SERIAL KILLERS: The Growing Menace

by Joel Norris ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 7, 1988

A probable milestone in criminology as psychologist Norris explores the midnight world of the serial killer--and hauls back strong evidence that the roots of serial murder are more biological than social. ""What you are about to read,"" warns Norris, ""will shock, terrify, sadden. . .and enrage you."" Indeed it does, and as much for his writerly skills, which ably yoke rigorous science to swift narrative, as for the horror of his subject. In a soul-freezing overview, ""The Nature of a Serial Killer,"" Norris limns the extent of the problem (""The FBI has estimated that there are at least five hundred serial killers currently at large and unidentified in this country""), summarizes the seven phases of the serial killer's slaying-cycle (e.g., ""The Trolling Phase,"" the hunt for victims); offers a detailed rundown of post-1960 serial killers; microscopes one case, that of Vermont killer Gary Schaefer; and examines police procedures for probing serial killings. Hypnotically gruesome; even more so, however, is the subsequent ""Personal Statements of Five Serial Killers""--Henry Lee Lucas, who slew upwards of 200 or more; Carlton Gary; Bobby Joe Long; Leonard Lake, who videotaped his mutilation-rape-killings; and Charlie Manson. What stands out in these short biographies--laced with icy testimony from the killers' mouths--is the similar psychobiological backgrounds of the five, and it's these ""Unifying Patterns of a Serial Killer"" that Norris examines in his final section. There he surveys the new, medically oriented criminologists and extrapolates from their findings and his own--focusing on the appearance in nearly every serial killer of a brain dysfunction, often inherited--to a 21-point profile of the serial killer. Among the traits: head injuries or injuries incurred at birth; symptoms of neurological impairment; history of chronic drug or alcohol use. Norris concludes with a plea for a nationwide program to treat serial killing as a public health problem, preventable not by threat of punishment, but by prophylactic medical measures. Compelling presentation, brilliant analysis--an important work sure to send shock waves through psychiatric and criminal justice circles, but also easily accessible and likely to be of intense interest to armchair criminologists.

Pub Date: July 7, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION