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Psychology serial killer essay
Psychology serial killer essay
Serial killers research paper
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Serial killers are interesting yet unnerving to the likes of American society. Serial killers commonly lack empathy and show no sign of guilt or remorse after they have committed a horrible act or crime. These characteristics are an indication of psychopathic tendencies. Although it may seem like these people would be easy to spot, it is actually much more difficult than normally thought. These killers have a special way of putting on a mask of sanity. They can act very charming and very intelligent when needed. Their talent in becoming a normal person is part of their manipulative mentality, which they use to capture most of their victims. These individuals usually get a type of psychological thrill or pleasure from their acts, which cause …show more content…
He was rewarded scholarships and began college to further his knowledge. Around this time he went from job to job. At one point he ended up working the nightshift at the Seattle Suicide Hotline. (Ted Bundy | Victims |). In college, Bundy became involved with a woman named Stephanie Brooks. After about a year, Brooks ended the relationship which angered Bundy. Later on when the crimes began to occur, police noticed a repetitive trait in his victims, long dark hair with a part down the middle just like Bundy’s ex-girlfriend (Ted Bundy). As he continued college, Bundy became well-liked by his professors and an even more intelligent student. After graduating from the University of Washington, he began working for the State Republican Party, gaining a close relationship with Governor Daniel J. Evans. Bundy enrolled in law school in 1973 at the University of Utah but quickly dropped out due to failing grades and lack of focus. Around this time, Stephanie Brooks came back into his life. Brooks wasn’t aware that Bundy had another girlfriend while she was engaged to be married to him. Two weeks after the proposal Bundy refused to return Brooks’ calls and soon after, began his murdering spree in Washington State. (Theodore Robert Bundy
Bundy could never hold down a job long term and often switched from various job to various job. For example, at one point he was a truck driver for a medical supply company and was able to work as a crisis counselor with the Seattle Crisis Clinic. Bundy also became involved with a friend who got him into theft and burglary which he would use to furnish his apartment (McClellan, J. 2006, p.23). Although he wasn’t able to keep long term jobs, Ted Bundy still managed to get a psychology degree from University of Washington and was very highly regarded by his psychology professors. Surprisingly, Bundy was also politically active as he volunteered in campaigning for the Republican party candidate at the time, Governor Daniel Evans for re-election.
Each serial killer can be classified as a specific type. The four main types of serial killers are thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary, and power and control. Thrill seekers kill for the sole purpose to entertain themselves. They also want attention from the media. Thrill seekers send messages and keep a record of their killings. Mission-orientated serial killers have a reason to be killing the type of person they are. They think that by getting rid of a certain group; for example, prostitutes, then they are doing a favor for the society. Their crime scenes are organized. Visionary serial killers have another personality, this is known as dissociative identity disorder. They tend to think that God or the demon has told them to do this. Power and control serial killers kill because it gives them power. They like to watch their victims suffer and scream. The tend to be abused when they are
A pretrial plea bargain was given to Bundy, which was Bundy would plea guilty to the murders of killing Levy, Bowman and Leach. In exchange, Bundy would be sentenced to prison for a firm 75 years. He ultimately declined the offer and decided with trying to win the case, which was not a smart move by Bundy. Bundy thought the prosecutors had no evidence from the Chi Omega sorority, but what he’s about to find out ruins his life. No evidence was recovered at the Chi Omega sorority house like Bundy thought, but two crucial testimonies from sorority members played a big role. Connie Hastings believed she saw Bundy in the house that night, while Nita Neary stated that she saw him escaping the house clasping the oak firewood murder weapon. These testimonies showed that Bundy was in the house and was in the house around the same time of the murders. But with no physical evidence, Bundy could not be found guilty. What Bundy didn’t realize was that there was a piece of evidence from the sorority crime scene. While investigators examined the scene, one officer found the bite marks on Levy’s buttocks. The officer picked up a yellow marker ruler and took photographs of the bite mark. By the time the trial had started the bite mark disappeared, because the tissue around Levy’s buttocks had gone back to its normal color, size and shape. Prosecutors took the photos to forensic odontologist Dr. Richard Souviron.
He was intelligent, articulate and handsome. During a gruesome killing spree, Ted Bundy slaughtered more than thirty five women within the span of five years, becoming one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. He grew up believing that his grandparents were his parents and his unwed mother to be his older sister. He was not very good at building relationships and had a lot of conflict with his stepfather and enjoyed the terms of violence and sex as a child. Ted shoplifted during his teenage years and enjoyed being above the law. He was generally very shy and gained a lot of popularity and self esteem in high school because of his good looks. It was there that he met his high school girlfriend Stephanie Brooks with whom he become obsessed, but the relationship did not last very long as she did not feel the same way for him so she broke up with him. Depressed by the break up, Ted dropped out of college and returned home with his family where he found out the truth about his biological mother. This left Ted in a state of confusion about his identity and he felt betrayed by the women in his life. He went back to high school where he and Stephanie got back together but right after she agreed to marry him, he broke up with her to seek revenge. After this charade his killing spree began, luring young women with lies, abducting, raping, physically abusing and killing them.
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Most people do not understand what can make a person want to kill multiple people for no reason other than their own satisfaction gain. In actuality, serial killers have been studied for over hundreds of years, and the information that has been documented continues to grow. The research that I have gathered about serial killers focuses on their childhood development, the differences and similarities between male and female serial killers, and finally general information on how their brains operate and their motives for committing such harmful acts. There have been many theories over the years about how a person becomes a serial killer, and how having an unstable childhood affects a person.
