Edmund Kemper, a serial killer who killed his grandparents when he was fifteen years old once said "It was an urge. ... A strong urge, and the longer I let it go the stronger it got, to where I was taking risks to go out and kill people." Many people may ponder the question why serial killers feel the need to kill in the first place. Most psychologists say there is not one solid reason. Just like every snowflake is unique, every person’s motive for killing is unique.
To truly understand serial killers we first need to define them. A serial killer has to have a minimum of three to four victims. The killer is usually a stranger to the victim however the victim has significant value to the killer. Statistically, the average serial killer is a white male from a lower-to-middle-class background, usually in his twenties or thirties. At a young age they often set fires, torture animals, and wet their beds. These type of actions are said to be red-flag behaviors. They are also fascinated with the police and authority. They have either attempted to become police themselves but were rejected, worked as security guards, or served in the military. Many, including John Gacy, theHillside Stranglers, and Ted Bundy, have disguised themselves as law enforcement officials to gain access to their victims.
A normal person would think there was something mentally wrong with these type of people. What type of person could kill others for the sheer pleasure of it? Some have questioned as to whether it is genetic, biological, spiritual, hormonal or due to some cultural environment. We all experience rage from time to time, yet there is always some level of restrictions in our minds that causes one to stop at a point. . Since the rage to kill can be cau...
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...dog and instructed him to commit murder. Another category is mission-oriented. Mission-oriented killers typically justify their acts as "ridding the world" of a certain type of person perceived as undesirable, such as homosexuals, prostitutes, or people of different ethnicity or religion. The third category of hedonistic is broken down into three subgroups. Lust, where sex is the main motive, thrill where the killer wants to induce pain or terror into their victims, and profit when the killer gains materialistic items.
Although serial killers commit horrible crimes that normal people can never imagine doing, there are reasons as to why they do what they do. No matter how much research is done psychologists will never have one main reason as to why serial killers kill. This is because just as every snowflake is unique, every person’s motive to kill is unique.
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.
Each of a serial killer’s killings temporary gratifies whatever provokes the killer’s actions, and each subsequent killing terminates a separate sequence of behaviors. They are all motivated to for different reasons; some kill to gain or exert power over the victims, entertainment or mission. Some kill because they believe they have the responsibility to they society to do so (Julietta Leung N.D.) Frequently, homosexuals, prostitutes, and the homeless are viewed by serial killers because they might believe they are devalued in society or they view as being beneath humanity. They believe those kind of p...
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
As years go on so will the research on serial killers and hopefully we as a society will fully understand them and one day be able to cure whatever inside that makes them have the urge to kill. Works Cited The Electronic Journal of Sociology, published by the University of Guelph, Ontario. http://www.scribd.com/doc/167086215/How-Serial-Killers-Work. According to the article “10 Most Common Traits of Potential Serial Killers By Hestie Barnard Gerber. According to Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer.
Background and Audience: Many may see serial killers as ones that carry around a chainsaw and wear a hockey mask, but that is far from what a serial killer should be seen as. In fact, they blend in with the people that you pass by in streets, stores, parks, etc. just like any person would.
Since the definition of a serial killer is the killing of two or more people within a stretch of time, gang murders, hit men, and many others are held in the category of serial killers. The categories of serial killers can be seen through the Deitz typology which is the earliest, main typology used in the research world. In the article Serial killers: I. Subtypes, patterns, and motives and Serial killers: II. Development, dynamics, and forensics by Laurence Miller explains this typology. The Deitz typology is split into five categories, and uses the organized/disorganized killing type to differentiate between the categories. Psychopathic sexual sadists kill for the pleasure of torturing or inflicting pain on their victims through a sexual way. Crime spree killers kill in association with another crime such as theft. Organized crime functionaries are
In the majority of serial homicides, a motivating factor, in addition to domination and manipulation of a victim, is the sexual gratification and desire that is experienced by the serial killer. Serial killers murder individuals because they believe, and feel, that the act will fulfill them and they will continue to murder people as long as they can (Douglas 191). The definition of serial killer may be distinguished from that of a spree killer and/or mass murderer through a variety of factors. Whereas a spree killer will murder a number of victims at different places over a short period of time and a mass murderer will plan an endgame strategy in which he or she does not expect to survive, a serial killer will hunt humans primarily for sexual thrill that they derive from the act (14) It is not often that law enforcement officials and behavioral scientists are able to get a first hand glimpse into the worlds of a serial killer at the time that the attacks are taking place (Arrigo 98). One of the factors that may prevent law enforcement officials and behavioral scientists from observing serial murders at the time they occur is the cooling off period often exhibited by the criminals perpetrating the crime. Because a serial k...
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.
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.
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
Who are these people? What makes them so different from the rest of us? Why do they commit these shocking crimes? There are theories but no answers. Serial killers are a disturbing piece of the puzzle that we must figure out to save numerous lives in the future.
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.
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
Serial killers are only motivated by sex; this is a misconception because not all serial murders are sexually-based. There are many other motivations for serial murders, including anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking. For instance, a former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant and Lee Boyd Malvo killed primarily for anger and thrill motivations (“Serial Murder”). In addition, serial killers are all the same is also a misassumption. There are different type of serial murders including motives, visionary, mission-oriented, power/control, and hedonistic. Each has their own motivations and reasons to kill, but hedonists murdered for lust/sexual, thrill/rush, comfort/profit, or all three categories. First and foremost, a serial killer is defined
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).