Serial Killers: Nature Or Nurture?

Due to crime-inspired shows that air on television, fascination with serial killers presents itself more and more. People want to learn what makes a person break to the point of taking another’s life. Some suggest that killing releases a sexual desire, while others suggest that revenge may be the motive. A serial killer has the stereotypical look of a white male who tends to act socially awkward, not easily approachable, and possesses a mental illness. While the accuracy of this look tends to be true occasionally, the majority of the time a serial killer looks no different than anyone else and appears rather social. Some experts believe that a serial killer has codes in his DNA which causes him to kill; nonetheless, other experts believe environmental

factors, such as child abuse or fatherlessness, contribute to a killer's actions. Whether a person becomes a serial killer due to biological or environmental factors creates a continuous debate.
The nature versus nurture theory explains why this debate still occurs. Psychologist debate whether a serial killers becomes a killer by either biological means or environmental factors. Psychologist do not classify every murderer as a serial killer and define as serial killer as a murderer who has killed three or more people in the same manner with a cooling off period.
The nature portion of the theory consist of inherited or biological traits.

Some psychologist believe that if a serial killer displays or kills his victims in such a way then it qualifies as fulfilling as sexual desire. These killers are usually diagnosed with a mental disorder referred to as sexual sadism. Psychologists refer to serial killers who kill in this manner as sexual sadist. A sexual sadist enjoys the ‘suffering or embarrassment of others to the point of arousal’ (Serial Killers and Sexual Sadism). Sociologists believe that a serial killer needs to “fulfil a sexual desire by turning a fantasy into a controllable reality” (Serial Killers: Nature vs. Nurture). Sadist crave the dominance and control over their victims because they feel as if they cannot control other aspects of their life. Another biological factor derives within the DNA of the person. Many killers have the “MAO-A gene (monoamine oxidase A). This gene, which has been the target of considerable research, is also known as the "warrior gene" because it regulates serotonin in the brain. Serotonin affects your mood — think Prozac — and many scientists believe that if you have a certain version of the warrior gene, your brain won't respond to the calming effects of serotonin (A Neuroscientist Uncovers a Dark Secret).” With this gene psychologist and scientist alike believe that this can foretell a serial killer before he becomes a serial

killer.
The nurture portion derives from the similar backgrounds that most killers have in common. Most serial killers come from single parent homes, usually mother-headed homes, tortured and slaughtered small animals, and withdrawn aggressive behavior. As a child, a traumatic event must have occurred, such as a father leaving. Fatherlessness has become more and more prominent which in turns leaves children seeking a way to fill the whole the father has created by leaving. When a father leaves the likelihood of a child turning to a life of crime increase just as Bill Wood has said:
The decline of fatherhood is a major force behind many of the most disturbing problems that plague America: crime and juvenile delinquency; premature sexuality and out-of-wedlock births to teenagers; deteriorating educational achievement; depression, substance abuse, and alienation among adolescents; and the growing number of women and children in poverty… (1)
With the father leaving, this lead the mothers to do anything and everything they had to do in order for her and the children to survive and leaves “the children vulnerable to sexual abusers” (Effects of Fatherlessness on Children).

This in turn led the child to hate his father for leaving. Although fatherlessness plays a role in some of the serial killers’ lives, abuse occurs more often than not among the soon to be mass-murderer's childhood. Physical abuse does not present itself as the only form of abuse that a child endures, sexual abused occurs most often among them. Some of the most notorious serial killers possess an abused childhood. John Wayne Gacy, ‘who killed thirty-three people which consisted of mostly of teenage boys, had an alcoholic father who abused his whole family. At the age of nine, Gacy’s neighbor also molested him multiple times (Be a Stoic – 24 Brutal Life Advice Quotes from Ancient Rome). One of the most famous woman serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, suffered sexual abuse from her grandfather after her parents abandoned her (Be a Stoic-24 Brutal Life Advice Quotes from Ancient

Rome).
Using one portion of the nature versus nurture theory to determine whether a serial killer is born or made proceeds as inaccurate. In order to determine a serial killers origin, both parts of the theory endure as correct. Most serial killers tend to have the same environmental backgrounds. Environmental factors tend to have more effect on a person than biological means because a person cannot control what another person does to them. Even though a killer gene has been discovered, the likeliness of the gene ever presenting itself is slim to none. Therefore even though biological factors play a small part in the making of a serial killer, environmental factors play the majority in a future serial killer's life.