Serial criminals 'need to be studied'
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IN THE wake of reports that a serial rapist targeting elderly women remains on the run, several experts came together yesterday to address the threat of serial criminals.
“Most serial criminals have bipolar disorders. So, it’s hard to detect something wrong by just observing their personality from a distance,” Nathee Chitsawang, a former chief of the Corrections Department, told a seminar yesterday, “These criminals seem to lead a normal life”.
Being a trained criminologist, Nathee defined a serial criminal as a person who committed more than three similar crimes with an interval between them.
“These crimes can be murders, rapes, or burglaries,” he said.
The Thailand Institute of Justice organised the seminar to discuss the silent threat of serial criminals after a still-unidentified man had raped many elderly women in Thailand in recent years. DNA tests had confirmed the attacker – who has claimed about 10 victims, most of them in their 70s – was the same man.
Dr Sita Sumrit, an adviser to projects for the promotion of women’s and children’s rights, said this serial attacker had stressed the need for the public to understand that the elderly are not immune to sexual attacks.
This fact sounded acutely alarming given that Thailand looks set to become an ageing society by 2025.
Sita emphasised that sexual attacks did not happen to just young women or those wearing sexy dresses.
“Statistics show that a rape happens every 15 minutes,” she said.
“In other words, there are 32,000 Thai rape victims each year”.
Sita said Thailand should study each crime case, compile crime statistics and analyse information so as to develop better crime-prevention measures.
Nathee said most serial criminals were intelligent and that explained why they could escape the law, often on several occasions.
The current serial rapist targeting elderly women, for example, had planned carefully how he could get past a family dog and enter the house of his latest victim without anyone noticing him.
“He even cut the electricity to the house,” Nathee said.
Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, who heads the Galyarajanagarindra Institute, believed it would be useful to compile more information on sexual attackers as a group.
“It remains unclear why many people with sexual deviations have committed crimes. If we gather solid information for medical research, we may be able to prevent crimes by these people,” he said.
