From 1900 to 2010, 52.4% of serial killers were white, 40.7% were black, 5.3% were Hispanic, 0.7% were Asian, and 0.9% were Native American. Serial killers in the United States tend to share the following general characteristics: Author Ann Rule postulates in her 2004 book Kiss Me, Kill Me that the English-language credit for coining the term 'serial killer' goes to LAPD detective Pierce Brooks, mastermind of the ViCAP system. by German police inspector Ernst Gennat coining the same term in 1930. The concept had been described earlier, e.g. Coinage of the English term serial killer is commonly attributed to former FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s. Serial killers are often confused with being mass murderers, which are defined by multiple murders that are committed at one time. The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group. Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings. It is undertaken by a person who becomes known as a A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than thirty days, with a 'cooling off' period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Serial murder is one of the serial crimes.

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Visionary serial killer examples