“The way mothers interact with their babies in the first year of life is strongly related to how children behave later; interventions focusing on parenting during the first year of life would be beneficial in preventing future child conduct problems”1. This study, released by the Science Daily website, shows a positive relationship between a toddler’s actions and the way his mother interacts with him as a baby. These facts can be easily implied on the main antagonist in the novel, Red Dragon, known as Francis Dolarhyde. Dolarhyde is portrayed in the novel as a film technician; he is also a serial killer. The question of how Dolarhyde came to be a serial killer can be answered through looking back at his past. The fact that he was abandoned by his mother the moment he was born is the main reason that led to him become a serial killer. Sadly, the reason his mother abandoned him is because he was born with abnormality in his face; this also played a role in him becoming a serial killer.
“Then she closed her eyes and did not open them while they brought the baby in. Finally she looked. They shut the door when she screamed. Then they gave her a shot. On the fifth day she left the hospital alone” (Ch. 25). The reaction of Dolarhyde’s mother was very striking, a mother is supposed to accept her child no matter what shape he is born in; if she did not do that, then how does she expect others to do that. Dolarhyde’s grandmother was the only one available to take care of him after his own mother abandoned him. However, even his grandmother did not acknowledge herself as his legal guardian until he spent five years at an orphanage. “Near the end of his fifth year, Francis Dolarhyde had his first and only visitor at the orphana...
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...o a great becoming, but you recognize nothing. To me, you are a slug in the sun. You are an ant in the afterbirth” (Ch. 20). This belief can be seen as completely insane, no human can ever be transformed into a dragon, but to Dolarhyde thinking this way helped him feel better about himself.
Dolarhyde’s excessive hatred to people and his great desire to kill them were mainly because he did not receive the necessary care as a child from those who should have given it to him. Dolarhyde grew up without parents; and his only caregiver, his grandmother treated him harshly. The torture he had to go through while living with his grandmother is all because his mother did not love him enough, due to the way he looked, to take care of him. Altogether, lack of love and being bullied from those surrounding him, led Dolarhyde to become a serial killer that everyone feared.
...y. As the book showed ?dad yells and blames everyone, mom yells at the kids, the older children yell at the younger children, and the youngest child kicks the cat.? (Carceral, 2004, pp. 200). The youngest child is not able to understand what is really going on and feels worthless and not loved without conditions. This child will turn to where they will get attention. This can lead to undesirable associates and into crime. As the child grows older, and has children of this/her own the syndrome is passed on.
In addition, Beaty also claims that a violent society was the cause of many people becoming serial killers. The reason that Beaty suggests that a violent society is a motive for people to become serial killers is because culture finds violence acceptable and tends to approve it in many circumstances. She also present statistical research done in 1970, which shows that one out of every four men and one out of every five women believed that it was appropriate for a husband to hit his wife under certain situations. Obviously, she appeals to pathos in this paragraph by bringing up the experts feeling about children ?The experts feel that children demonstrate increasingly aggressive behavior with each violent act they view? (pg317).
In the novel All Over but the Shoutin’ Rick Bragg shows the love and devotion of what every mother should have through his mother. The only woman that Bragg truly cares for and takes time out of his day is for his mother Margaret Marie. Bragg tries to do the best for his mother and tries his best to make her proud of him. Bragg learned early in life that his mother strived to give her children everything possible. For Mrs. Bragg her children are the reason she wakes up everyday and tries to make a better life for them.
Many influences may push young people such as Lee Boyd Malvo to perform violent acts. Psychological, sociological and biological factors play a coexisting role in young adults life. Violence can be caused by disruptions, damage or undeveloped brain or can be brought on by something else such as economic difficulties or social or cultural difficulties. The nature vs. nurture question has been an ongoing debate. It can be argued that John lee Malvo born with predetermined genes or biological factors that played an integral part in creating his homicidal tendencies or that he become murderous through his surroundings partnered by the psychological influence that Mohammed had over him.
...olent incidences contrast in specific details and their fathers personas, both children lose their innocence and gain the experience and knowledge to question life and make logical decisions.
