Criminologist applauds police over arrest of Wa serial killer
Dr. Jones Opoku-Ware, a renowned criminologist, has applauded the Ghana Police Service for arresting the Wa serial killer.
“You need a lot of time to be able to pick the chain to connect it to a particular person or group of people who do those kinds of operations.
“It’s something that is very complex, and over the years, if you look at crime literature, you will get to know that it’s been very, very difficult all over the world to pin down serial killers because of their modus operandi, which we call the MO,” the lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) explained.
Dr. Opoku-Ware underscored that such advancements necessitate meticulous investigative efforts and a keen eye for detail.
“It is very key when we have to talk about what the police have done in the Upper West Region. I think I will really give it up to them because they’ve been able to use the trace and all the key things that the person must have left and been able to connect all the dots and hand it to this person. So I think they’ve really done well,” he stressed.
He also illuminated the psychological dimensions of serial killing, indicating that numerous offenders are frequently diagnosed with mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
“If you look at the typology of serial killers, many of them have been diagnosed with certain mental conditions, especially schizophrenia.
“So a lot of time, if we are to do a proper assessment of these kinds of guys, we need to also take into account their psychological state at any point in time,” he said.
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Dr. Opoku-Ware further delineated the distinctions among various types of killers, noting that some commit murder solely for the thrill.
“If you look at the pattern of what we have, the guy that we’ve arrested now, apart from the fact that I suspect this form of thrill-seeking behaviour, I also see some form of the classic typology of the serial killers who want to get some form of financial reward.
“But then what is even more interesting is the choice of people this guy was targeting mad people and watchmen,” he observed.