Investigative juristiction...

[Xstreamist]

I'm writing a paper about serial killings. I was wondering if there is a specific time when a Federal agency might end up coming in to assist a local force in trying to find the killer. Is it time based? Number of victims? Or is is something to do with whether the murders took place across different states?
Thanks in advance.

[ChainSa]

Xstreamist,

I am not an Officer, however (and this is putting it loosely) I do believe that as soon as the clasification of "serial killings" is made, Federal agencies will generaly step in to help. Especialy if you are looking at killings that are linked but occured in many different states, then no one department can take jurisdiction, so a Federal agency as you put it, will. Now, that is just to the best of my knowledge, so if I'm mistaken, I sincerely apologize.

[Group9]

I'm writing a paper about serial killings. I was wondering if there is a specific time when a Federal agency might end up coming in to assist a local force in trying to find the killer. Is it time based? Number of victims? Or is is something to do with whether the murders took place across different states?
Thanks in advance.

The FBI usually assist with serial killings only when requested to by a local department. There really is no federal law that would cover a murder, serial or not, unless it falls into one of the narrow federal areas where Congress has specifically made a type of homicide a federal violation, (i.e. murder committed while commiting a carjacking, murder committed in furtherance of a drug conspiracy, etc.)