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An essay about the importance of criminological theories
Essay on criminological theory
An essay about the importance of criminological theories
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Holmes and Holmes developed this typology based on various characteristics of the crime scenes and the victims themselves of 110 interviews of selected offenders and serial murders (Canter & Wentink, 2004). David Canter and Natalia Wentink conducted an empirical test of this typology and developed several criticisms to their work. Their empirical test concluded that the features described for each category tend to co-occur within each other. For example, the characteristics of a lust killer include a controlled crime scene, evidence of torture, the body being moved, a specific type of victim, no weapon left at the crime scene, and rape; all of these features are also included for the thrill killer. This makes it difficult to categorize these …show more content…
They were also concerned with the fact that Holmes and Holmes did not offer a multiple typology killer. They offer a new category in the typology they named a multiple-typology killer (Greeting & Culhane, n.d.). They define this category as not a distinct type of killer, but instead as a way of thinking to keep law enforcement investigators from being biased to profiling the offender in one category of the typology (Greeting & Culhane, …show more content…
In a study conducted by Hickey, he discovered that out of thirty-four female serial killers, almost one in two had a male accomplice committing murders with them (Holmes et al., 1991). He also revealed that 97% were white and the average age the women started committing murders was thirty-three (Holmes et al., 1991). Women serial killers differ from men in that most women kill for material gain, such as money or insurance benefits, and they usually commit murder with pills or poison. Stephen Holmes, Ronald Holmes, and Eric Hickey developed a typology for female serial killers similar to the one developed by Holmes and Holmes, discussed earlier. They begin with visionary serial killers, who are compelled by some force, such as God, or spirits, to commit murders. The second type is the comfort killer, who usually kills acquaintances and does so for a material gain, money or real estate (Holmes et al., 1991). The third category is hedonistic female serial killers, which is similar to the earlier typology in that the offender connects murder with sexual gratification. This is the least represented category for female offenders, but evidence for this type of killer can be seen in the case of Carol Bundy (Holmes et al., 1991). Bundy allegedly helped her husband kidnap, murder, and decapitate the
La Donna Beaty clearly States in her argument, ?What Makes a Serial Killer?? her opinion and different theories on what causes a human being to become a serial killer. Beaty states that there are many serial killers and victims of them, but she is unsure about what causes a person to become a serial killer. Furthermore, she asked many questions, but there was no definite answer. For example, using examples of serial killers including Jeffery Dahmer and Ted Bundy, but only to draw up more questions. However, she wrote many expert opinions too, using them to her advantage in proving her argument, and giving a statement from a respected author and expert on serial killers named Ann Rule (pg315). Rule states that 3,500 to 5,000 people become victims of serial killers. She also states that 350 serial killers are at large in our society (pg315). Additionally, Beaty also presents an early theory that was completely incorrect. This was about how to identify a serial killer by looks. Beaty then gave her expertise by stating that a serial killer could look like or be anything they choose to become. They are most likely to be males and 92 percents are white (pg316). No doubt, that she appeals to logos by providing evidence about general characteristics of serial killers she quotes that in 1911, an Italian criminologist Cesare Lombrosco concluded that ?murderers as a group [are] biologically degenerate [with] bloodshot eyes, aquiline noses, curly black hair, strong jaws, big ears, thin lips, and menacing grins?.
Arndt, W., Hietpas, T., & Kim, J (2004). Critical characteristics of male serial murderers. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 29(1).
American serial killer H. H. Holmes once said “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing. I was born with the evil one standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since” (Lukacs, 2017, n.p.). H. H. Holmes is notorious for being a well known serial killer during the late 1800s. Interestingly, he is also considered by many individuals to be the first American serial killer. Today, researchers still struggle to find a cause as to why he committed the crimes he did. It is difficult to explain his reasoning and choices – therefore, because of this, many researchers and criminologists have dabbled in attempting to create an accurate explanation for his actions. In order to do this, it is essential to first consider Holmes’ childhood, upbringing, and crimes in
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 ...
Introduction: On the spectrum of criminal activity, serial killers are rather rare. Rarer still is a serial killer like Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing 28 women in the 1970s in ghastly fashion and some believe he may have killed far more. It is hard to imagine what could cause any person to cross the mental boundary into such macabre behavior as Bundy perpetrated. Nevertheless, it is important to try to understand that behavior because only though such an understanding would society be able to identify and deter mass murderers in order to save lives.
Using the Psychoanalytical approach, Freud might say that Holmes’s life long killing spree was caused by Holmes’s unconscious aggressive and sexual urges. When Holmes was a child, a mother who devoted herself to the Methodist church instead of her children raised him, and this could have some connection to why Holmes acted out the way he did. Holmes got pleasure from hurting others, and death did not scare him. This could’ve been caused because he never got the love and nurturing he needed from his mother. Aggression is something that children who have parents that don’t give them enough love and attention are more prominent to having. The child will begin to resent the mother and father, and I believe that this was shown through whom he killed and the way he did. Holmes could have picked victims only being female with blonde hair because they unconsciously reminded him of his mother, and he was letting out the resentment and aggression he felt towards her because of how she treated him in the early years of his life. This resentment towards his mother could have been so built up that she’s the reason he did not feel remorse when torturing and killing mass
Upper and middle-class women in that era mostly had a role as their husband’s ornament, the angel of the house. With the emergence of middle-class society due to the Industrial Revolution, many new rich men wanted to show off their valuable "treasure"; a wife that is passive, obedient, beautiful, submissive, pious, and pure. This beautiful-to-be-looked role of a wife is similar to that of wallpaper. In a patriarchal society, relationship between a husband and a wife was similar to a relationship between a parent and a child. A parent had a right to say things and a child had an obligation to listen and to do what the parent said. A child was not supposed to disagree. The child must submit him or herself to the parent. It made the child dependent on the parent. It can be seen clearly that the husband treated his wife as a child. He called her his “blessed little goose”), and “little girl.” When the narrator tried to tell him what she thought was good for her, but not appropriate to the husband’s opinion, the husband used sweet words to force his idea toward the wife. “My darling,” said he, “I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your own, and that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! … Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” The myth of the natural inferiority of women greatly influenced the status of women in law. Under the common law of England, an unmarried woman could own property, make a contract, or sue and be sued. But a married woman, defined as being one with her husband, gave up her name, and virtually all her property came under her husband's control.
