Peter Sutcliffe Peter Sutcliffe (2 June 1946-13 November 2020) was an English serial killer, who terrorised England in the 1970s. He was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting murder of 7 others between 1975-1980 and received 20 concurrent life sentences.He was infamously dubbed as the “Yorkshire Ripper” by the media due to his striking similarities to the infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper who murdered several sex workers in Victorian London. The police investigation is also infamous due to the high levels of incompetency by the police force, which led to Sutcliffe operating for far too long until his arrest on January 2nd 1981. Overview of the Crime The year 1975 marked the start of the killing spree by Sutcliffe. On the 30th …show more content…
As a child, Sutcliffe faced significant brain injuries due to his father’s abuse, resulting in his ability to cope with impulses and aggression to decrease, according to sources at the time. This led to Sutcliffe becoming increasingly vulnerable to criminal behaviour as he does not have the ability to cope with his urges and temptations. He was also diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by psychiatrists following his arrest, which is thought to have been the reason for him committing the murders. As to police and in court, he said that he was getting rid “of the filth” who were “littering the streets”. Due to a message from God that he heard when working as a gravedigger in his early twenties, from the headstone of a Polish man named Bronislaw Zapoliski, he believed it was his duty to get rid of all sex workers. Sutcliffe’s schizophrenia caused him to live in distorted reality, where he experienced hallucinations and delusions. This led to further fear and misinterpretation, which bred violence in Sutcliffe. His schizophrenia also may have led to impaired judgement, and lack of insight, inhibiting his judgement and overall reasoning, allowing his violent urges to manifest and take over. Overall, his psychological state is another factor that led to him committing unspeakable atrocities against …show more content…
(2023). The Yorkshire Ripper: A timeline. The Evening Standard. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/the-yorkshire-ripper-timeline-murders-b1111127.html. Jessop, V. (2023a). The. The Long Shadow: all the times they almost caught Peter Sutcliffe. The Evening Standard. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/the-long-shadow-itv-peter-sutcliffe-police-investigation-failure-b1111542.html. Lindberg, S. (2019). The Species of the World. Psychopath. A. Online Healthline. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/psychopath#signs. BBC News (2020) -. Yorkshire Ripper serial killer Peter Sutcliffe dies of coronavirus in hospital - BBC News. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kMhnKX9xmI [Accessed 16 Mar. 2018]. 2021]. murdermap (2023 - ). Homicide in England and Wales 1898 to 2022. online murder map -. Available at: https://www.murdermap.co.uk/statistics/homicide-england-wales-statistics-historical/. DTM, L. S. M., BA Ed (Hons). 2023, October 11 -. The Chilling Profile of Peter Sutcliffe: Unraveling the Danger Within in West Yorkshire. Medium.
What would cause an individual to behave in this rather heinous and macabre manner? Using Robert Pickton as a case study, this paper will explore the phenomenon of serial murder and apply research literature to help explain his behaviour and examine issues such as psychopathy, mental disorder, and substance abuse relevant to the Pickton case. In addition, the paper will explore the sexually sadistic nature of Pickton’s murders. Finally, the paper will explore the reasoning behind Pickton’s selection of drug addicted prostitutes as victims that enabled him to conduct his murders in relative anonymity. ...
Investigating Why the Police Were Unable to Catch Jack the Ripper I believe the most important reason why Jack the Ripper was so hard to catch was because of the lack of evidence. In those days they did not have as advanced technology as we have today for instance, we have forensics where we can tell from a strand of hair who that hair belongs to. In those days they were only just learning the significance of footprints to catching a villain. Another part to this is that Jack the Ripper was so random towards who he killed the police could not find a link between the murders except that they were all prostitutes, which did not really help, although prostitute murders were not terribly uncommon. The press coverage to the case didn’t help much as they had forced the police to investigate ‘Leather Apron’ and this wasted a significant amount of the police time which, if spent properly, may have allowed them to uncover more information needed to catch the Ripper.
The case of Joseph Vacher was as well-known, more deadly, and even compared to, the murders committed by “Jack the Ripper” so much so that Vacher even screamed that he was “Joseph the Ripper”. This murder, whose identity was unknown at the time, left a trail of terror where ever he went, his capture became a career making opportunity for the investigating magistrates. After Vacher was captured a new branch of criminal interrogation was used to try to incriminate him in the murders that it was believed he had done. The major breakthrough in criminology came in the form of the methods that lead to his capture and identification.