When Berkowitz was born, he was immediately put up for adoption. His adoptive parents cared greatly for him but when he was still a teenager his adoptive mother died of cancer (“David Berkowitz (Son of Sam)”, 2014). Berkowitz throughout his life lacked a solid relationship with a mother figure. According to John Bowlby who proposed the theory in the 1950’s, the Attachment theory predicts that most delinquents are a result of abonnement at a young age and the children tend to lack empathetic understanding (Schmallegar, 2006). David fits this mold because just after birth he was essentially abandoned by his birth parents and given up for adoption. During his killing spree, it would have been difficult for the Son of Sam killer to feel empathy for his victims since he did not develop this understanding of empathy as a child. The absence of a mother figure throughout his life would also cause him to especially lack empathy for his women
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
”(3) Marie, Jeannette’s mother, completely refuses to take care of her own children. She doesn’t care for her children as any mother should. Any child, even at the age of three, should not be making hotdogs in a hot oven. This act shows how much independence her father has instilled in her.
The case of whether serial killers are born with the lust to kill or if they are truly victims of their environment has been a hot debated question by both psychologists and the FBI today. A serial killer is traditionally defined as one that kills 3 or more people at different times with “cooling off” periods in between kills. Both psychological abuse as a child and psychological disorders are to blame for the making of a killer. The nature vs. nurture debate is best applied to the mysterious behaviors and cases of serial killers and their upbringing and environment. Nature is the genetic and biological connections a person has, personality traits, and how genetic make-up all relates to a killer. Nurture is examining the upbringing and environment that a person is around that affects what a person becomes. In some cases however, the effects of only upbringing or only biological problems were the reasons certain serial killers committed crimes. Although there is no definitive answer to what plays the bigger role: nature or nurture, they both are contributing factors that make a serial killer. These deviants of society are afflicted with problems in either their upbringing or have psychological disorders, and are able to blend into our everyday lives with no apparent differences, yet they wreck havoc through their unremorseful killings.
Francis Macomber is a thirty-five years old man, on an African safari. He is also there with his wife he is feminine as well as a coward. Macomber is considered a coward because when faced with his first lion, he bolted and fled, increasing hatred from his wife. She has been disapproving of him for a while. She is basically a snake in the grass and cheats on Macomber. Macomber decides to have a brave moment in his life for a chance and in the process, is killed. Gender roles and masculinity played a major part in the story; whether, it was Margot or Frances Macomber, and even more.
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).
In Natural Born Killers Oliver Stone uses an array of cinematic techniques to portray how negative media influence children, which may lead to a destructive role in society. Stones movie Natural Born Killers is made for adults, to show how different media’s in today’s society are corrupting the youth. The use of cartooned killings, using music video cinematography and violence as entertainment all parallel to experiences a typical youth will have while growing up. Stone believes it is not the responsibility of the media to raise today’s youth, as an entertainer he is simple the ‘messenger’. Oliver Stone uses the characters of Mickey and Mallory, both whom did not receive any love during their childhood years, parents are the pivotal part of a family needed to let a “crack of light to come through”, to show them a little love. The responsibility is ultimately held with the parents for control, guidance, and love.
To begin with, numerous reasons for why a child acts in the manner he exhibits and why he continues to exert such dangerous and even fatal schemes. Recent research shows that factors ranging from inherited personality traits to chemical imbalances and damages suffered in the womb can increase the odds that a child will become violent (Johnson 234). Experts argue that no one is predestined to a life of crime. They believe that influences such as repeated abuse, extreme neglect, poverty, media violence, and easy access to guns play the major role in molding children into criminals. The father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer wonders, "If potential for evil is in the blood that some of us pass on to our children" (Seifert 23).
Mitchell, Heather, and Michael G. Aamodt. "The incidence of child abuse in serial killers." Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology 20.1 (2005): 40-47.
In the twenty first century there have been many cases of kids committing murder, whether it is the relationships they hold at home or the video games they play, the environment a child is exposed to will affect their developmental process. Children are supposed to be innocent and pure without the desire to kill, yet in the last 50 years official statistics on Listverse.com suggest that over 1,100 kids have been found guilty of murder in England alone. The average age of a child that kills is just about fourteen years old. These kids are usually brought up in an environment that does not teach them right from wrong.