ders including sex, age, occupation, disorders, upbringing, marital status, home, type of car they drive, etc (Forensic Psychology 2). Before the term serial killer was coined in the mid-1970s, such murders were referred to as stranger murders. The term stranger murders was used to differentiate the victims of serial killings from the victims who were killed by people he or she knew, usually family members. The great killers of history had been ones who had killed their wives, or possibly massacred their family members one by one. For most people, the idea and the emotional components of intrafamilial violence could seem somewhat understandable. At one time or another, most people processed the thought of raising an angry hand at a child or spouse, and could even comprehend how, in a fit of rage, such an emotion could escalate to murder. In contrast, the emotional components of a stranger murder seemed unreasonable and incomprehensible to people (Ressler and Shachtman I Have Lived In The Monster 46). There are three possible manifestations of offender behavior at a crime scenemodus operandi, personation or signature, and staging. Each of these manifestations plays an important role of analyzing a crime scene in terms of human behavior (Douglas and Munn 1). Modus operandi is the offenders actions while committing the crime, and the victimology. Unfortunately, investigators have a tendency to place too much significance on the modus operandi when linking separate crimes to one another. In many cases, the use of modus operandi and victimology alone can fail to link a serial killers to all of his or her possible murders. The victims response can also affect modus operandi. A prime example would be if a rapist has problems controlling a victim, he will modify the modus operandi to adjust the resistance. He may use duct tape, other ligatures, or a weapon on the victim. Or, he may even injure the victim to incapacitate her. If such measures ar...
