Cannibalism Why Do People Kill

For years the question has been asked, why do people kill? What makes someone a serial killer? Years of research and investigation has searched to answer all of these questions. One question still remains, what factors influence cannibalism? Why does a switch go off that causes people to revert back to their primitive roots and eat the flesh of another human? How close are all of us to hitting that breaking point?

According to CNN it takes someone only a few days usually to devise a plan to kill and eventually go through with it. That being said it brings up the question of why someone would want to kill someone in the first place. Many researches believe that the answer is both nature and nurture. What that means is that people can be born

The most recognized mental disorder associated with serial killing is Antisocial Personality Disorder, which is related with psychopathy. Psychopathy is not a clinical diagnosis, but it is considered to be a developmental disorder. Many individuals with APD are not psychopathic, but a number of them especially the ones who exhibit traits such as limited empathy and grandiosity, do demonstrate psychopathy. Psychopathic traits such as charm, manipulation, and intimidation have been recognized by the F.B.I. as being thoroughly connected to serial murder although it’s important to realize that not all psychopaths are serial

Experts say a killer's need to dominate his victim may be a motivation. Devouring a victim is the step beyond taking their life and represents the ultimate conquest and sign of domination to a killer. Cannibalism is rooted in both Ancient Rituals and Warrior Battles. George Palermo, forensic psychiatrist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee says that “ It goes back to the old days of the warrior, where they would defeat their enemy and eat the part they most admired, like their brain or their heart...It's like they're saying, 'I really killed you. The only way you exist is in me.” Keeping in mind cannibalisms past and it’s significance, experts believe its practice in killings could show a killer's need to possess his victim. By eating their victims, they are showing an extreme desire to possess their qualities and not share them with anyone else. It can be seen as an extension of an ancient culture's' traditions. When looking at someone like Jeffrey Dahmer he believed in incorporation, when he would dismember the body he would either dispose of it or sometimes keep a body part as souvenir. Jeffrey believes that if he ate the flesh of his victims they would come alive again in him (George