History Main / VisibleVictimology

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'': BigBad Yoshikage Kira targets women with pretty hands [[FetishesAreWeird because he has a fetish for them]], keeping the dismember parts until they decay and replaced.

* ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable]]'': BigBad Yoshikage Kira loves women with pretty hands. [[{{Squick}} Because he kills them and uses their hands as fetish objects]].

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': 3XK [[spoiler:aka Jerry Tyson]] tends to kill blonde women in threes since his mother was blonde. [[spoiler:He broke this pattern twice -- once a brunette woman to frame Castle for murder and once a red-haired woman to make Castle think he'd killed Beckett.]]

* ''Fanfic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing'': [[DirtyCop The serial rapist sheriff]] tends to target skinny young inmates with red hair. While he sometimes targets other inmates, the other cops know he prefers a specific type.

The trope is useful for visual media and often works along the same lines as ColourCodedForYourConvenience. If you've been told the VillainOfTheWeek preys on a specific type of person, you can be worried for them immediately. This is a good source of DramaticIrony if the character themselves has no idea they're in danger for a DamselInDistress or a DistressedDude, and can wind up being invoked and turned on the bad guy(s) if a police officer protagonist is doing some SerialKillerBaiting.

* ''Manga/OshiNoKo'': Serial killer Hikaru Kamiki targets rising idols with a certain star pattern in their eyes, [[FreudianExcuse perhaps due to being sexually assaulted by one in his youth]]. [[spoiler:It is implied that he ordered the death of Ai Hoshino for this very reason.]]

Depending on the work, and the level of realism to which they aspire, these appearance-based criteria may be extremely broad ''or'' specific, but run the gamut between body type, eye color, and [[RaceFetish race]] to hair color, vague facial resemblance, and costume.

May overlap with ThemeSerialKiller if the killer doesn't deviate from their type, but it's more common for the victims to be different in all ways except the physical similarities. As this trope is sometimes used as a twist, please '''expect unmarked spoilers.'''

Opinions vary to what extent this trope is TruthInTelevision. It is associated with UsefulNotes/TedBundy, who will often be name-checked alongside his apparent preference for young white women with dark hair parted in the middle (sometimes parts of this will even be copied in cases of a more overt {{Expy}}). MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome is also often ingrained in these fictional portrayals. In real life, serial predators may target ethnic minorities due to an understanding that these demographics are not always treated evenly by [[PoliceAreUseless the police]]. White victims are still the most common variance of this trope in fiction, and ethnic minority victims will be treated as needing some further explanation.