ABSTRACT
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention* (OJJDP) provided grant money for a collaborative effort by the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) and Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing to conduct research on serial rape. The study included interviews with 41 incarcerated serial rapists from every region of the U.S. (California, Maryland, Idaho, Louisiana, and Michigan) who had raped at least 10 times and who, as a group, were responsible for 837 sexual assaults and more than 400 attempted rapes. The rapists were incarcerated in prisons located in 12 states. The inclusion criterion of 10 rapes was established as it signified continuing success at eluding law enforcement, an aptitude that warranted further investigation. The study of multiple rapes by a single individual also allowed for an assessment of change over time on a number of important variables, such as the amount of force used, the sexual activities enacted, and the details of the modus operandi.
