Rise In Sex-Slayings--in the 1960s and 1970s--Prompts Creation of FBI's VICAP Data Base

Beyond our instinct for survival and self-defense, most humans in modern society do not become killers. If we did, there would soon be none of us left. In fact, most cultures have provisions against murder in their written canons. “Thou Shall Not Kill” is a common moral precept found in one form or another in most of the world’s cultures and religions--that said--murder has been a part of civilization since before the beginning of human history.

The oldest known written story of murder is the five thousand year old tale Gilgamesh. In this Babylonian work based on even more ancient Sumerian fables, King Gilgamesh and his half-brother Enkidu conspire to murder the Guardian of the Forest--the giant Humbaba. Their goal was to help establish Gilgamesh’s fame throughout the world. The reality of this story probably owes much to the struggles of these ancient people to import the cedars of Lebanon for their ambitious building programs in the flat, treeless desert plains of the Fertile Crescent.

Cain and Abel

Over twenty-five hundred years later, The Old Testament of the ancient Hebrews tells the story of Cain and his brother Abel. Cain wanted the land and its water to raise cattle. Abel wanted the land and its water to raise crops. For this reason, Cain slew his brother Abel. As the biblical story goes, the human race has had the Mark of Cain upon it ever since. The sacrament of baptism in the Catholic religion symbolically washes away this original sin.

In our modern world, the question of why people murder one another has been a topic of much study and debate. Despite psychologists and criminologists having new tools and techniques available to them, there is still much to learn about why some humans are compelled to kill. The tide of violent killers has not abated and society feels more fearful than ever. Understanding what motivates a person to commit an act of murder is one thing, to prevent it from happening in the first place is another. Murder increases as the population increases; it is the grim logic of statistics.

Sexual homicide has long been studied by various professional disciplines. Sociologists want to study sexual homicide as a social phenomenon that occurs within the context of the greater society. Psychologists are most interested in the psychiatric diagnosis of these murderers and developing techniques for treating sex offenders. Law Enforcement is interested in studying sexual homicide from the standpoint of identifying and apprehending suspects quickly and protecting the public from further senseless carnage.


Although serial killing and sexual homicide are not new phenomenon, FBI statistics revealed a sharp upward turn for this type of murder in the 1960s and 1970s. Serial killing gained widespread exposure from intense media coverage of cases like Richard Speck, the Chicago nurse murderer; the San Francisco Bay area Zodiac Killer; John Wayne Gacy, the killer clown; the Charles Manson family, Tate/LaBianca Helter Skelter slayings; Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler; and David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killings, just to name a few.

 

In their study, Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives, written by FBI Special Agents Robert Ressler, John E. Douglas, and Dr. Ann W. Burgess, Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health, they give the rationale for their work. “In the 1960s and 1970s, FBI researchers noticed a rise in serial killer cases across the nation. During the 1970s, Special Agents of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSK) began profiling serial killers on an informal basis by studying crime scene information to deduce certain offender characteristics and behaviors.” After the informal criminal profiling program began to show promise, the study was formalized during the Reagan administration in 1982 with a grant from the National Institute of Justice. 


This initial FBI study was the first to examine sexual murderers collectively as a sub-population. The data was collected from 1979 through 1983 on thirty-six offenders responsible for a minimum of one-hundred and eighteen victims, mostly women. All of the interviews were conducted within the Michigan Department of Corrections prison system, from willing participants of the project.  
 

The first data for the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) crime report was entered into the FBI’s mainframe computer at the FBI Building in Washington D.C. on May 29, 1985. It marked the pioneering use of artificial intelligence technology in crime scene analysis and criminal personality profiling. Today, the VICAP database is massive and linked to other crime fighting organizations throughout North America and databases worldwide.

The criminal profiling project paid particular attention to physical evidence found at crime scenes that may reveal behavioral traits of serial murderers and profile characteristics that are variables which identify the offenders as individuals. Together, they help to form a composite picture of a suspect. Over the life of the study--1976-1986--homicide data was placed in the database in one of five categories: felony murders, suspected felony murders, argument-motivated murders, other identifiable motive (circumstance) murders, and unknown motives for murders.

