Inside the Minds of Serial Arsonists:
Comparing Their Psychological Profiles
Allison Bator
Youngstown State University
Forensic Fire Investigation
An arsonist is someone who habitually and intentionally starts fires. A serial arsonist however, is someone who habitually and intentionally sets three to five fires with a brief break in between each fire. Serial arsonists can be very mysterious and malicious. Most serial arsonists develop patterns and trends that may be able to help fire investigators predict their future behaviors of fire setting. What exactly goes on inside the mind of a serial arsonist? What are their motives for setting fires and being responsible for the deaths of so many? Different serial
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Although there are many reasons that motivate serial arsonists to start fires, there are six motives that are by far the most common. These six motives are excitement, vandalism, revenge, concealment of a crime, profit, and terrorism. Serial arsonists that set fires for excitement are usually seeking for attention in their lives. This may be someone who does not receive enough attention and might be considered an outsider in a crowd. Most often, these serial arsonists will set these fires in a location in which may be familiar to them. They also may remain at the scene while the fire is still burning to watch everyone’s reaction to the fire, giving the serial arsonist the satisfaction of attention. Serial arsonists that set fires for vandalism are usually younger, juvenile offenders who may often be associated with a gang. Serial arsonists who start fires for revenge are usually considered the most dangerous as they are most often seeking deadly consequences for those who have done them wrong. Serial arsonists …show more content…
Panzram was known as a career criminal who committed violent crimes. Panzram was very different than most serial arsonists as he was literally the epitome of violence. He was not sly nor did he mind being face-to-face with authorities. When Panzram was ten years old, his father left him and his family to fend for themselves. When he was twelve, he decided that he wanted to leave home and he tried to flee to the West. His attempt failed, as he was caught, and send to the Minnesota State Training School for boys. Panzram claims that he learned about the acts of violence while he attended this school. He started his first fire at the age of twelve where he set fire to an administrative building belonging to the school that he was in. Panzram developed an obsession of breaking out of the jails he was sent to and even set a county jail on fire that he was being held in. Panzram documented his crimes where he admits to many rapes, burglaries, and arsons. He felt no remorse or sympathy for his victims. Panzram stands out from the other serial arsonists because he was in fact very violent and malicious towards other. Because Panzram was one of the earliest arsonists known today, there is little information about exactly how many fires he set in total. However, it is known that most of his arsons that were confirmed were mostly set in jails and prisons where Panzram was staying. Panzram’s motive that
The disordered coping fire setter will set dangerous and frequent fires that cannot be ignored, justified, or explained. This type of fire setter appears to have more symptoms related to emotional dysfunction and poor connection to people than any other type of fire setters. This type does not seek help for their problems, does not expect help, and has very poor coping strategies when facing moments of stress. They suffer from a failure to meet social expectations, standards, and values. Simply put, the disordered coping fire setter begins to get into trouble everywhere and with everything at a very young age. Gender differences are not as pronounced in this type of fire setters as both boys and girls experience the same behaviors until around the age of fourteen. Both the girls and boys describe growing up in a chaotic family environment with feelings of extreme anger most of the time. Studies have shown that more girls in this subtype will express remorse for their actions, but the boys will not. The boys will continue setting fires into adult life, but the girls in this group of fire setters, by age fourteen, will move onto high risk sexual
Serial killers are a type person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern. Most of the time something triggers them and then they go on their serial rampage. Some things that can be part of a serial killer's profile is they are normally white males, late 20’s early 30’s, kills with in own race, method of murder is hands on, and their victims are selected because they share specific characteristics. The types of serial killers are disorganized asocial and organized nonsocial. The different types of serial killers are: missionary killers, power seeking, lust killing, visionary killer, thrill killing. The profiling of a serial killer's changes upon the
Have you ever wondered why some people love art and music, and some love science and math? These individuals love math or art because they get a sense of relaxation and excitement from these activities. Serial killers are the same way they love to kill people and have lots of different motives for why they kill them. A serial killer is a person who kills repeatedly. The one motive that drove Dennis Rader, to kill his victims was to gain power and control over them.
