Serial Homicidal Behavior: A Research Question

This Festschrift contribution identifies a research question that I believe most needs to be addressed in the near future in understanding, preventing, and responding to serial killers of interpersonal violence. Although there has been an upsurge of research on sexual homicide over the years, there is still much we do not know. The dilemma is: how can we add to the collective knowledge of killers? What role, if any, does early-life social isolation contribute to the development of serial homicidal behavior, and how does it interact with other known risk factors such as trauma, personality disorders, and cognitive/neurological abnormalities?