The Loss of Innocents: Child Killers and Their Victims - Review

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, August, 2001 by Larry R. Moore

The Loss of Innocents: Child Killers and Their Victims by Cara E. Richards, Scholarly Resource, Inc., Publishing, Wilmington, Delaware, 2000.

The Loss of Innocents: Child Killers and Their Victims presents a compilation of professional research efforts from 1983 through the 1990s that provides an assessment of over 200 cases of children and adults who participated in multiple murders. It supplements other research on homicide and violence, including those research and publication efforts conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In view of the confidential sensitivity and protection afforded juveniles, the author's use of data extracted from newspapers of several major U.S. cities proved notable. The author identified and analyzed demographic information in terms of the perpetrators' patterns, random and selected victims, relationship with each other, rationale for killing, and methods used. Data ranged from children as the perpetrators or victims of mass and serial murdering to children as the victims of unintended and unfortunate cases of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those victims of bad decisions-illicit drugs in the home, animal attacks, home accidents, and drive-by shootings-represent the result of placing children at high risk, which cost them their lives.

Several case summaries on females as mass murderers and serial killers of children and adults placed emphasis on agencies revisiting their formal and accepted definitions of child killers. The author further established that the male killer of children specialized in a pattern involving targeted strangers, certain sex and age groups, or physical appearance with sexual motivations, while the females studied killed children they knew.

Research tables, in matrix form, present the data for the reader to analyze and compare. Identification of significant research problems and causal explanations supported by discussion of key factors surrounding child killers and victims comprise a vital chapter resulting from the author's efforts. Also, the author includes an interesting topology grouping of multiple child killers into five categories-disciple killer, family annihilator, pseudo-commando, disgruntled employee, and set-and-run killer.

The last section of the book contains 17 significant recommendations of the study for multiple jurisdictions to assess for reducing violence against children. They range from clarifying, simplifying, and standardizing definitions to using child killer case reviews for learning more about perpetrator and victim patterns of killings to increase gun safety education and legislation for adults and children.

The Loss of Innocents: Child Killers and Their Victims is well documented, correlated, and presented for those having no prior experience or knowledge of the subject to such professionals as juvenile and adult court judges and probation officers, prosecutors, and state legislators. It also will interest experienced and newly appointed law enforcement officers, homicide investigators, social workers and service agencies, emergency room medical personnel, prosecutors, and investigative media reporters.