Primal Scream by Michael Slade

putting a jigsaw together. When you've got all the pieces in one box, it starts to make sense.
    "In a world of serial killers, ViCLAS isn't a nice to have, but a need to have."
    Step two is linking. In most murder cases police begin with the victim. Who is dead? And how did he get that way? From this center cops move out. But focusing on the victim won't work in serial killing, for fantasy is more important than who is dead. The scenario may be planned, but the victim is random. Stranger-to-stranger crimes require wide perspective, as recreational killers often strike from coast to coast. So ViCLAS goes a step beyond collecting basic crime data, in order to capture and profile the killer's behavior patterns. What's from within the offender's mind versus what's from without. This profile gives cops the basis to compare their case with other murders throughout the country for links. If there's a suspect from one of those crimes, so much the better.
    "ViCLAS linking is a tool to surface your psycho." The link is fantasy.
    Serial murder is a sexual act. Most serial killers also at some time commit sexual assaults. Serial crimes always have a ritual aspect in which the attacker plays out a secret fantasy. Though we all have fantasies, the difference is serial predators need to make reality fit theirs. In such fantasy everything unfolds the way the psycho wants it to. But when he does a killing, reality never lives up to fantasy, so he's driven to repeat the murder to get it right. He acts out this fantasy like a movie script, so ritual elements of his behavior remain unchanged from crime to crime. ViCLAS calls this ritual the "signature" of the crime.
    It may be a fetish.
    The distinctive feature of ViCLAS is how it seeks to surface a suspect by getting inside his mind. Human sexuality is ten percent biological, twenty percent physiological, and seventy percent psychosexual. Fantasy-motivated behavior rarely changes in us, so this is a fundamental premise on which ViCLAS is based. Sexual violence services some non-sexual need like power, control, or venting rage to avenge abuse in a psycho's past. Behavioral analysis examines in detail what occurred during the crime. Every single thing that happened and the sequence of events. Then it determines all the possible reasons why the psycho might have done what he did. Was it M.O.: to ensure success, or protect identity, or facilitate escape? Was it ritual: for psychosexual gratification? Was it a reaction to what the victim did, or prompted by the environment? A decision is made as to the most probable reason(s), then—based on what and why —the analyst draws conclusions on who would do such things for those reasons.
    Different killers kill for different reasons:
    The thrill killer murders for no other reason than to get a thrill from the act. Some people find violence erotic.
    The over-killer inflicts more injuries than needed to kill the victim. Such frenzied activity is a venting of inner rage.
    The lust killer covets and fantasizes about a victim until he acts out and kills. He may dehumanize his prey through mutilation.
    The sadistic killer tortures in a way that reveals enjoyment, often to vent cold rage.
    And so on ...
    "To hunt a psycho, let ViCLAS be your bloodhound."
    DeClercq parked his car at Special X, then splashed up Heather Street. The ViCLAS section covering B.C. and the Yukon was on the second floor of E Division H.Q. at Thirty-seventh. The office he entered was stark and computerized, basically desks, video monitors, and Members processing data. A guided tour of foreign cops was underway. Those from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands were already on the ViCLAS program. The Suits from the FBI had frowning faces. Two "It's-bigger-in-Texas" types, they had developed VICAP, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, only to have a thundering herd of states pick up ViCLAS. Tennessee, Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota, and