A serial killer is defined in Webster's Dictionary as someone who murders more than three victims one at a time in a relatively short period of time. There is no one generic profile to identify a serial killer. They usually are people seeking for a sensation, a lack of guilt or remorse, a need for control, impulsivity, and predatory behavior. These traits make up a psychopathic personality disorder. Psychopathy is a disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, manipulation, and occasional violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own wants and needs. There are four main types of serial killers; thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary serial killers, and power and control killers. There may be other
Taking the life of another person is one of the worst infractions of the law to commit. The Bureau of Justice defines serial killing as “[involving] the killing of several victims in three or more separate events” (“Michigan” 1). Serial killers often commit extremely violent crimes; they usually become infamous for these crimes. The first recorded serial killers are probably Jack the Ripper in 1888 and Fritz Haarmann in 1924 (“Michigan” 1). Jack the Ripper is also one of the most well-known criminals, almost everyone knows who he is or has at least heard of him. Most people know what he is famous for and associate him with being a bad person. Serial killers are typically sadistic and sociopathic, meaning that they are unable to feel empathy for people who are suffering (“Michigan” 1). Whimsical sociopaths who have sadistic tendencies are very dangerous. They inflict pain because they do not care that someone else is suffering, they only care that it makes t...
Does the name Ted Bundy ring a bell? A Handsome smart and conniving young man that’s responsible for about forty murders between 1964 through 1978. Ted (Theodore) Bundy was born November 24, 1946 in Burling, Vermont. Mother Eleanor Cowell was at the stage in her life where she was a single mother that could take care of her child. So she let her parents step in and raise young Theodore. With this happening Theodore grew up believing his birth mother was his sister and his grandparents where his parents.
A serial killer is a person who has killed three or more people over a month apart. Their motivation for killing is usually based on psychological issue.(Sanmartín,2001) In the U.S, the most reported serial killers are lower middle class white males, usually in their late twenties to early thirties (Skrapec,2001). Serial killers, often, are liars. They have no sense of remorse or guilt. Most of the time they are not in serious relationship or have any emotional obsession to any one person, besides their victims. Most of the well-known serial killers are: Robert Pickton, Charles Manson, Anthony Sowell, Ted Bundy, The Zodiac Killer, The Green River Killer, and The BTK murderer. (Sanmartín,2001). Often, women were never seen as even a suspect
Despite popular belief, serial killers are not always people that have that stereotypical “serial killer” look to them. Yes, most do not usually look happy and cheerful, but most of the time they just look like normal people. They are not always skinny, or have a long scraggly beard. There are some common myths about serial killers that many people believe to be true. For starters, most think that serial killers are male. The common belief is that the men are the aggressors, and women are always the victim; although that is found to mostly be the case, it is not one hundred percent true. “Approximately 17 percent of all serial homicides in the U.S. are committed by women”(Bonn). Another myth about serial killers is that they are always lonely,
Theodore Robert Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1949.His mother, Louise Cowell was unmarried at the time, and the name of his biological father has never been determined with certainty, however Lloyd Marshall was named on his birth certificate. Louise moved into her parent’s home shortly after Ted’s birth and allowed him to be raised as her ‘brother’ for quite some time. When Ted’s mother married Johnnie Culpepper Bundy in May 1951 in Tacoma, Washington, when Theodore was four years old, Theodore took his step-father’s last name of Bundy.
He was later apprehended while driving towards Pensacola, Florida (“Ted Bundy” 38). “In June 1979, a sensational trial, the first on national television, took place in Miami, Florida. Bundy was convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair for the sorority house murders of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy.” (“Ted Bundy” 38) Sorority Sister, Lisa Levy, was found alive, but nude and badly beaten, she died before arriving at the hospital. Her body served as crucial evidence.
Serial killers are usually young, white males who are quite intelligent and often come from broken homes. They may have been abused either physically or sexually during childhood and they have serious personality defects, such as low self-esteem and a lifelong sense of loneliness. Although no two serial killers are alike, they all fit this description somewhat. In the sixth edition of Crime and Criminality by Sue Titus Reid, a serial killer is defined as a person who commits more than one murder but at different times (Reid, p. 134).
A well-known personality disorder is psychopathy. Psychopathy’s shortened term “psycho” is often used as a slang term to mean crazy. Psychopathy is a real issue caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Psychopathic people have traits “common to some serial murderers, including sensation seeking, a lack of remorse or guilt, impulsivity, the need for control, and predatory behavior. These traits and behaviors are consistent with the psychopathic personality disorder” (Morton). Psychopathic tendencies are most common among killers. Although, “serial killers suffer from a variety of personality disorders, including psychopathy, anti-social personality, and others” (Morton). With psychopathy in a serial killer they feel they have a valid and justifiable reason for killing three or more people. With psychopathic killers feel their motives make their killing okay. Serial killers have “many other motivations for serial murders including anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking” (Morton). A common motive for serial killers is revenge. They feel that someone did them wrong, much like a person who was abused as a child. They feel they have a valid excuse for murdering the person that abused them or substitutes if they find that object of their rage unreachable. Another common motive is simply anger. With anger it is more often than not that they do not have a target. They are just angry and are willing to kill anybody to cope with it. Antisocial personality disorder is often in people who show “a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility” (Morton). Antisocial personality disorder is similar to psychopathic personality disorder yet, it remains different. The Behavior Analysis Unit at the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated, “Psychopathy is a personality disorder
In order to identify serial killers before they kill repeatedly, a person needs to study the characteristics that makes up this type of criminals. Most serial killers have been abandoned, by one or both parents, they are emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by a family member, or relatives from unstable families who have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories, or tend to have hate for their parents and people in general which makes them have antisocial personality disorder. They have conflicted pain or tortured animals at a young age and most are highly interested in gaining control over things. Even though not every serial killers posses these characteristics, but most share these characteristics the same way they share the psychological need to have complete control and power over people.