Security patterns are a means to encapsulate and communicate proven security solutions. They are well-established approaches for introducing security into the software development process. Our objective is to explore the research efforts on security patterns and discuss the current state of the art. This study will serve as a guideline for researchers, practitioners, and teachers interested in this field. We have conducted a systematic mapping study of relevant literature from 1997 until the end of 2017 and identified 403 relevant papers, 274 of which were selected for analysis based on quality criteria. This study derives a customized research strategy from established systematic approaches in the literature. We have utilized an exhaustive 3-tier search strategy to ensure a high degree of completeness during the study collection and used a test set to evaluate our search. The first 3 research questions address the demographics of security pattern research such as topic classification, trends, and distribution between academia and industry, along with prominent researchers and venues. The next 9 research questions focus on more in-depth analyses such as pattern presentation notations and classification criteria, pattern evaluation techniques, and pattern usage environments. The results and discussions of this study have significant implications for researchers, practitioners, and teachers in software engineering and information security.