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The human nature of a serial killer
Essays on the psychology of serial killers
Essays on the psychology of serial killers
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Johana Sosa Pd.7 Throughout centuries the many cases of serial killers have sparked curiosity and a high level of interest for the search of what elicits a human being to take the lives of others. A serial killer is defined by a person who has killed three people or more in a process of time(cooling off period).This search has left many psychologists and criminologists dumbfounded. Are these humans born with a killer instinct or are they molded into it? Serial killers are made and not born they are products of traumatic childhood experiences, many prevalent social conditions and the fact that no one is born evil. Childhood Trauma is one of the most important factor to analyze within a serial killer. Every human being on this earth grows …show more content…
“The biggest difference was seen under the psychological abuse category were the levels were 2% in the general population and 50% in the serial killer group(M.G. 2005).” Physical abuse is defined as causing or allowing any type of non accidental physical injuries.As an example, “the mother of the child rapist and murderer Lorenzo Fayne was counseled by social services to not strike her son in the head as punishment.”(Malone.2000)hitting a child so young in the head can not only damage important parts of the head but also leave frustration within the child. The second type of abuse was sexual, which is any sexual activity that meets the criminal definition or is unhealthy for a child considering his/her age and level of development. A serial killer who described this type of abuse was Bobby joe, an American serial killer on death row in …show more content…
Exposure to sexual things at such a young age can lead to a drastically changed within the child, which can affect how they grow up. The last type of abused seen in serial killers was Psychological, which refers to any emotional, or any humiliation act that can be psychologically damaging. Many serial killers have undergone this type of abuse while growing up. One of the most common scenarios was that mother’s were dressings their son as a girl. Such case was for Henry lee Lucas. He was born in 1936 and he stated that his mother,”would dress him up as a little girl in which humiliated him,” His first victim was his mother. Regardless, the effects of dressing young boys into girls and physically hitting and exposing sexual acts at a young age, it's clear that these three offenders lives were influenced by the type of abuse they received for their development of becoming violent creatures. Prevalent social conditions has caused a lot of psychological defects within the serial killers while they were young. Most came from broken homes although there was a small percentage of those who grew up in a “normal” environment, “normal” such as having a father
In many cases, serial killers began their lives as remotely normal human beings. Most, however, have detectable characteristics of murderers before they hit puberty. Otis O’toole, for example, started a neighbourhood fire when he was six. George Adorno was even younger when he first displayed his pyromaniac tendencies by setting fire to his own sister when he was four. Along with pyromaniac behavior, other often-cited warning signs are enuresis (bed-wetting) and cruelty toward animals. Often, serial murderers are abused physically, psychologically, and sexually as children, sometimes from a stranger, but in most cases from a trusted family member or friend. Typically, they come from broken families, usually...
Common psychological disturbances in the stages of making a serial killer are seen in childhood and are usually based upon mental and psychological abuse endured by a child.
In a Google search of “serial killer memorabilia”, approximately 135,000 results would appear. While the U.S. produces over eighty-five percent of the world’s serial killers (“Why do Americans Idolize Serial Killers?” 11), Americans still tend to treat these murderers as icons and celebrities. As defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a serial killer is expressed as the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events. While it is no secret that serial killers have a different mindset than that of a normal person, do these murderers have genetically different minds? Although there is no exact answer as to what causes certain people to have the urge to kill, studies from the “Minnesota Study of Twins
This in turn led the child to hate his father for leaving. Although fatherlessness plays a role in some of the serial killers’ lives, abuse occurs more often than not among the soon to be mass-murderer's childhood. Physical abuse does not present itself as the only form of abuse that a child endures, sexual abused occurs most often among them. Some of the most notorious serial killers possess an abused childhood. John Wayne Gacy, ‘who killed thirty-three people which consisted of mostly of teenage boys, had an alcoholic father who abused his whole family. At the age of nine, Gacy’s neighbor also molested him multiple times (Be a Stoic – 24 Brutal Life Advice Quotes from Ancient Rome). One of the most famous woman serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, suffered sexual abuse from her grandfather after her parents abandoned her (Be a Stoic-24 Brutal Life Advice Quotes from Ancient
A serial killer is traditionally defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media. Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile.
