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Serial Murderers and Their Victims
Eric W. Hickey, Ph.D.Jen Blum Ericka Hancock
Janele Edwards Heather KolodziejSuzanne Garrison Lauren Mondshein
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Eric W. Hickey, Ph.D.j Dr. Hickey earned his
Ph.D. in socialPsychology fromBrigham YoungUniversity in 1985
j He taughtcriminology courses atWest Virginia Collegeand Ball StateUniversity
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Eric W. Hickey, Ph.D.
j
In 1990, he became a member of theCriminology department at California StateUniversity, Fresno
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Eric W. Hickey, Ph.D.
j He has considerable field experienceworking with the criminally insane,
psychopaths, sex offenders, and as an FBITask Force consultantj He is internationally recognized for his
research contribution on multiple homicideoffenders
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Law Enforcement Contributions
j Conducts and develops training for agenciesfocused on profiling and investigating sex
crimes, homicides, stalking, arsons, andworkplace violence/terrorismj Trained VIP protection specialists at the
International Security School in Israel on profiling stalkers and counter-terrorism
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j Testifies in criminal and civil casesj Appeared as an expert guest on many
television shows
Law Enforcement Contributions
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Construction of the Model
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Model Sample
j Based on cases of serial murders from 1800to 1995: 337 men and 62 women
j Only included cases where offender wascharged with the murder of 3 or more people
j Used interviews, newspapers, journals, bibliographies, biographies, and computer searches to obtain case data
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Model Analysis
Variables examined:j Time frame of murders
j Geographyj Number of victims
j Age of victimsj Victim gender
j High risk victims
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Aims of the Model
To find patterns in:
j Methods of killingj Motivesj Conduct
j Victim/Offender relationships
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Hickeys Model
By examining different groups or individuals experiencing the same
process we learn to identifystructural uniformities.
(Hickey, 2003)
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Serial Murder Typologies
j Team Killers Masterminds
Occupations Mobility Ritualism/Cults Victim Selection Methods Offender History
j The Female Killer Emergence
Victim Selection Methods/Motives Psychopathology Mobility
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Reliability and Validity
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Reliability/Validity
j Has not yet been demonstratedj Problems with replication
j Unpublished study (2004) gives preliminarysupport
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Problems with this Type of
Research
j Using archival dataj Potential confounds of those who were
never caught or identifiedj Does not generalize to other culturesj Poor inter-rater reliability
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Usefulness
j Good foundation for further research, i.e.
Mott (1995)j Trauma Control model used by bothPollock (1995) and unpublished study(2004)
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Positive and Negative
Aspects
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Negatives Positivesj Hickey is an academic
in the way he presentshis research and model
j Points out negativeimpact of media and ischanging how serialkillers are portrayed
j Classification systemis a foundation for other researchers
j Hickeys book iscolloquial in nature,not scientific
j Book can be seen aswell integrated
propaganda for themasses
j Non-replicable, cannotdelineate into usefulapproach or technique
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Negatives Positives
j Definition of serialkiller is very broad
j Examines objectivelywhat is known about amurder
j Does not go in with aset bias
j No solid definition of a serial killer
j Relies on thetruthfulness of theoffender
j Subjective informationgathering and
processing
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Negatives Positivesj Gives detailed
overview of a varietyof theories and a
totality of other researchers work
j Self-gratifying,establishing himself asthe hallmark figure of
Criminology
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What else is Needed
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Reliability Testing
j Study Replication: Can the same results beobtained from a different professional?
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No Reliability Demonstrated
j Need to define more concrete, objectiveoperational definitions for variables in thestudy
j Must be able to prove reliability!!!
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Reliability Demonstrated
Further research is needed to:
j Investigate in more detail the patternsemerging from the data
j Determine if this model can be useful in a
real world setting