Crime location choices: A geographical analysis of German serial killers

Abstract

The present study examined whether there are different processes operating in the crime location choices between body‐disposing and non‐body‐disposing serial killers and between sexual serial killers and acquisitive serial killers. A sample of 49 series of solved German serial killings is used to examine the differences in travelled distances between these groups of killers. Nonparametric tests revealed that body‐disposing and non‐body‐disposing serial killers and sexual and acquisitive serial killers did not constitute subgroups of serial killers regarding their spatial behaviour. The results suggest that the compared groups are subjected to the same factors that influence their travelled distances. Furthermore, the possible role of planning and anticipated emotions in crime location choices of serial killers is discussed, as well as the limitations of the study and recommendations for future research.

An appraisal of investigative psychology and the applications to suspicious approaches to children in the Irish criminal justice system

“…Specialist officers receiving training in current behavioural research are much more aware of surrounding behavioural issues associated with such offences. This is where investigative psychologists can further contribute to the investigative process by aiding, suspect prioritization, linking crimes and crime scenes, investigating suicide (Synnott, Coulias & Ioannou, 2017), geographical profiling (Synnott, Bakker, Ioannou, Canter, & van der Kemp, 2019), in addition to, assisting with examinations of offender narratives across crime types (Ioannou, 2006;Ioannou, Canter, Youngs, & Synnott, 2015;Ioannou, Synnott, Lowe, & Tzani-Pepelasi, 2018;Yaneva Ioannou, Hammond, & Synnott, 2018), analysis of online abusive behaviour (Tzani Pepelasi, Ioannou, Synnott, & Ashton, 2018), and assessment of offenders in a forensic settings (Dietzel, Synnott, & Ioannou, 2017).…”