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.
Next the chapter goes on to talk about the types of serial murders for men and females. The chapter talks about how Holmes and DeBurger came up with four category typology of serial murders. 1. Visionary 2. Missionary 3. Hedonistic 4. Power and Control. The section goes on to talk about how other people to categorize serial killers by their terms of geographical mobility, and also their sexual tendencies. Next the section talks about how female serial killers are categorized into 9 different categories come up by Kelleher and Kelleher. 1. Black Widows 2. Angels of Death 3. Sexual Predator 4. Revenge Serial Killer 5. Profit for Crime 6. Team Killers 7. Question of Sanity 8. Unexplained and 9. Unsolved.
Criminologists Ronald Holmes, Stephan Holmes, and James DeBurger have created a classification system for serial killers based off motive as opposed to the FBI’s classification system that is based off method (Vronsky 147). This classification system is broken into four categories: visionaries, mission-oriented, hedonistic, and power/control
Holmes’ past and behaviors we start to see a pattern of disregard and lack of remorse (H.H. Holmes Biography, 2015; Freeman 2007). The use of criminal profiling does have its limits when it comes to the accuracy of specific characterizes and behaviors, but is an important tool for investigators to use (Winerman, 2004). Looking at the organized and disorganized characteristics associated with serial killers, we see a few from each (Freeman, 2007). Holmes organizational characteristics include Holmes’ college education, his killing in one place and disposing of the body in another place, his dismemberment of his victims, he was socially adequate, and he had a normal to high IQ (Freeman, 2007). Organized serial killers are cunning and methodical about not only how they kill their victims, but how they approach, attack and dispose of their victims (Geberth, 1995). Most serial killers do not finish college, so Holmes was quite an exception to the stereotypical serial killer (H.H. Holmes, 2004). Holmes and some serial killers manipulate their victims through highly persuasive and charming behaviors (What Motivates Serial Killers to kill 2007). When it comes to Holmes’ disorganized characteristics we see that he lived near the crime scene, and he left physical evidence (Freeman, 2007). Holmes could be labeled a psychopath as he showed a lack of conscious, remorse, and guilt for his actions (H.H. Holmes, 2004; Johns,
Jane Austen’s novel Emma follows the lives of the upper class and middle class of Surrey during the early 19th Century. The novel’s main character, Emma Woodhouse, is a clever, quick-witted young woman who passes her time by matchmaking her friends, and compulsively meddling in other people’s lives. There are a number of themes portrayed throughout the novel, such as marriage and social status, with one of the most prominent examples being the confined nature of women in society. Emma shows how upper class women, such as Emma Woodhouse, are exceptionally intelligent, but did not have the authority in society to take part in the business deals as men were expected to. Women were also not trusted in their own marriage affairs, let alone others, and were often not allowed an independent existence, and were often dependent upon adult males, either their fathers or husbands.
In Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw, the female protagonists are developed to rebel and challenge the patriarchal and the stereotypical cultural views they live in. Mrs. Warren’s Profession can be viewed as a 19th century feminist piece because it represents its female protagonists: Vivie and Mrs. Kitty Warren as being empowered by their sexuality and their intellectual, this went against the ideal women of the time known as the angel of the house. Although, second wave and third wave feminism ideas were developed in the late 20th century, Mrs. Warren’s Profession had these ideas already implemented in its characters. The text highlights the full potential of women by enabling their rebellious actions inside and outside the male dominated social frame. Mrs. Warren’s Profession problematizes the expected female agency through the indirect and direct characterization of Mrs. Warren and Vivie while characterizing the male characters as passive, nonchalant, and seeking power through women, therefore fragmenting their patriarchal roles. The female characters in this text rebel and display the same potential expected from men at the time, therefore it showed these females characters working outside the social frame to display empowerment. This is significant to notice because we realize how this text defuses the stereotypical labels placed on women in the 19th century. Both Mrs. Warren and Vivie display their full potential by stepping outside the male social frame. This text intentionally places these two female characters as the focal point of power. Shaw’s attempt to create revolutionary female characters succeeds when the text enables these female characters to display their full potential and to fully rebel and cha...
The early 18th century in America is notably a great prosperous period. Since the use of money played a crucial role on where you stood in the social ladder, many people in that time period used their money for that reason. This was a problem since most of the society tried to climb up the social ladder. Nevertheless, as men mostly used money to manage their status in society, women used marriage to grant themselves a wealthy life. In The House of Mirth, written by Edith Wharton, the role of women in society is seemingly expressed through their characteristics. Different aspects of femininity are introduced by how Wharton depicts women in the society. By looking at how Wharton portrays women in the society, readers will have a representation on the role of women as they deal with their morals, money, privileges and affections.