Issue: № 10, 2024
Doi: https://doi.org/10.37634/efp.2024.10.17
Over the past decades, the once rare phenomenon of serial killers has become widespread throughout the world. Serial killers differ from other individuals in that they commit serious crimes against life and health. This is a fundamentally different type of personality, which cannot be analogized to other criminals. Unpredictability, actions whose meaning cannot be understood, make such killers the most socially dangerous. At present, in my opinion, Ukraine does not pay due attention to comprehensive research in this area. There are no established methods of investigating serial murders and identifying serial killers, so the work to solve such murders is sometimes carried out using outdated methods. The concept of “serial murder” is not enshrined in domestic legislation, it is not defined by any normative act, and scientific approaches to solving this issue are currently too different and contradictory, which leads to an unjustified expansion of the range of crimes covered by this term. In addition, based on the generally accepted notions in society, serial murders are often endowed with features that distort the essence of the phenomenon. As a result, there are different interpretations and ambiguous understanding of the phenomenon. To some extent, this is due to the lack of legal, scientifically based standards that would clearly define the concepts of “maniac” and “serial killer”. Therefore, it is necessary to create a comprehensive characterization of serial killers as a type of criminal, to reveal the causes and conditions of their emergence, as well as the peculiarities of the psychology of this type of murderer. Research in this area should be conducted taking into account the specifics of the object. Along with the traditional methods of domestic criminology, in this case it is necessary to identify unconscious motives and deep behavioral meanings, which can be achieved by the psychoanalytic method.
Keywords : serial killer, crimes against life, serial killer, investigation, solving murders
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