Krafft-Ebing (1886) found that the serial killer had been through cruelty of animal; enjoy the torture and the pain of their victim during his or her childhood period. Moreover, the mothers of these serial killers were most of time working or doing other things and usually the father were absent. These children experience rejection and lack of attention, therefore, this child grows up having low self-esteem. Research show that adults that gone through abuse and violent behavior during their childhood were three times more likely to become violent as adult more than the non abused adults (Dutton & Hart, 1992).
There have been many theories over the years about how a person becomes a serial killer, and how does having an unstable childhood effect a person. It has been proven by psychologist and stated by serial killers that their childhood is one of the many problems they faced that led them to become a serial killer. The childhood of a typical young boy would consist of loving parents, a stable home and having friends. As for serial killers this is not typical at all. During the childhood of a serial killer it is not uncommon that he or she was abused, raped, or even attempted suicide along with many other harmful acts that a child should not be faced with. There have been many studies on the childhood of serial killers, and how they grew up compared to other young children. Some of the traits most male serial killers have as a child would include killing animals, auto-erotic activities, physical head injuries, and even bed wetting.
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.
'Serial murder'; has long been a term used to describe those human beings that repeatedly commit heinous crimes. It is rare that the average person probes the mind of a serial killer without bias. However, what lies behind the eyes of a serial killer deserves more than the cold hard look that society so often gives (Aaronson, Inter...
Mass Murderers and Serial Killers are nothing new to today’s society. These vicious killers are all violent, brutal monsters and have an abnormal urge to kill. What gives people these urges to kill? What motivates them to keep killing? Do these killers get satisfaction from killing? Is there a difference between mass murderers and serial killers or are they the same. How do they choose their victims and what are some of their characteristics? These questions and many more are reasons why I was eager to write my paper on mass murderers and serial killers. However, the most interesting and sought after questions are the ones that have always been controversial. One example is; what goes on inside the mind of a killer? In this paper I will try to develop a better understanding of these driven killers and their motives.
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. Since the beginning of time, scientists and neuropsychologists alike have studies its composition and how it influences human behavior. However, no human behavior has baffled researchers more than serial murder. Serial killers are dangerous animals that act upon bizarre influences that have fascinated the human race for thousands of years. Many wonder what could cause a person to take the life of another innocent soul. Do internal factors cause them to do it? Is it their environment? What causes a serial killer to kill?
The nurturing of individuals plays a role in the making of killers, as 94% of serial killers had experienced some form of abuse as children and 42% have suffered severe physical abuse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010). A child abuse is a determining factor, in which supports the idea that serial killers and psychopath, are influenced significantly by nurture (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). In most cases social, cultural and physiological determinants all play a role in influencing serial killers to grow into a mass murderer. It is important that physiological and social determinants can be identified, so they could be altered for the purpose of preventing the number of crime.
VThe similarities of serial killers can show signs of what to look for in a young child with unusual behavioral issues. Scientists have studied the behavioral patterns of killers to better understand why they commit their crimes. The article “The Serial Killer Phenomenon”, by Richard Whittington-Egan explains that “A large number of serial killers have such characteristics in common, as being essentially a loner, experiencing difficulty with relationships, and showing, psychopathically, neither empathy, conscience, nor remorse, only arrogance” (Whittington-Egan). A person with killer attributes will be an antisocial person who has trouble in any relationship based on love and trust, two emotions difficult for a serial killer to feel. Again the killer will feel no empathy for other human beings or remorse in result of the wrong doing they have committed.
So what makes a serial killer? Levin points out that contrary to popular belief, serial killers don't just 'snap'; or 'go crazy'; (Douglas, p. 137). Many of the serial killers have been the victims of childhood abuse. Jack Levin stated 'Research shows many serial killers suffered abuse, incest or neglect as children and develop poor self images'; (Douglas, p. 137). Serial killers often have a childhood marked by the absence of any nurturing relationship. 'They often come from families where the parents were absent or ineffective, where authority was not defined, and where they could engage in destructive behavior undeterred-violent play, cruelty to animals, and incidents of arson being some of the childhood behavior patterns noted among many serial killers'; (Clark, p. 206).
What happens is that murderers will be abused in their early age, causing feelings such as humiliation and helplessness.This will make that person feel like they need to instill those very emotions and pass them onto their victims. (crimemuseum.org) Scientists have gathered family information from many serial killers, suicide victims, and others offenders and compared them. They found that most of their parents argued non-stop, were unemployed and alcoholic. They also found that the children suffered from both physical and mental abuse (Cahill and Russ 236). These, along with other factors, are some of the early signs of a potential