Serial murder in Australia

ISSN
1445-7288
Published Date
Subject
Homicide
Offenders
Victims
Series
Crime facts info
163
Research Program
NHMP

Erratum

2008. Serial murder in Australia. Crime facts info no. 163. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

The table titled Typology of serial murder in Australia, 1989–90 to 2005–06 contains an error in the third row under Number and gender of victims. The information given is 1 male; 6 females. This should read 2 males; 5 females. We apologise for this error.

 

A recent report by the Australian Institute of Criminology (Mouzos & West 2007) uses data collected by the National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) to examine the incidence of serial murder in Australia. Over the 17-year life of the NHMP, there have been 5,743 known homicide offenders and 5,617 victims in a total of 5,226 known homicide incidents in Australia. Serial murders account for one percent of this total, with 11 groupings of serial murders committed by 13 known offenders and a total of 52 known victims. The table below shows these offenders divided into the four classifications commonly assigned to serial murderers: the visionary, who are driven to kill by voices or visions; the mission-oriented who believe it is their duty to eliminate individuals they consider unworthy; the hedonistic, who murder for excitement or arousal; and the power or control group who gain pleasure from dominating and controlling their victims. The majority of victims (63%) in these incidents were female (n=33), a contrast to the general pattern of homicide in Australia (Davies & Mouzos 2007) where most victims (63%) are male.

Typology of serial murder in Australia, 1989-90 to 2005-06
Incident year (s) Gender of offender Type Number and gender of victims Modus operandi
Source: AICNHMP 1989-2006 [computer file]
1992-99 4 males Power control oriented 10 males; 2 females Victims all known by at least one offender; bodies dismembered
1993 Male Mission oriented 3 females Victims taken from the street and controlled with a 'gun', actually aluminium piping; victims stabbed violently
1989-92 Male Power control oriented 1 male; 6 females Picked up and overpowered hitchhikers with a firearm; victims received multiple stab wounds
1998-99 Male Hedonistic 4 females Overpowered on the street, put in car boot, throat slit
1998 Male Mission oriented/ power control 2 males; 1 female Disabled pensioners strangled to death
1997-2001 Male Power control oriented 3 females Frenzied knife attack from behind; multiple stab wounds
1989-90 Male Mission oriented 6 females Victims assaulted with hammer then strangled with own pantyhose
1974-90 Male Hedonistic 1 male; 3 females Strangulation, objects stuffed in mouth
1989, 1990, 1992, 1999 Female Visionary 2 males; 2 females Suffocation
1996 Male Hedonistic 3 males Stabbing, shooting
1996-97 Unsolved Not known 3 females Abducted from the street within close proximity of each other

References