The focus of criminal behavior is to understand the motive of crime, reasons why the offenders commit a crime and their behaviors. To get a clear understanding of criminal behaviors, it is incredibly important to draw clear lines between varying types of crimes such as the mass murder and serial killing. This paper explores the notion of criminal behaviors and how they relate to different types of crimes as contextualized in the article; "Dangerous Minds."
Discussion
From the class lecture notes, a serial killer is defined as a person who murders multiple victims with cooling off period in between each period. On the contrary, mass murder refers to the killing of multiple victims at some point without any cooling off period. From the article,
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The case of TBK as found by the investigators was a disorganized scene as the offender left the bodies at the scene and everything used in the killing could be traced. At the end of the investigations on the TBK, the profilers establish that the serial killer was a young man-sixteen-year-old who lived a lonely life with no girlfriend or anyone and had bottled a lot of anger. According to (Bartol & Bartol, 2011) criminality in anything from a person's psychology and there are some factors which increase the chances that such a person will be involved in criminal activity. Some of the factors listed by Bartol and Bartol include antisocial beliefs, low IQ, poor parenting, poor personal temperament among others. From our class notes, most serial killers or those who commit murder start their lives with problems in their childhood such as abuse, neglect, and poor parenting. The descriptions of the behaviors given both by Bartol and from the lecture are precisely what is replicated in the case of TBK serial …show more content…
Bartol & Bartol, (2011) asserts that there are certain stereotypes which surround serial killers and that any crime is always associated with such stereotypical characteristics; in cases where the offenders are blacks, they have been mistakenly taken to be whites because of the stereotype that most serial killers are white. Stereotyping on serial killers can be best depicted by the case of the twenty-year-old school teacher whose body was found on the rooftop, from the article. The body was mutilated and sexually abused and left right at the crime scene; of course, the offender must have been disorganized to leave everything at the site. In this case, there are some behavioral factors attached to the crime which includes the possibility of the killer having been involved in past offense, being mentally ill and even having no or poor social life. Many at times serial killers have been stereotyped to be whites while in reality, the killers turn out in some cases to be
Serial killers are a type person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern. Most of the time something triggers them and then they go on their serial rampage. Some things that can be part of a serial killer's profile is they are normally white males, late 20’s early 30’s, kills with in own race, method of murder is hands on, and their victims are selected because they share specific characteristics. The types of serial killers are disorganized asocial and organized nonsocial. The different types of serial killers are: missionary killers, power seeking, lust killing, visionary killer, thrill killing. The profiling of a serial killer's changes upon the
The present paper intent to enquire into a female serial killer. It shall describe and analyze the theories behind the occurrences and sequent offer explanations. The studies of criminology theories it is important to recognize why humans decide on living a life cycle of crime. Wikipedia.org defines serial killer as, “a person who murders three or more people, usually in service of abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break (a “cooling off period”) between them.” Precisely of this, humans who tend to be a serial killer are prone to developmental and physical characteristics. Several of these trends could fit into a model standard of a crime. A good example of analyzing the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos, an American female serial killer who killed
Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile. Almost every major social, biological, psychological behavioural influence that has been seriously suggested as playing a role in causing crime has been thoroughly thought as potentially contributing to the behavior of serial killers (Levin, 2008). The time period and amount of killings fluctuate depending on the individual committing the crimes. Usually, the murders happen in different geographical areas. A mass murder has a separate definition than a serial killer, because a serial killer has a “cooling off” period, where mass murders kill several individual in a single event.
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 issues. (Sanmartn,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.
Almost all people know who serial killers are, but what exactly defines a serial killer. The FBI defines serial murder as “a minimum of three to four victims with a ‘cooling off’ period between, the killer is usually a stranger to the victim, the murders reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim, and the murder is rarely for profit.” (Vronsky, 2004, p.36) Serial killers are usually a white male from a lower-to-middle-class background typically in his twenties or thirties. Also, 85% of the world’s serial killers live in America, with at least twenty to fifty unidentified active serial killers plotting another one of their killings. On average, every person has seen or met at least 37 serial killers in their lifespan.
serial killer: a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and usually following a similar, characteristic pattern of behavior. (8)
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 own satisfactional 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 men and female serial kills, and finally general information on how their brains operate and their motives for committing such harmful acts.
