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Dissertation Proposal Summary of the literature: Allan Fox, J. & Levin, J. (1999), ‘Serial Murder: Myth and Reality’, in Smith, M. D. and Zahn, M. A. (ed) Study in Studying and Preventing Homicide, Thousand Oaks: California. The chapter talks of the main ten myths relating to serial murders, and more closely, serial killers. Beginning with talking about what defines a serial killer (at least three victims, with periods of time between them, weeks, months, even years). The myths it talks about are as follows; 1. There being an ‘epidemic’ of serial murders in the US’ 2. That serial killers are unusual in both appearance and lifestyle. 3. That they’re all insane. 4. That they’re all sociopaths. 5. That serial killers are inspired by pornography 6. That serial killers are the products of a bad childhood 7. That they can be identified prior to their killings. 8. That they’re all sexual sadists. 9. That all serial killers select their victims that somehow resemble their mothers. 10. That all serial killers really want to be caught. Throughout, James Fox and Jack Levin discuss these myths and explain why these myths are untrue and provide evidence and further articles and books to read that will deeper explain these ideas. These type of myths may be the type that most believe, particularly that there’s an epidemic, that they’re all insane, products of bad childhood and that they want to be caught. Fox and Levin suggest, for example, that the idea serial killers wish to be caught is a bit ludicrous because…… (and give stats to support). These myths could form a nice basis for developing a questionnaire that could possibly be given out to people to see what, if any, myths they believe of serial killers, including too where they got these type of ideas; the majority of which come from media such as news, tv, film and novels. Donnelly, A.M. (2012) ‘The New American Hero: Dexter, Serial Killer for the Masses’, The Journal of Popular Culture, 45(1), pp.15-26. This article discusses a few things relating to the popular television show, Dexter. Asking mainly, “Why have we welcomed with rave reviews the presence of this anti-hero?.” It argues that the reason people have hailed Dexter as some sort of hero is because he is, like other serial killers, seen as ‘the other’ but we’re okay with it as he is the other killing others, rather than killing people we can easily identify as being like, stating that, “He threatens those that ‘deserve’ it and poses no threat to those of us who are ‘normal’.” Donnelly also states, “He’s clearly Other, but we understand why.” Meaning, as there is explanations given to why Dexter kills, we not only understand why but are sympathetic towards him. It begs the question, if this is the real reason we’re okay, understand, and are sympathetic towards a fictional serial killer, why do we not feel the same about our real life serial killers? The answer is most likely due to the topic of Dexter killing ‘others’ and not us.

Main themes: ● ●

Myths vs. Reality: how do the facts/stats etc. compare to the existing myths about serial killers? Where do the myths about serial killers originate? Examining historical cases and contemporaneous news coverage.

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What is the modern media’s role in perpetuating the myths about serial killers? An analysis of portrayals in news coverage. Demonising and Glorifying: why have media portrayals of serial killers shifted from negative to positive over time?

Proposed methodology: Content analysis of historical newspaper articles and modern news coverage: own empirical research into the language/portrayals in sources contemporary to serial killer cases; tracing the origin of the myths to the contemporary media. This will be achieved by exploring databases via FindIt, for example, accounts from The Times newspaper archives, which covers a large period (1700s - 2008), and …. Further content analysis will be performed in relation to fictional portrayals and the observable shift from demonising portrayals to glorifications or glamorisations of serial killers…..

Ethics: To ensure that the research conducted is factual and representative, rather than bias or inaccurate, by referring and adhering to the British Society of Criminoloy??? guidelines....