2.5 Criminological Classifications: Serial Killer Classification

This is a fundamental distinction as every criminal profile is based on it. At this point of your profiling, the best is to make a list of all the elements showing that the criminal is organized, and those showing any level of disorganization.

Profile Characteristics of Organized and Disorganized Serial Killers
Organized	Disorganized
IQ above average, ranging between 105 and 120	IQ below average, ranging between 80 and 95
Socially adequate	Socially inadequate
Skilled work	Unskilled work or unemployed
Lives with a partner or dates frequently	Lives alone, usually does not date
Sexually competent	Sexually incompetent
Commits sexual and/or violent acts ante mortem	Commits sexual and/or violent acts post mortem
Stable father figure	Absent or unstable father
Family physical abuse, harsh	Family emotional abuse, inconsistent
Geographically/occupationally mobile	Lives and/or works near the crime scene
Follows the news and media	Minimal interest in news and media
May be college educated	Usually a high school drop out
Good hygiene	Poor hygiene
Victim is usually unknown and he targets and stalks  them according to personal criteria	Victim is known or at least seen before Targets more victims of opportunity
If many victims, they tend to have commonalities	If many victims, there is no commonality
Diurnal (daytime) habits	Nocturnal (nighttime) habits
Drives a neat and nice car	Drives a clunky car or pickup truck if he owns a car
Needs to return to crime scene to see what police have done	Needs to return to crime scene for reliving memories
Usually contacts the police to play games	May contact victim’s family to play games
plans his murders and escape carefully	Often attacks victims spontaneously (opportunity)
Multiple crime scene	Unique crime scene
Might make the victims disappear so special attention must be given to missing victims with similar profile	Body usually left on the crime scene
May dismember the body	Kills at one site, considers mission over
Attacks using seduction into restrains. He gains control over them at the crime scene	Attacks in a blitz pattern
Keeps personal, holds a conversation	Depersonalized victim to thing or it
Leaves a controlled crime scene	Leaves chaotic crime scene
Brings his own weapon, even his torture kit	The weapon is taken from the crime scene
Leaves little physical evidence	Leaves physical evidence

If the elements that you find are in equal parts between organized and disorganized, you are in presence of a mixed serial killer. Many scenarios are possible here:

- there might be more than one killer: in case of a killer duo, there is generally one who is dominant and organized and the other is submissive and disorganized.

- victim resistance or some other unexpected event might bring an organized killer to lose control and leash out, becoming completely disorganized.

- age and experience might contribute to a killer becoming more and more organized in time.

- the killer might be organized before the crime and unorganized after, or reversed.