Of those, only twenty two percent (3,800) were women murdered by men. The most likely victim of homicide is a young male (18-24 years old); three times more likely than a female of the same age bracket (U.S. Department of Justice, 1999). Mental illness or abnormality has been examined as a possible corollary to violent criminal acts, though research currently shows that there exists "no pattern matching any psychiatric diagnosis category with criminal violent behavior- (Steadman, 1987). It must be emphasized that there exists no general or specific relationship between violent crime and mental disorders. In most issues involving the prediction of criminal violence, mental illness remains rather irrelevant. .
Child socialization, or the way in which a child is raised (including home environment, parental interaction, and parent-child interaction), influences and shapes the individuals behavior (Akers, 1998), and has been used as a corollary to violent activity. If violence is used or exhibited in the home, whether among the parents (domestic abuse and violent arguments) or directed at the child (physical punishment or physically manifested child abuse), then the child will become violent when they get older, as the current ideology states. Current findings have shown that a number of violent criminals were raised in violent or abusive homes (Steadman, 1987), but what has not been found is that child abuse is directly linked to or is a cause of future violent behavior. This analysis, from a retrospective viewpoint, provides a false sense of hope for the prediction of violent criminal behavior. Unfortunately, current research can offer no better than one accurate prediction in three (Miller, 1987).
Applying the term serial to murder raises further problems and questions. Serial implies that several murders have taken place at different times (Lester, 1995). Currently there is no universal definition as to what defines one as a serial murderer, though the general consensus is a killer who methodically slays three or more people over a period of thirty days (Lester, 1995).