Criminology is often referred as the study of crime and its offenders. yet many argued about the definition of crime itself. There are various definitions of crime available, such as the legalistic definition where crime is defined as the act of conviction of criminal law (by Paul Tappan), or the statistical definition where an action is considered a crime if the frequency of it conducted is low (by L.T. Wilkins) (Muncie J 1996), leaving the fact that crime itself is not definite. The definition of crime might changes overtime due to the alteration of culture, moral conduct, values, beliefs, etc. For instance, the act of sodomy was considered a crime once, yet today even gay marriages has been legalised. On the contrary, regardless to the changes of the definition, murder has always been considered as an delinquent behaviour and a serious crime. The punishment would usually be equally burdensome, varying in death sentence (such as hanging, beheading and lethal injection) to what is more common at this modern era, a long-time to life-time imprisonment. This essay will discuss a murder crime occurred in Adelaide and will explain the crime causation along with the relevant theory.
Most statements from witnesses claimed that, the 'Ripper' suspect must have been a white male, average or below average height, between 20-40 years old, did not dress as a labourer or homeless person and was right handed. They also felt he had accommodation in the East End of London, possible medical connections, may have been a foreigner, and also have a regular job as the murders took place at the weekend. Because this description did not single out anyone, it made it more difficult to arrest anyone as the evidence was very weak. Jack the Ripper was a clever man, as we can see from his Modus Operandi, as he managed to choose different locations for his murders, yet they were all very close to both public and police scrutiny. Even though they were supposed to be keeping a close observation over Jack the Rippers movements, they were too complex for them and the Whitechapel area was so vast.
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 ...
Although there is a significant amount of data found on murder, serial murder statistics are much more difficult to establ...
Harold Shipman is known as one of Britain’s worst serial killers. Over twenty-five years it is suspected he killed 251 individuals while working as a medical doctor (“Harold Shipman”, n.d., para 1). Shipman had been injecting fatal amounts of poison into their bodies (para. 1). Shipman’s actions and why he acted in this manner can be explained from the sociological perspective and psychological perspective. The sociological perspective examines factors including social setting, level of education and positive or negative role models in a person’s life (Pozzulo, Bennell & Forth, 2015, p.338-341). The psychological perspective examines colorations between an individual’s mental process, their behaviour, their learning process and traits an individual
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.
Nicholas, S., Walker, A. & Kershaw, C. (2007). Crime in England and Wales 2006/2007. Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Development And Statistics Directorate..
Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. Crime: Local and Global, William Publishing, (Devon). P. 3.
The 2002 crime figures for England and Wales comprised of two separate reports, brought together for the first time: (i) Crime statistics recorded by constabularies and (ii) The British Crime Survey (BCS), based on 33,000 interviews. The BCS is regarded as a more reliable measure of actual levels of crime because it includes experiences of crime that go unreported. The British crime survey of 2002 revealed:
Serial killers are individuals who commit a series of murders, with little to no motive, other than gratification, and usually follow a pattern with time in between each of their victims. While cases of serial killers have existed throughout history, the number of serial killers has seen an increase since the 1950’s, most of whom are largely unidentified and are located within North America. Studying these cases can be beneficial to law enforcement as it helps in profiling and locating patterns among future incidents. One such serial killer is Antony Sowell, also known as the “Cleavland Strangler”. By studying this case, including his background, crimes, methods, methods, and challenges law enforcement faced during the investigation, each can help law enforcement in
In “The New Community” an excerpt from his book The Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities and the Communitarian Agenda, sociologist Amitai Etzioni, examines the evolution of the American community in order to refute the claims made by individualists and therefore, urge his intellectual American audience to create community in the context of an increasingly globalized and urban society through the use of a logical tone. Etzioni immediately takes the arguments of individualists to task using with his syntax. He indicates that the argument for individualism does not have a basis in fact by using quotation marks when describing their views of village and urban soceity (289). The quotation marks act as a way for Etzioni to separate his ideas from the ideas of individualism in the mind of his audience and highlights the subjectivity of individuals position. Etzioni then brings individualists argument into question through his verb choice: “Other major forms of progress were believed to accompany”(290).
Morgan, R., Maguire, M. And Reiner, R. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.