ABSTRACT
Hence, the ultimate goal of the research on linking serial crimes is twofold in that we must not only establish that offenders behave consistently across the series but also that their consistent behaviour is distinct from other offenders who commit the same type of crime (Bateman & Salfati, 2007). That is, if the consistent behaviours are also common to all offenders who commit these crimes, then they can only be considered characteristic of this crime type in general and are not useful in linking offences of an individual series. Thus, before testing whether an offender is consistent (i.e. if their different crime scenes can be linked to one another), it is crucial to decide what will be the unit of analysis. More specifically, one must identify the behavioural unit that will be expected to remain consistent across the series, for example, individual behaviour (e.g. binding), a particular group of behaviours (e.g. wounding behaviours) or the psychological type of behaviour or theme (e.g. controlling, violent) (Salfati, 2008).