What investigators discovered was that for every category of murder except unknown motives, there was no more than a 1.5 % increase within that ten year period.  Unknown motives--that comprise both serial murders and sexual murders--had a disturbing 14 % increase over the same decade. That is a tenfold increase over the other categories of murders.

According to the late FBI profiler, Robert Ressler, “Apprehension of the sexual murderer is one of law enforcement’s most difficult challenges…. Sexual homicide particularly causes a heightened fear for the community because of its apparent random and motiveless nature. This places public pressure on law enforcement officials to make an arrest in these cases as early as possible.”

"The Rainy Day Murders" Spring Status Report

 

Writing has come a long way since its beginnings as cuneiform messages pressed into soft clay tablets over five thousand years ago. Once the tablets dried, they were permanent records of business transactions and simple messages primarily. A notable exception being the oldest known literature ever found, The Epic of Gilgamesh, discovered in 1853 buried in the desert of what is now Iraq.

Ancient scribes wrote their important messages on vellum, which was made of scraped and tanned sheep or goat hide. Charcoal was ground and mixed with oils to create crude ink and applied with crude reed brushes or sticks. Vellum was much more portable than clay tablets, but it was much more perishable also. 

It was the Egyptians who developed papyrus which led to the eventual development of paper. Papyrus could be rolled into scrolls for easy storage and portability. 

The ancient Egyptians also inscribed their writing on the walls and columns of their important civic buildings, as did the Greek, Roman, and other notable empires. Much of what we know of ancient history comes from the ruins of these monuments.

The printing press with moveable type was invented in 1436 by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany. Now, ideas could be mass produced and public opinion shaped. This invention helped change the political landscape of Europe. Bound paper books and libraries have been the repositories of the world's knowledge for close to seven hundred years of human history. 

In our own time, books have lost favor to digital methods of recording our thoughts and ideas in ways we couldn't have imagined possible, even twenty years ago. The digital computer age has revolutionized how we work and how we live.

What humans have used to write with has also evolved over the ages. The reed stylus created the wedge shaped notations in moist clay used by the Sumerians and Babylonians. The Greeks and the Romans used bone or ivory styluses to imprint notes and messages on wax tablets, not to mention metal chisels to immortalize their empire's achievements in stone and marble.

Quill pens were developed around 700 A.D. which was an advancement that lasted until the development of the first pencils and fountain pens in the 1800s. Then, in the late1860s, the modern typewriter was invented to mechanize how we write. Sometime in the late 1980s, word processing and personal computers took over from the mechanical typewriter.

 

Today, most humans tap out their messages digitally on a keyboard or a touch screen. Instantaneous messaging can reach a global audience, with far reaching implications for the future. Ironically, humans are once again writing on tablets, only digital ones this time around.

So that brings me to the subject of this post. With all the advancements in writing technology over the millenniums and today's high-speed computing, why does it take so long for a book to be published?

1. First, the writer needs a solid idea to develop and write about. That can take years.
2. Next, the book needs to be researched and checked for facts, corrected, rewritten, and revised.
3. Then, the writer must hire a qualified editor to help bring the writing up to current publishing industry expectations.
4. Finally, the writer needs to find an agent interested enough in the project to pitch the book to a publisher who is willing to invest time and money promoting it in the marketplace.

Interested readers of this blog have been asking me with increasing frequency, "When will The Rainy Day Murders be available?

Currently, I'm in the rewriting stage and have lined up an editor to help me over the summer. When I feel I have a quality, professional manuscript, I will solicit an agent. Then, it is anybody's guess when I can attract a trade publisher.

Despite the high-speed internet age we live in, the publishing business is notoriously slow. The only thing I can say about when The Rainy Day Murders will be available is "Stay tuned."


Check out this link for five charts showing the current trends in the publishing business. I have my work cut out for me.
http://janefriedman.com/2014/03/21/5-valuable-charts/