QUOTE (Chrysalis)
Actual killers who have been branded serial killers can be of anyone really, with average intelligence..
While true, serial killers with 'average' intelligence tend to fall into the 'disorganized' side of serial killers. It's the smart ones who are most likely to get away with it.
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While there are many wonderful police investigators out there doing some very fine work, the majority of the time it is not brains that catches serial killers. Usually it is just dumb luck.
This isn't always true, and you should know that it's becoming less and less true as time goes on. This is even less true in the world of Shadowrun where everyone with a real SIN also has their DNA on file.
QUOTE (BBB pg 83)
The character was born with or somehow acquired a legal System Identification Number, or SIN(...). This means the character's real identity, personal history, biometric data, credit records, medical history, travel history, etc. are stored and accessible in numerous databanks.
Everyone who has a SIN has a copy recorded by the GSINR (the Global SIN Registry), a corporate court funded regulatory body. So, unless the killer was SINless or choose victims that were SINless, the killer would be the one needing luck.
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From what I have understood over a very short study into actual killers that the difference between a killer who kills for money and a killer who kills for pleasure is often more in line with semantics as both are concious of their choices of their behaviour. Often it is argued that sexual sadism is what differentiates a serial killer from a regular killer, but does that actually hold true?
The only trouble in identify the difference between a serial killer and a killer for greed (such as a hitman) is when the motivation for a serial killer is identified as being money. The difference is that while a serial killer is concious of their choices, they are not able to stop themselves from making the same choices over and over again.
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The average serial killer will be ignored by the media because he isn't "cool" enough or he simply didn't get convicted of enough murders to be considered a serial killer.
Serial killers don't get reported in the media until they are identified as such. It's not a matter of being 'cool'. Instead, it is a matter of killing in a distinct enough manner or identifying oneself to the media/police.
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There is a theory called Locard's Principle of Exchange which states when a crime is committed the killer will always leave some evidence at the scene and take some evidence away with him. The operative word here is "theory". In theory, this is exactly what happens, at least on the microscopic level. Without this theory, all those crime shows with their fantastic forensics wouldn't be able to go into their second and third seasons. There is always some DNA, some fiber, some spore from a plant, some tire tread, some tool mark...something...to link the murder to the bad guy. When that is accomplished, the happy district attorney goes to court and presents an airtight case and justice triumphs.
You are incorrect here. Locard's Principle of Exchange is a SCIENTIFIC theory, and not what is commonly considered to be a 'theory'. It would be like me talking about a Ford Mustang, and you telling everyone that it's just a horse.
For a scientific explanation to become a scientific theory it must have the support of enough evidence that it is unlikely that the explanation will be altered by the discovery of new evidence. What you are thinking of as a 'theory' is what scientists call a 'hypothesis'. In science, a theory is something that has a large amount of evidence to support that explaination.
I should point out that White middle class citizens are amongst the most recorded citizens around in Shadowrun. The only place they aren't on camera is when they're inside their house (and sometimes not even then) or in the toilet (and again, sometimes not even then). In order to continually get away with killing them, a killer would need to be SINless (or be immaculately clean), knowledgeable about Scientific Forensic methods and police procedures, either versed in hacking (or paying a hacker to clean up after them), and have knowledge about magical forensics (or have a mage/shaman clean up after them).
It's a lot more work being a serial killer in 2070 than it is in 2008.