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Psychological theories of crime essay
Psychological, biological, and sociological theories of criminal behavior
Psychological, biological, and sociological theories of criminal behavior
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John Wesley Hardin 1853-1895 The Gentleman killer (John Wesley Hardin) was born a killer in Bonham, Texas on May 26, 1853. He had 11 other siblings including Joseph Gibson Hardin; Elizabeth Cobb; Martha Ann Smith;Mattie Ann Smith; Benjamin Hardin, III Brother of Joseph Gibson Hardin; Hardin was the eighth child out of eleven. Hardin's father was a Methodist preacher. Hardin’s father moved the family as much as a nomad during Hardin's childhood. They settled in Moscow, Polk County, in 1855, then moved in 1859 to Sumpter, Trinity County, where J. G. Hardin taught school. In 1861, J. G. Hardin moved the family to Livingston, Polk County, Texas where he taught school and practiced law.After the war, in 1865, the family returned to Sumter. In 1868, the 15 year old John Wesley Hardin killed his first victim, a former slave. He escaped his …show more content…
family and later claimed to have killed three soldiers who were sent to arrest him and his relatives and neighbors helped him bury and hide the evidence. In 1869, his father sent him away from the area to teach school in Pisgah, Navarro County, where other relatives lived. He left the school after one semester to explore the many wonders of the world he lived in.He developed his skills in gambling and became a frequent watcher of horse racing. By the end of 1869, Hardin had killed a freedman and four soldiers. In December of that year he killed Jim Bradley in a fight after a card game. His life became a pattern of gambling, saloons, fights, and killing. Among his victims were an Indian who shot at him with an arrow and five Mexicans with whom he had argued for crowding his herd.
In rough and ready Abilene, Hardin fraternized and sparred with Wild Bill Hickock and Ben Thompson. When his cousin Mannen Clements was jailed for the killing of two of Clements' cowboys. He married Jane Bowen in 1972. He entered prison in Huntsville on October 5, 1878. He made several unsuccessful attempts to escape and was harshly punished each time. Eventually he settled into prison life, joined the debating society, attended Sunday school and studied law. In January 1892, Hardin learned that his wife had died He was released from prison February 17, 1894 after 15 years and 5 months with time off for good behavior. He rejoined his children in Gonzales County. Then John remarried in 1895 to Carolyn Jane Louis and died later that year. John Wesley Hardin was known for killing over 40 people in his lifetime. He started killing people at the age of 15 years old when he killed a former house slave. After that, he had a voice tell him in his head to kill more and more and started to gamble at the age of
18. Hardin was in a saloon on August 19, 1895 in El Paso,Texas. He was playing a game of cards with his friend from the saloon. All of the sudden, a gun was pointed right up against the back of Hardin’s head. With an easy pull of the trigger, Hardin was dead on the floor in seconds. The person who killed him was a man Hardin had hired to kill someone else. Rumor has it, the man hired to kill someone else was angry at Hardin for killing so many people and now wanting him to kill someone else for him was over the line.
Sheriff Johnson was more than just a backwoods sheriff who gained fame by tracking down and arresting more than 30 armed vigilantes in the murders of two families. He also investigated and help convict three murders and personally hung them on the town square.
Born on February 2, 22, 1996, Charles Cullen is a famous serial killer from New Jersey (Jennifer Hash, 2006, p. 3). The Media named him “the Angel of Death,” an apt nickname for a serial killer that worked as a nurse. According to Brain D, Andresen (2005), an angel of death describes is a type of serial killer that often works as a caregiver in the medical field who intentionally kills patients (1). An angel of death has power over their victims and may try to play god by deciding the victim would be better off dead than to suffer from their illness. As a nurse, Cullen had access to drugs, which he used to kill his victims. He gave patients overdoses of the drug digoxin, a heart stimulant. Charles was given a way out of the death penalty if
Throughout history, America has been the home of serial killers, with more than 2,000 throughout history. In this country, America has encountered many different kinds of these sick people. One of the most infamous serial killers throughout American History was Theodore Robert Bundy, also known as Ted Bundy. On November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, Theodore Robert Bundy was born. When people think of serial killers, they usually see a dirty, insane looking person that would stand out from the average person. In Bundy’s case it was very different. Ted was a very smart individual who had attended 5 different colleges throughout the United States, studying law and eventually getting his degree in psychology at the University of Washington. Bundy was a very handsome and charming man, unlike most other serial killers. Looking helpless and using his good looks, Bundy was able to lure his victims and would knock them unconscious with an object such as a crowbar or a pipe, then would handcuff them inside his car. Once the victims were under his control he would then proceed in kidnapping, raping, sodomizing, and eventually killing them in very harsh ways. Throughout the 70’s, he raped and murdered young women all across the country. Bundy was said to be connected to at least 36 murders, and suspected to have committed one hundred or more.
When it come to the wrongdoing of serial murders the first thing people think of is that the offender is psychotic, white, abused as a child and experimented with animals. However that is not true, serial killers have different alternatives, motives and desires. Some are sexual sadist, act in necrophilia and are mission base serial killers. However people do not know that African-Americans consist of the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total amount of serial killers in America. (Bonn) Most believe that serial killers are white and other races are not likely to partake in that type of crimes. However two notorious well known black serial killers are Lemuel Smith & John Floyd
One of the most horrendous serial killers in modern history would have to be John Wayne Gacy, Jr. He was the second of three children and born in 1942. He lived in Chicago and attended catholic schools, and wasn't a very popular boy in school. Gacy seemed to live a very normal childhood, with exception to his relationship with his father, and series of accidents that effected him. No one could have known what the future held for John, not even his father.
