ABSTRACT
Details of offenders and offenses are generally found in written form in federal, state, and local police files; court records; and in the last few years, most of the police records are maintained and stored in computerized databases. Because serial murder cases often remain unsolved for months and even years, this makes the process of maintaining accurate information in police files problematic. This dilemma is further compounded by the fact that most data collected by police is not intended for research purposes, and therefore the information is not organized in an orderly fashion. In recent years, though, the management of case data for all crimes has greatly improved due to the increased use and development of computerized police databases.
