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Annotated Bibliography: Brogaard, Berit. "The Making of a Serial Killer." Psychology Today. Sussex Directories, Inc., 7 Dec. 2012. Web. 03 May 2014. Berit Brogaard, D.M.Sci., Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research at the University of Miami. She earned a medical degree in neuroscience and a doctorate in philosophy. This article explained the traits of a psychopath, such as their callous, manipulative, and cunning behavior, along with the differentiating between psychopaths and psychotics. This article helped me by providing a good background on psychopathology and useful examples. Hodel, Steve, and Ralph Pezzullo. Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac, and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel. New York: Dutton, 2009. Print. Steve Hodel is the New York Times bestselling author of Black Dhalia Avenger. Additionally, Hodel is a former LAPD detective who has spent decades studying and exploring the life of his father, serial killer, Dr. Georger Hill Hodel. Steve Hodel wrote about the murders and family life of Dr. George Hill Hodel, analyzing his father’s actions and any evidence that was preserved after his death to prove his guilt. This book provided numerous firsthand accounts with George Hodel and detailed reliable evidence in proving the evils that he committed. I was able to use examples of Hodel’s crimes to prove his behavior was based on his psychopathology. Larson, Daniel. "Serial Murderers: The Construction." Serial Murderers: The Construction. University of Iowa, n.d. Web. 06 May 2014. Daniel Larson works as a senior copywriter at Kaiser Permanente. Larson has had extensive writing experience ranging from health to marketing as a free-lance writer. Th... ... middle of paper ... ...06 May 2014. Morrison, Helen, and Harold Goldberg. My Life among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers. New York: William Morrow, 2004. Print. Osterweil, Neil. "Bully on the Brain." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 06 May 2014. Raven. "What Creates Serial Killers and Psychopaths: Genetics or Environment?" Living Among Predators. OverBlog, n.d. Web. 06 May 2014. Scott, Shirley L. "Childhood Abuse." What Makes Serial Killers Tick? Web. 19 May 2014. Scott, Shirley L. "Monstrous Mothers." What Makes Serial Killers Tick? Web. 19 May 2014. Thomas, Michael. "Psychopaths, And How Not To Become A Serial Killer." Exposing The Truth. Exposing The Truth, 29 Sept. 2013. Web. 06 May 2014. Wenzl, Roy, Tim Potter, L. Kelly, and Hurst Laviana. Bind, Torture, Kill: The inside Story of the Serial Killer next Door. New York: HC, 2007. Print.
Simons, C. (2001). Antisocial personality disorder in serial killers: The thrill of the kill. The Justice Professional, 14(4), 345-356.
Schmalleger, Frank. Criminology: A Brief Introduction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Prentice Hall., 2011.
A notorious murderer or serial killer is the typical next door neighbor one would hardly associate with a serious crime: an educated psychopath with little regard for life. Most of them commit murder for some misplaced psychological benefits. Their actions border on insanity as some commit theft by stealing their victims’ belongings and commiting rapes, an indication of a need for financial gain or a craving for distorted sexual desires. It is disheartening that people always associate the city of Chicago with crime, ranging from the prohibition-period gangsters to modern-day criminals; however, it is understandable because these crimes have a history going back several decades, and most received wide media coverage and documentation. Their names and pseudonyms are imbeded in the collective minds of the people. In all cases, these serial killings claim national attention and elicit heated debate, but this infamy sometimes fascinates the public to the extend that it sparks an initial interest in potential criminals. An examination into the characteristics of serial killers who were active in the Chicago area reveals they have varied motivations for their crimes but the overriding factors tend to include financial gains, sexual perversion, racial hatreds, and infamy. Chicago’s infamous reputation as a lawless and corruption riddled city stems from the motives for crimes committed by particular individuals in the Chicago area and the media attention these cases gained.
As if molded directly from the depths of nightmares, both fascinating and terrifying. Serial killers hide behind bland and normal existences. They are often able to escape being caught for years, decades and sometimes an eternity. These are America’s Serial Killers (America’s Serial Killers). “Even when some of them do get caught, we may not recognize what they are because they don’t [sic] match the distorted image we have of serial killers” (Brown). What is that distorted image? That killers live among everyday life, they are the ones who creep into someone’s life unknowingly to torture and kill them. The serial killers that are in the movies, Norman Bates, Michael Myers, and the evil master mind of SAW, these characters are just that characters. They have been made up as exaggerated fictional characters from the Hollywood imagination.
Wilson, David. “What Makes A Born Killer?” The Mirror. 3 Star Edition. The Mirror (2011). Print.
Common psychological disturbances in the stages of making a serial killer are seen in childhood and are usually based upon mental and psychological abuse endured by a child.
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
A serial killer is traditionally 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. Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile.
2011. “Serial Killers and Mass Murderers.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 9:
This paper is talking about “The Serial Killer,” but focus on Gary Ridgway- “The Green River Serial Killer.” He earned his nickname because the first five victims that he killed were found in the Green River. He was one of the most famous serial killers in the United States. Ridgway raped, chocked, killer and discarded 48 women, including many teenagers as young as 15 years old (Silja J, 2003). In Ridgway’s mind, he even believed that he was helping the police out, as he admitted in one interview with investigators (Silja J, 2003).
..., Kim, Juhu. 2004. “Critical Characteristics of Male Serial Murders.” American Journal of Criminal Justice 29(1): 117-131
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.
John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, Henry Lee Lucas, Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh, Ann Rule, Angel Resendez, David Berkowitz, Albert DeSalvo, Ottis Toole, Eddie Gein, and Herbert Mullin, what do all of these serial killers have in common and why did they kill? This is the question I am going to answer in my paper. I am going to examine several killers and their childhoods, mental disorders, and types of killings they performed.
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.
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.