They are the type of serial killer that seek thrills and derives pleasure from killing, seeing people as expendable means to this goal. Forensic psychologists have identified three subtypes of the hedonistic killer: "lust", "thrill" and "comfort". The lust killers are killers that get their sexual gratification from the amount of torture and mutilation they perform on their victims. The sexual serial murderer has a psychological need to have absolute control, dominance, and power over their victims, and the infliction of torture, pain, and ultimately death is used in an attempt to fulfill their need. Material gain and a comfortable lifestyle are the primary motives of comfort killers. Usually, the victims are family members and close acquaintances. After a murder, a comfort killer will usually wait for a period of time before killing again to allow any suspicions by family or authorities to subside. They often use poison, most notably arsenic, to kill their victims. Female serial killers are often comfort killers, although not all comfort killers are
Arson has been occurring for many years and about 500,000 fires are set intentionally each year. Arson is defined as any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, the property of another or cause physical harm to another. Fire data has been collected since 1977 by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) and the amount of fires has been declining ever since. In the past few decades, there has come about a number of serial arsonists- an offender who sets three or more fires with a cooling-off period between the fires (Douglas, et al, 1992). There are numerous serial arsonists who have been caught, some of which include, Peter Dinsdale, Robert Lee Oyler, Thomas Sweatt, and Paul Keller. While the number of fires across the country have
The Grim Sleeper is one of the most gruesome serial killers cases known in United States. The case dumbfounded LAPD for years. The Grim Sleeper left fear in the women of Los Angeles especially African American women who were the target of this merciless serial killer and rapist. The Grim Sleeper case was infamous due to his string of murders spanning through almost three decades.The coalition launched a media campaign and set a monetary reward aiming to capture the killer. Motivations involved in serial killings are fears of rejection, power, and perfection. Serial killers tend to be insecure, and irrationally scared of rejection. Serial killers tend to avoid developing painful relationships. They are terrified of being abandoned, humiliated,
A serial killer is a person who has killed three or more people over a month apart. Their motivation for killing is usually based on psychological issue.(Sanmartín,2001) In the U.S, the most reported serial killers are lower middle class white males, usually in their late twenties to early thirties (Skrapec,2001). Serial killers, often, are liars. They have no sense of remorse or guilt. Most of the time they are not in serious relationship or have any emotional obsession to any one person, besides their victims. Most of the well-known serial killers are: Robert Pickton, Charles Manson, Anthony Sowell, Ted Bundy, The Zodiac Killer, The Green River Killer, and The BTK murderer. (Sanmartín,2001). Often, women were never seen as even a suspect
Serial murder investigations are the most difficult cases for investigators. Serial murder investigations can become wide spread, and can include many challenges that will require time, money and resources. An example of the commitment required to investigate a serial murder case is that of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. One investigator worked the investigation full time for 11 years. The day he made the Arrest was the day he retired. Serial murder is one of today’s most terrifying crimes. The killing of multiple people within various jurisdictions can alter everyday life for people residing within these communities. The result is intense pressure from the public and media placed on investigators to track down and apprehend these killers who commit such horrific acts to unsuspecting victims.
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.
We can all agree that serial killers are unpredictable scary people but when it comes to why they kill, everyone has a different view. In my research paper I will get into the mind of a serial killer and try to figure out what exactly sets them into uncontrollable rage.
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
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.
G. (2016, September 4). Serial killer statistics. Retrieved November 11, 2017, from http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/serial killer information center/project
There are two types of serial killers. The visionary serial killers who murders people because they hear voices or have visions that direct them to do so. Then there are the missionary murders, who believe that they are meant to get rid of a particular group of people. Inside these two groups of serial killers, there can be four different types of serial killers. The Lust serial killers, the thrill serial killers, the gain serial killers, and the power-seeking serial killers. Lust killers derive sexual pleasure from killing, thrill killers get joy from it, gain killers murder b...
Serial killers are usually young, white males who are quite intelligent and often come from broken homes. They may have been abused either physically or sexually during childhood and they have serious personality defects, such as low self-esteem and a lifelong sense of loneliness. Although no two serial killers are alike, they all fit this description somewhat. In the sixth edition of Crime and Criminality by Sue Titus Reid, a serial killer is defined as a person who commits more than one murder but at different times (Reid, p. 134).