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An Overview of Serial Murder and its Investigation in South Africa

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Crime, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System in Africa

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Abstract

South Africa has recorded a high number of serial murders in its modern history. Since the mid-1990s, over 170 murder series have been identified by the South African Police Service (SAPS). This led to the SAPS creating a specialised unit to deal with this and related crimes in the mid-1990s, fashioned along the lines of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Units. This chapter sets the historical context of serial murder in South Africa and reviews the existing research on South African serial murder including the landmark 2015 research conducted in conjunction with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and is one of the largest serial murder studies using police case files in the world to date. Insights into how the SAPS adapted to investigate these cases are also provided. Case studies are used to bring the local nuances of South African cases to life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. L&S Threat Management, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Gérard Labuschagne

  2. Department of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Gérard Labuschagne

  3. African Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Gérard Labuschagne

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  1. Gérard Labuschagne
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Correspondence to Gérard Labuschagne .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Teaching Laboratory for Forensics and Criminology, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan

  2. Department of Mental Health Nursing School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

    Samuel Adjorlolo

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Labuschagne, G. (2021). An Overview of Serial Murder and its Investigation in South Africa. In: Chan, H.C.(., Adjorlolo, S. (eds) Crime, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71024-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71024-8_6

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