Psychology Today suggests using a prototype model to identify killers. This approach focuses on three famous murderers as prototypical serial killers for the purpose of categorization — Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the still-at-large Zodiac Killer. The more closely a killer’s profile matches one of the prototypes, the more likely they should be treated (psychologically) as a serial killer. Jennifer Phillips of Eastern Illinois University argues that there may even be 38 distinct serial killer prototypes, but for our purposes let’s stick with the top three. So which active killer in 2020 most closely resembles the prototypes?

Forensic psychology data assembled by Dr. Mike Aamodt suggests that serial killing activity peaked in the 1990s, and has seen a steady decline over the last two decades. As a result, there are no active manhunts for named serial killers matching the psychological prototypes. By the FBI’s definition, there may be as many as 2,000 active serial killers in the U.S. alone, but these killers are largely members of terrorist and organized crime organizations. 

However, that’s not to suggest there isn’t a Bundy or BTK still operating in the shadows. The scariest thing about serial killers may be that we never know the depth of their crimes until long after they’ve been stopped.