Abstract:

The present study utilized a non-experimental, exploratory design in an attempt to expand the current understanding of violent offenders by utilizing an empirical psychological assessment measure to better understand the personality characteristics and motivations of serial murderers. Archival Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Instrument-2 (MMPI-2) profiles along with the psychosocial and criminal histories of eight offenders were examined and compared across several well-known classification systems of serial murderers. Our current knowledge of the personality characteristics of this type of offender is limited by paucity of clinical and empirical data available for research and examination and this study was an exploratory examination of how empirically derived data can further our understanding of multiple murderers. This study makes a significant contribution to the existing literature because never before has a group of MMPI-2 profiles of serial murders been collected for examination and comparison.

Previous research has focused on the attempts to classify these offenders into specific groups and has garnered considerable criticism regarding the utility of these classifications. The results of the current study indicated that several of the widely used classification systems for serial murders developed by the FBI (Ressler, Burgess, & Douglas 1988), Holmes and Holmes (1998), and Fox and Levin (2005) were inadequate in their attempts to classify and predict the complex behaviors of serial murders. However, the classification system developed by Megargee (2006a) was consistent in its ability to classify each of the offenders in this study across one of the ten proposed taxonomies. This study utilized the data obtained from the MMPI-2 profiles and psychosocial characteristics to develop a more comprehensive and empirically based model for understanding and predicting this type of violent behavior. The model is composed of the ten common personality and behavioral characteristics that emerged from the examination of the eight offenders. All of the characteristics are common to violent offenders, however three of the characteristics were found to be specific to serial murderers.