Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Son of Sam, the BTK Killer. The names and assumed names of these cold-blooded serial killers are forever branded into the cognizance of people everywhere. This is mainly due to the mass media coverage, including newspapers, movies, television specials and books. This media coverage brought to light that these killers were, on the surface, normal, successful, attractive, productive members of society – that is, until the time that their heinous crimes came to be discovered. These killers do not “go off the deep-end” one day and start murdering a whole bunch of people. They do not kill because of some crime of passion or greed. They murder non-reactively and the murders span over the course of days, weeks, months and even years. There is a special name for these types of murders. They are called serial killers and they walk among the general population going unnoticed sometimes for years at a time. They are elusive and the majority are very intelligent. They kill often times for the sake of killing and seem completely uncaring as to the consequences of their actions. They taunt police and the families of their victims. Their ability to kill without being caught is part of the thrill they seek. They are mothers, fathers, friends and neighbors; preachers, teachers and co-workers. Unfortunately they are not discovered until long after their killings have begun.. In the 1970’s, Robert Ressler, who was the previous director of Violent Criminal Apprehension Program with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), coined the term “serial killer”. He did so because when he was a child, the police in England used to refer to murders such as this as “crimes in a... ... middle of paper ... ... to kill, or until there is some way to figure out how to capture these killers before they are able to continue on with their killings, serial killers will continue to be just as much a part of society as murder is itself. Serial killings will continue to be glorified through the media, such as television shows like Criminal Minds and CSI. One has to wonder at some point how many potential killers are sitting at home watching these shows in an effort to obtain ideas on how to carry out their fantasies of killing and further how to best elude the police to prevent getting caught. There will never be a time when murder is not a major problem throughout the world. All we can hope for is that at some point there will be a more efficient means of discovering who these killers are and of capturing them before they are given the opportunity to kill again and again.
Serial killings are not a new phenomenon. In 1798, for example, Micajah and Wiley Harpe traveled the backwoods of Kentucky and Tennessee in a violent, year-long killing spree that left at least twenty-and possibly as many as thirty-eight-men, women, and children dead. Their crimes were especially chilling as they seemed particularly to enjoy grabbing small children by the ankles and smashing their heads against trees (Holmes and DeBurger 28). In modern society, however, serial killings have grown to near epidemic proportions. Ann Rule, a respected author and expert on serial murders, stated in a seminar on serial murder at the University of Louisville that between 3,500 and 5,000 people become victims of serial murder each year in the United States alone (qtd. in Holmes and DeBurger 21). Many others estimate that there are close to 350 serial killers currently at large in our society (Holmes and DeBurger 22).
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 ...
In order to identify serial killers before they kill repeatedly, a person needs to study the characteristics that makes up this type of criminals. Most serial killers have been abandoned, by one or both parents, they are emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by a family member, or relatives from unstable families who have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories, or tend to have hate for their parents and people in general which makes them have antisocial personality disorder. They have conflicted pain or tortured animals at a young age and most are highly interested in gaining control over things. Even though not every serial killers posses these characteristics, but most share these characteristics the same way they share the psychological need to have complete control and power over people.
Simon, Robert I. "Serial Killers, Evil, And Us." National Forum 80.4 (2000): 23. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
A serial killer is traditional 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.
Introduction: On the spectrum of criminal activity, serial killers are rather rare. Rarer still is a serial killer like Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing 28 women in the 1970s in ghastly fashion and some believe he may have killed far more. It is hard to imagine what could cause any person to cross the mental boundary into such macabre behavior as Bundy perpetrated. Nevertheless, it is important to try to understand that behavior because only though such an understanding would society be able to identify and deter mass murderers in order to save lives.
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
Almost all people know who serial killers are, but what exactly defines a serial killer. The FBI defines serial murder as “a minimum of three to four victims with a ‘cooling off’ period between, the killer is usually a stranger to the victim, the murders reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim, and the murder is rarely for profit.” (Vronsky, 2004, p.36) Serial killers are usually a white male from a lower-to-middle-class background typically in his twenties or thirties. Also, 85% of the world’s serial killers live in America, with at least twenty to fifty unidentified active serial killers plotting another one of their killings. On average, every person has seen or met at least 37 serial killers in their lifespan.
By definition, a serial killer is one who has murdered three or more people with extended periods of time in between each victim, oftentimes with increasing frequency. Serial killers do not normally know who their victims are, so that they are complete strangers who fit their “ideal” type. More often than not, these victims are women because they are physically and mentally easier to manipulate than men. Through their smooth words and welcoming appearance, serial killers are able to lure their victims into their control (Schlesinger, 2000). There are various, grotesque ways that they go about murdering their victims, but they usually leave a trademark pattern. These patterns vary from how they leave the crime scenes, what “trophies” they take, the profile of their victims, and many other distinguishable factors (Zeigler, 2009).
Mass murderers are some of the most brutal killers around. The many types, traits, motives, and methods keep criminologists investigating the distinct reasons as to why a person becomes a killer. While they try to figure that out, the other members of society may be waiting for an answer that will never be
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.
A serial killer is a person who kills two or more people on separate occasions. Some of the most infamous have been: The Milwaukee Cannibal, The Killer Clown, The Campus Killer, and The Human Dracula. To really understand them, it is essential to know what these killers did. The Human Dracula, for instance, killed four young little girls, but the death toll was not the concerning part. The disturbing part was that once his victims were dead, he would participate in vampirism. He drank their blood, and he would preserve their body parts as trophies (Mehrotra). Another killer named Ted Bundy, The Campus Killer, had a high number of victims unlike the Human Dracula. The unsettling part of his crimes was that he would participate in necrophilia after brutally killing his victims (Mehrotra). One more Killer, The Killer Clown, had a high victim count too, and his methods of murdering were troubling. The Killer Clown would sexually assault and torture his victims before killing them. He would then dismember their bodies and hide them in a crawlspace under his house (Mehrotra). The most interesting on this list though is The Milwaukee Cannibal. His real name is Jeffrey Dahmer, and he killed seventeen young men and boys by drugging them, sexually assaulting them, and then murdering them. Once they were dead, he would preserve the bodies and then eat them whenever he sees fit (Mehrotra). Now the crimes are known
There have been many serial killer cases that have attracted the attention of not only the media but of mental health experts as well. Many experts from a variety of different fields have come together to answer one question: Why did they do it? It is believed that most, if not all, serial killers have a mental illness, motives, and/or trauma during their lives that made them start killing. Serial killers are not only the effect of nurture but also nature. The environment of their country, the United States is our focus, can cause the number of serial killers to increase especially if the country itself is unstable.
Serial murder as defined by the FBI is, “[t]he unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events" (Morton Robert J. Ed, & Hilts., Ed, 2005, p. 9). Numerous people disagree with the definition, this researcher included, since it lacks the cool- down period after they murder, which various people feel stands necessary for serial killer status. Serial killers remain a rare phenomenon. The FBI states, serial murder accounts for less than one percent of killings per year (Morton Robert J. Ed, & Hilts., Ed, 2005, p. 2). Nevertheless, throughout the years, countless people have researched serial killers since they commit such heinous crimes. Criminologists and researchers have been attempting to identify various
A serial killer is a person whom everybody knows as a friend, a lover or even a father but no one knows about his killer instinct until it's to late. Serial killers have plagued this country and others for many years. They are hard to find and virtually undetectable until they start murdering the innocent.