The Cause of Serial Killers

Serial killers are the byproduct of many different things, such as trauma, death of loved ones, abuse, neglect, adoption, and even witnessing abuse (Are Serial). They have had to endure a massive amount of trauma or abuse to an unimaginable extent to become what they are. The extent of the abuse, the trauma, and the psychological damage they endure is incomprehensible to many. The destruction of one’s innocence can occur at any given time in their life, but they are more impressionable in their youth by the negativism of someone else’s actions (Scott, Shirley L. "What Makes Serial Killers Tick ~ Childhood Event"). People are susceptible to what they endure in their adolescence, and cruel upbringings, such as that of a serial killer’s, are possibly the determinant of their future. Many people encounter tragedies, trauma, abuse, and psychological damage in their life, but those who have said problems frequently evolve into serial killers later on in life. Statistics show that forty percent of people who withstand abuse in childhood develop into excessively abusive, violent, and sadistic criminals because they are burdened by problems for the rest of their existence ("Nurturing"). Generally, serial killers are violent and want to torture their victims. Those who were abused in their childhood rarely had any control over anything; as a result, in the future, they want to dominate and inflict the same pain on their victim that they encountered in their youth. The dominance serial killers hunger for is usually presented through sexual abuse ("Nurturing"). In childhood, if one has abusive, manipulative, or irresponsible parents that neglect them at home, a part of their brain, which controls emotions, is damaged, and they become more prone to violence and aggression (White, Sadie. "Making a Monster: The Biological, Social, and Artistic Construction of a Serial Killer From Psychosis to Sondheim").