3. Results
The descriptive statistics from the 45 studies will be discussed under three headings: developmental characteristics, characteristics of adult life and criminal career, and psychopathology. A subsequent article will discuss the characteristics of the modus operandi and of victimolo-gy. In all, the studies reviewed described 1836 sexual murderers: 1660 nonserial sexual murderers (NSMs) and 176 serial sexual murderers (SSMs). NSMs and SSMs were of similar age (34.9 years vs. 34.7 years) at the time of the studies and of similar race (87.3% vs. 87.6% white).