Serial killers have many frightening facets. The most frightening thing about them is that experts still do not know what makes a human become a serial killer. Many experts believe serial killers become what they are because they have a genetic disposition or brain abnormality while other experts believe that a serial killer is created by childhood abuse; and some other experts believe that it is a combination of both brain abnormalities and abusive childhood experiences that creates a serial killer. A murderer is considered a serial killer when they “murder three or more persons in at least three separate events with a “cooling off period” between kills” (Mitchell and Aamodt 40). When defining a serial killer, their background, genes, and brain are not mentioned; perhaps one day those aspects of the serial killer can be included.
“A series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone. The crimes may occur over a period of time ranging from hours to years. Quite often the motive is psychological, and the offender’s behavior and the physical evidence observed at the crime scenes will reflect sadistic, sexual overtones.” Looking at this definition from the National Institutes of Justice makes me think of all previous and even potential victims of the serial killers that are very prominent in the United
Although mass murderers and serial killers are both dangerous and somewhat sick people, there are several distinct characteristics of each that put them in different categories. The most distinct differences between the two are; Most mass killers kill several victims over a relatively short period of time, usually hours, but sometimes days (Murder 1). Serial killers most often kill his or her victims separately, over a much longer period of time, sometimes lasting several years until the killer is taken into custody by authorities or killed.
Nature versus nurture has been argued in attempt to understand how criminals behave. The theory of what influences psychopath and serial killers’ violent and destructive pathways has not been agreed on till this day. Criminals such as psychopaths and serial killers have been researched for the past two decades. Scientists have found that genetics is a determining factor of who becomes a serial killer. It is important to understand the determinants involved within a serial killer, because if these social and environmental causes are discovered, they can be altered and controlled to reduce crime (Lykken, 1993). With more studies, we would therefore prevent mass murders and could assist in significant reductions of crime within society.
Serial killers are only motivated by sex; this is a misconception because not all serial murders are sexually-based. There are many other motivations for serial murders, including anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking. For instance, a former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant and Lee Boyd Malvo killed primarily for anger and thrill motivations (“Serial Murder”). In addition, serial killers are all the same is also a misassumption. There are different type of serial murders including motives, visionary, mission-oriented, power/control, and hedonistic. Each has their own motivations and reasons to kill, but hedonists murdered for lust/sexual, thrill/rush, comfort/profit, or all three categories. First and foremost, a serial killer is defined
A serial killer is a person whom everybody knows as a friend, a lover or even a father but no one knows about his killer instinct until it's to late. Serial killers have plagued this country and others for many years. They are hard to find and virtually undetectable until they start murdering the innocent.
In today’s society, one will find that there are many different factors that go into the development of a criminal mind, and it is impossible to single out one particular cause of criminal behavior. Criminal behavior often stems from both biological and environmental factors. In many cases criminals share similar physical traits which the general population do not usually have. For example criminals have smaller brains than properly adjusted individuals. However biological reasons cannot solely be the cause of criminal behavior. Therefore, one must look to other sources as to how a criminal mind is developed. Social and environmental factors also are at fault for developing a person to the point at which they are lead to committing a criminal act. Often, someone who has committed a violent crime shows evidence of a poorly developed childhood, or the unsuitable current conditions in which the subject lives. In addition if one studies victimology which is the role that the victim plays in the crime, it is apparent that there are many different causes for criminal behavior. Through the examination of biological factors, in addition to the social and environmental factors which make up a criminal mind, one can conclude that a criminal often is born with traits common to those of criminals, it is the environment that exist around them that brings out the criminal within them to commit indecent acts of crime.
The biographies of most serial killers reveal significant psychological trauma at an early age, but that is no excuse due to similar biographies of successful people as well. Whenever the case of an infamous serial killer is examined, we invariably search for clues in the childhood that might explain his or her seemingly senseless murders.