concerns: Mediating effect of risk and pragmatic fear. Journal of Community & Applied
Social Psychology, 27(6), 450-462.
• Holmes, L. (2016). Advanced introduction to organised crime. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Kleemans, E., & Soudijn, M. (2017). Organised crime. Handbook of Crime Prevention and
Community Safety, 394-406.
• Woodiwiss, M. (2017). Transnational organised crime: the strange career of an American
concept. Critical Reflections on Transnational Organised Crime, Money Laundering, and
Corruption.

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