Editing Serial killer (section)

===Organized, disorganized, and mixed===
[[File:Ted Bundy headshot.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Ted Bundy]] in custody, Florida, United States, July 1978 (State Archives of Florida)]]

In the 1970s and 1980s, FBI profilers instigated a simple division of serial killers into "organized" and "disorganized"; that is, those who plan their crimes, and those who act on impulse.<ref>{{Cite journal |last= Cotter |first= P. |year= 2010 |title= The path to extreme violence: Nazism and serial killers |journal= [[Frontiers Media|Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience]] |volume= 3 |pages= Article 61, pp.&nbsp;1–5 |doi= 10.3389/neuro.08.061.2009 |doi-access= free |pmid= 20126638 |pmc= 2813721 }}</ref> The FBI's ''[[Crime Classification Manual]]'' now places serial killers into three categories: ''organized'', ''disorganized'', and ''mixed'' (i.e., offenders who exhibit organized and disorganized characteristics).{{sfn|Vronsky|2004|pp=99–100}}<ref name="PerperCina2010">{{cite book|author1=Joshua A. Perper|author2=Stephen J. Cina|title=When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWJUGMh2OhcC&pg=PA51|year=2010|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4419-1371-5|page=51|access-date=September 1, 2020|archive-date=January 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120053206/https://books.google.com/books?id=WWJUGMh2OhcC&pg=PA51|url-status=live}}</ref> Some killers descend from organized to disorganized as their killings continue,<ref name="PeckDolch2001">{{cite book|author1=Dennis L. Peck|author2=Norman Dolch|author3=Norman Allan Dolch|title=Extraordinary Behavior: A Case Study Approach to Understanding Social Problems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9lIoA5jurUC&pg=PA253|year=2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-97057-4|page=253|access-date=September 1, 2020|archive-date=January 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120053034/https://books.google.com/books?id=d9lIoA5jurUC&pg=PA253|url-status=live}}</ref> as in the case of [[Decompensation|psychological decompensation]] or overconfidence due to having evaded capture.

Organized serial killers often plan their crimes methodically, usually abducting victims, killing them in one place and disposing of them in another. They often lure the victims with ploys appealing to their sense of sympathy. Others specifically target prostitutes, who are likely to go voluntarily with a stranger. These killers maintain a high degree of control over the [[crime scene]] and usually have a solid knowledge of [[forensic science]] that enables them to cover their tracks, such as burying the body or weighing it down and sinking it in a river. They follow their crimes in the news media carefully and often take pride in their actions as if it were all a grand project.{{sfn|Ressler|Schachtman|1993|p=113}}

Often, organized killers have social and other interpersonal skills sufficient to enable them to develop both personal and romantic relationships, friends and lovers and sometimes even attract and maintain a spouse and sustain a family including children. Among serial killers, those of this type are in the event of their capture most likely to be described by acquaintances as kind and unlikely to hurt anyone. [[Ted Bundy]] and [[John Wayne Gacy]] are examples of organized serial killers.{{sfn|Ressler|Schachtman|1993|p=113}} In general, the [[Intelligence quotient|IQ]]s of organized serial killers tend to be normal range, with a mean of 98.7.<ref name="radfordfgcudb">{{cite web|title=Serial Killer Statistics|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342501023|access-date=March 1, 2021}}</ref>

Disorganized serial killers are usually far more impulsive, often committing their murders with a random weapon available at the time, and usually do not attempt to hide the body. They are likely to be unemployed, a loner, or both, with very few friends. They often turn out to have a history of mental illness, and their [[modus operandi]] (M.O.) or lack thereof is often marked by excessive violence and sometimes [[necrophilia]] or sexual violence.<ref name="Serial Killers">{{cite web|url=http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/serial-killers |title=Serial Killers |access-date=May 21, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309132810/http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/serial-killers |archive-date=March 9, 2009 }}</ref> Disorganized serial killers have been found to have a lower mean IQ than organized serial killers, at 89.4. Mixed serial killers, with both organized and disorganized traits, have an average IQ of 100.9, but a low sample size.<ref name=radfordfgcudb/>