Arguably, the society today is full of criminal activity that has rendered many communities unsecured. The most form of crime that threatens many people is serial killing. Certainly, the crime of serial killing does not only exist in one country, but globally. As a matter of fact, media are very important tool in informing the public on various issues. For many decades, many people believe that there is a relationship between media and serial killings. Media in one way or another has boosted the fears among people, especially on serial killers. By definition, serial killers are individuals who commit various murders over long time, and its killings occur in apparent normalcy, and separated by long periods of time. In most cases, serial killing investigations bring about a lot of public criticism as well as media pressure. In the 21st century, investigations on serial murder have become a global perspective. Additionally, due to its complexity there are various investigative approaches and tools that are used by law enforcing entities to counter on serial killers. Certainly, these investigative approaches rarely go without public and media criticism.
Undeniably, serial killers investigations are the most complex for various investigators to carry out; this is because of the complexities that it entails. Serial killers cases are always different, and unique; this is because they choose individuals they barely know as their victims, rendering investigation stakeholders ill equipped to carry out the task. Additionally, the investigation processes come along with tremendous multijurisdictional problems. Serial murders are very smart in executing their criminal activity, of which they carefully plan it, and leave without a trace. This is the reason why they murder for so many years without being caught (Grover, 2008).
An investigation entailing serial killers have been globalised due to its complexity. Serial killers kill in various regions under different geographical areas; hence, combining global strategies could lead to arrest of the serial killers. Certainly, various debates have been held to help law enforcing agencies to come up with various multi disciplinary approaches and tools. Therefore, in the investigative process many stakeholders are involved; they include, investigators from law enforcing department, mental health professionals, media, public, as well as scholars (Gibson, 2006).
Investigative techniques and tools used by law agencies differ from one country to another; it depends with culture, local customs, as well as technological advances. Furthermore, the variations in societal cultures have an influence on techniques that serial killers use. Certainly, the media interest and public criticism began in the unresolved murder of Jack the Ripper in the 1880s at White chapel London. The tools and investigation approaches determine the time frame in which the serial killer will be at large.
Conversably, due to globalization of serial killing and improvement in technology, law enforcing agencies have the ability to change are reconstructing its approaches based on the type of serial killing in question. Law enforcing agencies employ carious strategies in the course of identifying, arresting and punishing serial killers. One of the Tools used by these agencies include offenders profiling. This is the first crucial stage; investigators develop a profile of unknown offender who is suspected to have committed the murder. In this scenario, the profile is based on the murder scene and tries to reconnect information from different murder scenes in the globe. In the contemporary investigations, the tool is known as criminal profiling, of which it is common in United States but due to globalization, it is used globally (Grover, 2008). Criminal profiling puts into account nature of the criminal event, as well as execution details. Furthermore, the criminal profiling shades some light on references and personal taste of the suspect. In addition, physical evidence in the crime scene could be very crucial in cresting criminal profile.
Certainly, criminal profiling goes to the next step which is compiling the information and producing a single file, and comparing it with a list of already established personalities from past criminal cases. Criminal profiling has various steps, which include evaluation of the criminal act, evaluation of specific information, victim analysis, evaluation of police information, examination of medical autopsy report on the victims, developing suspect profile, as well as using created profile. The tool is very complex because its validity is unpredicted; serial killings differ tremendously depending on motive and method of crime execution (Grover, 2008).
Another approach used is the creation and development of future topologies. In this approach, stereotypic applies because the personalities of the suspect are created based on patters of committed murders. The approach also attempts to identify where the victim could strike next, as well, as the location of the next crime. The main objective of this approach is to forecast and follow the moves of the serial murderer. Investigators use the past information and analyze recurrence of certain strategies used. As technology advances, investigations have been made easier, especially with the DNA testing possibilities Gibson, C. (2006)..
In order to ease the investigation of serial killers, both reactive and proactive approaches should be used. Perhaps, traditional police operate roles in a reactive way. These include call response, patrolling, as well as, investigative follow ups. Some of the strategies in these approaches are sharing information globally on investigations database. The creation of database involves all specialists in psychological, medical, and police departments (Grover, 2008). Generally, the success of this tools and approaches depends on various steps and practices. These practices include identification, leadership, organization of the task force, communication, resource augmentation, data management, autopsy, as well as analytic tools.
In every event in the world, media play a tremendous role in informing the public. In most cases, it has positive effects; but in most sensitive issues, media make it more adverse. As a matter of fact, media are always focused on negative news that captures the attention of many people. The influence of media is very high, especially in this era of high-tech information and communication technologies. In most case, media receive public critics on how they brand the serial killers and making them look like celebrities. Media branding of serial killers encourages them to commit more murders and accomplish their mission. In fact, studies show that media induces passion to kill through publicizing serial killers with heroism. Additionally, media through the creation of movies have developed a normal culture in serial killing (Gibson, 2006). There are many television programmes that focus on serial killing. Others include music and movies of which they demonstrate how the serial killer kill, and get away with it. For example, the movie Natural Born Killers inspired a teen to imitate the events in the movie; this resulted to some shootings.
Media in some cases affects investigations adversely. There reported cases in which media interfered with law enforcement team from arresting serial killers. Apart from alerting the criminal on the progress of the investigating team, media introduces the entire society in the progress of murder case (Gibson, 2006). The public puts much pressure on the investigating team despite the complexities of the case. Media is not always on the negative in terms of serial murders information. Their efforts in publicizing cases may make the serial killers uncomfortable; hence, they come back to the crime scene not knowing they are leaving clues.
Additionally, there are situation that media have more clues that could help the investigating agencies. The media also can inform the murder of his identity prompting them hide. In such situation, investigating agencies could be forced to wait for the next clue or change investigative strategies. This leads to waste of financial and human resources. The approaches and tools used has prompted media influence and public critic, but the real fact is that serial murder investigation is extremely complex.
Gibson, C. (2006). Serial Murder and Media Circuses. London: Wadsworth.
Grover, M. (2008). Hunting Serial Predators. New York: Springer.
