Serial Killer Society

The events of the past can hold a great influence on the actions and behaviors of the future. From being raised in a supportive and loving home, to one that is full of neglect and abuse, each event can potentially impact the future of an individual. What is the psychological impact serial killers have on society? Serial killers in society and their media attention affect society and what people think they are movies, television, books, and how people deal with them. Serial killers are affecting people in society all the time even years after their death and because of this, there are implications. “Implications from the fact that America produces 85% of world's serial killers a statistic found from the USA today.”(David Schmid) Most of the

The crime news coverage of so-called monsters is typically stylized and exaggerated in order to entice a wide public audience. Journalistic hyperbole makes them appear to be much more threatening to society than they actually are. Public concern and anxiety are heightened through journalistic exaggeration and, as a result, socially constructed monsters are demonized in the minds of the public. It must be remembered that the entertainment news media have a vested interest in tantalizing and even scaring the public. Sensationalized news content attracts a wide audience and a large audience attracts highly coveted advertising revenue. Serial homicide has long occupied a high-ranking position in media perceptions of what constitutes a newsworthy story, and so it should not be surprising that the news media are so instrumental to the social construction of serial killers. One of the most sensationalized and hyped serial killer stories in U.S. history was that of Jeffrey Dahmer, who was depicted as the “Milwaukee Cannibal” by the entertainment news media. Dahmer raped, murdered, dismembered and ate seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991 in Wisconsin. The unrivaled gruesomeness of the case virtually ensured that it would become one of the best known serial homicide stories of all time. Although the crimes took place in Milwaukee, media interest was a

Through the combined efforts of law enforcement authorities, and the news and entertainment media, that feed the public’s appetite for the macabre. There is now research that has evidence to support the statement that serial murderers are the reflection of the values of society. A sociologist and criminologist named Kevin Haggerty, from the University of Alberta, concludes that society is responsible for the behavior of serial killers, not psychology (as is the popular and widespread belief). His study was published in the August 2009 issue of the journal Crime Media, Culture. He told Discovery News "I would say there's minimal evidence that psychological approaches have made more than a small difference in our understanding of this phenomenon [how the minds of serial murderers are shaped]. Almost every psychological approach applied to serial murder has been ruled out as a uniform claim to understanding this behavior." This is very interesting for me to try to digest. I have always learned that the behavior of serial murderers spawns from psychological roots and reasoning. Haggerty made one point that I am inclined to agree with though. He brings up the relationship between serial murderers and the media. Basically, they feed off one another. Whereas serial murderers provide the media with exciting and fascinating (although vulgar and