Erotophonophilia: Investigating Lust Murder By Janet McClellan

75 persons were killed annually (predominantly females, at 94%), and the average number of homicides committed per serial killer was 12 a year. The data also revealed that 19 of the serial offenders remained free (unapprehended) for more than 10 years, 8 were free more than 15 years, 29 were free 2–8 years, and only 18 were free less than a year.

Historical and contemporary researchers over the past 20 years have correlated the decrease in the solvability and clearance rates of homicide in the United States to an increase in recidivist perpetrators and the presence of structural and organizational bias associated with lower socioeconomic groups, race, and ethnicity. Additional support of the arguments is to be found in the more recent research of Borg and Parker (2001), Lee (2005), and Regoeczi and Miethe (2003). The correlations and concerns presented in the historical and contemporary research identify three significant factors associated with the decline in homicide solvability and clearance rates of homicide investigation. Those factors include

1. a change in the nature of homicide; for example, stranger (recreational and/or lust murderers) vs. relationship murders (Litwin, 2004; Puckett & Lundman, 2003; Regoeczi & Miethe, 2003);

2. the reduction in police investigative effectiveness (Borg & Parker, 2001; Lee, 2005);

3. an increase in recidivist perpetrators, for example, serial killers. (Egger, 1990)

Notably, in 2002 a Harvard School of Public Health (2002) article suggested that women are at the highest risk of murder by relatives, significant others, and most particularly strangers. In a related study regarding persons who are vulnerable to violent male offenders, Chang, Berg, Saltzman, and Herndon (2005) found that homicide deaths of women exceeded all other causes of injury, including accidents at home or work, automobile accidents, and all other noninterpersonal injury-related causes. Risk factors noted in the study included being under the age of 20 and of African American ethnicity. For victims who were pregnant at the time of their murder, they typically had not received prenatal care during