I have NO IDEA how such groups work, but am curious whether contributors profit by posting photos/videos that other predators access. That is, could motivation for engaging in predatory activities not just be typical serial predator motivations, but ALSO be motivation for $ profit - by sharing photos/videos?
There may be multiple motivations where a serial killer is involved.
This is unrelated, but I remember recently watching an interview of Joel Rifkin conducted by a man who at the time of the interview was an FBI agent (now retired from FBI - Mark Safarik, now FBS International). Certainly Mr. Safarik is much more knowledgeable than I about serial killers and their motivations, drives, signatures, eccentricities - but one of the things that repeatedly struck me during that interview is that it seemed Mr. Safarik was putting words in Rifkin's mouth with respect to Rifkin's motivations and reactions to his own crimes (perhaps things Safarik had learned from study of other serial killers). Perhaps there was a reason - awareness that such predators will hide such motivations unless they are outright suggested to them, etc. (ETA: Rifkin maintained the same flat affect throughout, even in response to reactions Safarik suggested Rifkin must have experienced.)
But one of the things I kept thinking was: maybe Rifkin's first killing of a SW was just because he'd gotten tired of parting with the cash for the service (after engaging in such services with multiple SW's over years). "How dare this SW charge for 30 minutes, what it takes me 3 hours to earn" kind of thinking. And so, knowing this was a person from a vulnerable population who may not remain in close contact with others concerned for her welfare, Rifkin just decided the profit (i.e. avoiding payment out of his pocket for these services) was worth the risk. And having gotten away with it once, and later multiple times, he just kept going.
Maybe there is something here too... motivation by $ that RH cannot manage to earn legitimately? He gets the services for free and then makes a little more on the side by selling the photos/videos?
A link to the Criminal Mindscape: Joel Rifkin interview by Safarik:
In this episode of Criminal Mindscape, former FBI profiler Mark Safarik enters New York’s largest maximum security prison and sits face to face with a psychopathic killer.
www.msnbc.com
ETA: I guess what I am saying is that, maybe the ability to share things for an untraceable fee over the internet has opened up a new, dark market and the related profits that might be earned is, by itself, a strong motivator that did not previously exist for serial killers pre-internet.