A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it, (Lapham, 1985). Unfortunately, such acts of rampage have become a prevalent factor in the Canadian culture. As a result of endless media coverage, Canadians now are constantly bombarded with countless images of violence. Many of which often portray a victim avenging their opponent by force. Thus, indoctrinating individuals to believe that it is only through aggression that problems are resolved. Rather than being punished for acts of violence, those who commit such offenses are often praised for their “heroism”. In addition, the success of films like The Godfather, Gladiator, and Troy further aid in reinstating we live in a society that praises violence. Furthermore, this ideology allows for people to partake in violent acts with little or no backlash from ones community. However, when an person strays away from the “norm”, they are likely to then be viewed as a deviant. Such cases of rejection within a society, are often seen in the portrayal of serial killers. Although our society tends to condone violence when it is directed towards a specific individual(s), it does not allow the killing of innocent bystanders. Instead, crimes that are targeted against a number of people over a long period, entail the harshest forms punishments under the law. Sadly, in executing the law for said crimes, those in charge often face much public scrutiny. Such occurrences were apparent in the faulty murder investigations of Canada's most notorious serial killer Robert Pickton. This is due to the fact that, the negligence of the Vancou...
What are the root causes of a person becoming a serial killer? There have been many different serial killers over the past years, but only one is the infamous “Green River Killer.” Gary Ridgway was dubbed the “Green River Killer” because many of his first victims were found near the Green River in Washington. There are many factors which contribute as to why a person turns and takes their anger out on other people. Some people have a normal childhood with a loving family, while some are not so lucky. A loving family is built around the parents, but if the parents choose violence over love, then that is what the child will grow up only knowing. Gary Ridgway is an American serial killer who killed over sixty women within a twenty year period.
Charney-Perez, J. (2005, April 1). “History of Serial Killers”. Serial Killers. Retrieved April 23, 2014, http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/spring05/charney-perez/history.htm
In sixth grade, he ran away from home and became a drifter in the state of Virginia. He then claimed to have committed his first murder at only 15 by strangling 17 year old Laura Burnsley after she refused to his sexual advances, but was only convicted of theft and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Serial murder is defined by the National Institute of Justice as 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." This definition perfectly describes serial killer Albert Fish.
The mysterious person did not have a real name because no one was able to identify him. The murder gave his a name which was the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer was responsible for five murders in California during the late 1960s. The Zodiac Killers first two murders was on December of 1968 in Benicia, California. David Farraday, who was 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, who was 16, were the first two of a series of murders by the Zodiac Killer. The two of them were inside a parked, when the Zodiac Killer came up behind them and shot them. A similar case happened to the next victim of the mysterious killer. The following year, on July 4, 1969, another couple were shot dead in their car, in Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, California. 22 year old Darlene Ferrin was shot dead, but Michael Mageau, who was 19 years old survived the shots. The strange thing after these murders is that the police received a phone call from an unidentified person that confessed to murdering those people. The next killings occurred two months later, on September 27, 1969. Two couples were also in a parked car in Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Cecelia Shepard and Brian Hartnell were shot at by the killer, but Brian Hartnell, who was 20 years old survived the mu...
The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer from the late 60’s and early 70’s. The zodiac killer identification was never known. The Zodiac Killer was most famous for killing couples in their car at night. He started his killing spree on October 30, 1966 in San Francisco with his first victim, eighteen-year-old Cheri Jo Bates. Cheri’s throat was cut so deep it almost decapitated her. On November 29, 1966, the Riverside police received a copy of an anonymous letter in the mail. This letter taunted the police about the murder of Cheri Jo Bates and how she will not be the last. (Wilbur R. Miller, 2012) This was his way of being in control and getting his voice heard. Just a few months later he kept to his promise that there will be more death. The Zodiac killer murdered a young couple, David Faraday and Betty Jensen, in Vallejo, California. David was killed by one shot to the head and Betty was shot five times ten feet away from the car. The police suspected Arthur Leigh Allen, a child molester, who fit the description of the Zodiac Killer almost to a T, but there was no incriminating evidence, so he was never charged. The Zodiac Killer was suspected of killing 2,500 people throughout his killing spree, and was never caught. The Zodiac Killer’s reason for killing was that once he killed his victims they would be his slaves in the afterlife. He thought of himself as a “God”, all powerful and all knowing. (Wilbur R.
The person I chose to research was Gary Ridgway. He is also known as The Green River Killer. Gary was a serial killer in Washington. He has been convicted of murdering 49 women, he has confessed to around 60 killings, but is estimated to have killed closer to 80 women. All the women that he had killed were prostitutes that he had picked up, had sex with them, and then strangled them. He says that he never raped or tortured any of his victims, he just killed them. Gary started killing prostitutes in 1892 and is confirmed to have killed till 1998, but is thought that his last kill was around 2001. He was called the Green River Killer because his first victims’ bodies were found around the Green River.
Hadley was 17 years old when he murdered his parents. He then locked their bodies in a bedroom and threw a house party. The next morning he was arrested, and he is currently serving a sentence of life without parole.
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