Serial Homicides

Serial homicide has rarely been defined by lawyers and criminologists and is often analyzed as an aspect of violent crimes; criminal law has not defined it yet. The present study aims at presenting several different definitions of serial homicides and their specific basics; one comprehensive definition is finally given. Three elements of such definition are: time, the least number of victims, and personal motivation. What the present paper tries to emphasize is the fact that serial homicide is more of a psychological concept than a legal one, so to define such phenomenon one should not seek mere legal criteria, otherwise all aspects of it will not be clarified well. There are certain significant differences between serial homicide and other types of homicide which has been elaborated on in this study.