Did you know the United States produces more serial killers than any other country? Up to 85% of the worlds serial killers are found in America. In the past decade, the elusive creature known as the serial killer has captured the attention of the American culture. Three things important in getting to known a serial killer are to understand who they are, their motives and characteristics, and some famous and interesting killers.
             A Serial Killer is typically said to be a person who kills 3 or more people with sufficient time intervals. Killing, however, has a variety of meanings. Simply a slip of the hand on the steering wheel can cause a normal person to become a killer. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports define murder as the "willful, non negligent, killing of one human being by another" (Holmes & De Burger, 1988).
             At any given time there's an estimated 20-50 active serial killers. Those who change their targets and methods are often never identified, leaving experts to speculate on what happened to unsolved murder cases. Some may commit suicide, be sentenced to mental institutions or stop killing all together, while a few may even turn themselves in ("Serial Killers").
             There are three characteristics that are present in almost all serial killers during their childhood. These characteristics, known as the terrible triad are bed-wetting, fire-starting and animal torture ("Serial Killers Exposed"). Also, most are found to have sexual or physical abuse as a child, in half of the families the father was said to have left before the child was 12, and acts such as theft and animal abuse were almost always present. As adults, many have some type of brain damage and are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs ("Serial Killer Hit List").
             Serial killers tend to be white, heterosexual males in their twenties and thirties who are sexually dysfunctional and have low self-esteem
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