You’d be hard pressed to find one in a crowd. The average serial killer generally blends in with everyone else (Directory Journal, 2010). In fact, most are soft-spoken and even polite. Their monstrous nature only comes through when you dig deeper into their personalities, actions, and habits. Most seem to have come from dysfunctional family settings and were emotionally, sexually, or even verbally abused as children (Directory Journal, 2010). It is almost as if this background activates some psychological trigger that increases their feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness that led them to seek out their own heinous form of release.
Often considered America’s first female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos was neither first nor the worst. She had been suspected of committing at least seven murders and was sentenced to four of cases she had confessed to police. All the while, she maintained her innocence claiming that some or all of the killings were in self-defense.
Born Aileen Carol Pittman on February 29, 1956 to Diane Pratt and Leo Pittman in Rochester Michigan (Osborn, 2009). He...
She had a low self-esteem, felt abandoned, sexually abused by those that were to care for her. As a child she was sexually promiscuous and having sex with other children to obtain cigarettes, drugs, and food, which is how she came to learn that she could make money in prostitution. When she was 14 she was forced to give up a baby to adoption. She never got to meet the little boy that was born on March 23, 1971 who was born at a home for unwed mothers, (“The Child of A Serial Killer: Aileen Wournos’s Son,” 2017) another issue of abandonment. After her brother passed away, she once again felt abandoned, which helped fuel her fire for the hatred of
Whereas, disorganized serial killers typically have low IQ’s and are extremely antisocial. Pick their victims at random whenever the opportunity crosses. They find themselves compelled to perform rituals with every victim. It’s also known that some of these killers suffer with a history of mental illness.
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
Her parents, Leo Dale Pittman and Diane Wuornos, married when Diane was 14 years old. Pittman, a petty criminal, was violent and abusive (Shipley & Arrigo, 2004). Within two years, Aileen and her older brother Keith were born. (Silvio, McCloskey & Ramos-Grenier, 2006). Aileen Wuornos never met her father who was in prison at the time of Aileen’s birth. Ten years later, Pittman, a diagnosed schizophrenic (Silvio et al., 2006), died by suicide in prison where he was serving a sentence for the kidnap and rape of an eight year old girl (Jensen,
Alieen Wuornos, born February 29, 1956, grew up in a tumultuous childhood. Her father served prison time for child molestation and later killed himself in prison. Her mother abandoned her and her brother leaving them to be raised by their grandparents. Later she admitted to being sexually abused
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.
Background and Audience: Many may see serial killers as ones that carry around a chainsaw and wear a hockey mask, but that is far from what a serial killer should be seen as. In fact, they blend in with the people that you pass by in streets, stores, parks, etc. just like any person would.
They need to be broken down into the categories of sociopaths and psychopaths before that is determined. The research provided explains that in the case of sociopaths, they are more likely to be made into serial killers based on the types of environments they are around as they grow up. In the case of psychopaths, they are more likely to be born serial killers rather than made due to abnormalities found in their genetic makeup. But because such a difficult question cannot be answered with both choices there must be one answer that overpowers the other. In this case, the answer that is more logically sound is that serial killers are made. Although the sociopath category of serial killers are more likely to be born, it has been proven that the environment a person is raised up in influences how they grow up to be as an adult. “Combine this faulty wiring with inconsistent, too harsh, or even downright abusive parenting that confuses the child as to what the rules are and why one should obey them, and you quickly have an out-of-control child” (Lamb, Kassandra). Either way, the actions of a serial killer, whether sociopath or psychopath, should never be simply okayed or go
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
The murders committed are not just random, as we saw with the hit men. These organized killers typically are aware of the police system and know how to make their way around it. “The organized serial killer is often familiar with police procedures and takes great pride in thwarting investigations and taunting law enforcement officials by the careful placement or concealment of evidence” (Miller 5.6.1). This organization and careful placement allow the serial killer to become exceedingly dangerous, allowing them to accomplish their crimes. This adds to their motives that it is easy and there are no consequences. This allows the murder to continue to kill for their own personal reasons with no remorse. What adds to the aspect of a serial killer other than no remorse is the social alienation which we see often in the non typical serial killer due to the fact that they like normal serial killers, are often loners (Culhane 32). The hit man is another example of the non typical serial killer, yet he still follows this social alienation in his life. Even the most non typical killers have this social alienation in common whether it is before and continues after or during their kill
Aileen Wuornos was born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan; at a young age she and her brother, Keith, were raised by their grandparents, after her parents divorced just months before Aileen was born. Her father, a career criminal, was later convicted of kidnapping and raping a seven year old girl and eventually hung himself in his prison cell. Wuornos grandparents drank heavily and parented with strict authority. Wuornos would later say that she was sexually abused by her grandfather and had sexual relations with her brother. She became pregnant at the age of 14, and the baby was given up for adoption, and was forced out of her home and lived in the woods. She was arrested during the mid 1970s for charges related to assault and disorderly
She was raised by her grandparents when her mother abandoned her. They didn't tell her till she was 12. Both of her grandparents were abusive. Aileen became pregnant at the age of 14. She was sent to a home for unwanted
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).
On macro sociological level, we must first acknowledge the existence of patriarchy. Patriarchy is, according to Dictionary.com, a social system in which power is held by men, through cultural norms and customs that favor men and withhold opportunity from women. This the type of society we have lived in for thousands of years and this is the society that Aileen Wuornos grew up in. Kate Millett states in her book Sexual Politics, “patriarchy’s chief institution is the family.” The family’s role in a patriarchal society is to “encourage its members to adjust and conform” (33) Aileen Wuornos’s family life was not typical however. Wuornos was frequently sexually abused as a child by male figures in her life. Her grandfather Lauri and her brother