Quantification of Serial Murder

Early attempts to estimate the annual number of serial murder victims in the United States greatly varied (Fox & Levin, 1985; Holmes & DeBurger, 1988; Kiger, 1990). Kiger (1990) noted that the most extreme estimates of the number of serial murder victims were as high as 6,000 victims a year with claims of as many as 500 active annual killers during the mid to late 1980s. By 1990, scholars suggested that the incidence of serial murder was overestimated and that the United States was spending an extraordinary amount of money and attention on what may have constituted as little as 1% of total annual homicides (Kiger, 1990). Jenkins (2005) suggested the exaggerated magnitude of serial murders in the United States resulted from several factors. When apprehended, serial killers (e.g., Henry Lee Lucas) claimed to have hundreds of victims when in fact they had far fewer (Egger, 2002; Fox & Levin, 2005).1 There was also confusion about differences...