ABSTRACT
Two or three times a year there is some outcry about the discovery of someone who has killed a number of people over a period of time; Fred and Rose West, Colin Ireland, John Duffy. This sets up media orchestrated outrage about the rapid increase in these types of offenders and what it implies. But what are the facts? Are serial killers really on the increase? Is this a crime of cross-national epidemic proportions as some FBI reports have claimed? Do we really need special international computer systems and their associated teams of ‘experts’ to fight the menace?
