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Biological theories to criminal behavior
Biological theories to criminal behavior
Essays on the psychology of serial killers
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Watching this tragic documentary left me with a lot of questions. I can relate this documentary to more than one theory that I have learned in class, but I think the best theory that explains what I saw is the Psychological School of Criminology. This documentary is a vivid picture of how a person’s life can devastate them psychologically and turn them into something deplorable. According to the Psychological School of Criminology crime results from inappropriate conditioned behavior or abnormal, inappropriate or dysfunctional mental processes stemming from the personality. Defective or abnormal mental processes have a variety for causes including a diseased mind, inappropriate learning, or inadequate conditioning, usually in early childhood. This theory best fits with the documentary of Aileen: The life and death of a Serial Killer. All the mental or psychological damage was done to her during her childhood. All that made an impact on her to the point where she has no self-respect. Aileen went through a lot during her childhood. How her grandfather sexually abused could be conside...
The mother of the child is portrayed as a normal woman with no mental health problem. This would lead the viewer to believe that the child’s tendency to murder developed in her short life span by her sense of entitlement and lack of punishment. She had no sense of consequences and we are led to believe she is like this due to her environment (which is partly the case).
The nurturing of individuals plays a role in the making of killers, as 94% of serial killers had experienced some form of abuse as children and 42% have suffered severe physical abuse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010). A child abuse is a determining factor, in which supports the idea that serial killers and psychopath, are influenced significantly by nurture (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). In most cases social, cultural and physiological determinants all play a role in influencing serial killers to grow into a mass murderer. It is important that physiological and social determinants can be identified, so they could be altered for the purpose of preventing the number of crime.
The article Serial killers: II. Development, dynamics, and forensics by Lawrence Miller dives in into the many aspects that encompass the psychological, neurological, and sociocultural elements that underline the average serial murderer. The elements involve childhood upbringing, types of aggression, typical neurochemistry, and subcultural theories. The article manages to include descriptions of the statistical patterns that involve the demographics, and motives that follow serial killers. It also discusses the validity and rationality of the insanity defense in prosecuting these extraordinarily vicious offenders. Serial murderers are an atypical occurrence in the criminal justice system. The uncommon and horrific nature of these crimes are
Aileen Wuornos killed seven men. Her life story is one of abuse, neglect, abandonment and violence. Wuornos’ disturbed behaviour from a young age failed to attract positive intervention or support, although she easily fit the criteria for the disorders with which she was later diagnosed. Although Wuornos was made a Ward of Court at age 15 (“The Case of Aileen Wuornos - The Facts”, n.d.) within a year she was alone, unsupported, living rough and surviving as a prostitute (Note, 2004). This case study examines whether psychological theory supports the premise that Wuornos’ background and life experiences led to the offending which culminated in her becoming a serial killer. Relevant risk factors in her life are also evaluated in terms
Sexual homicide is one of the malicious acts of serial killers; various researchers have therefore postulated the various factors that lead to this. In highlight, these factors may be presence of tumors on the brain of the serial killer, various kinds of brain injury, cerebral dysfunction on one of the hemispheres of the head, or inadequate cortical arousal. On the other hand, some researchers claim that abandoning of the child during infancy, intense child abuse, and provision of inadequate social services to the child are the key elements to building a deviant individual. This individual is characterized by violence in all his or her endeavors. In addition, this kind of malicious behavior could be hereditary in nature or influenced and imposed by poor upbringing of the child. Thus the individual just do what his mind perceives is good and needs to be done.
Countless serial killers have had an abnormal childhood; many people believe this is where the catalyst of events starts. It is proven, that more often than not, serial killers have either lived in an inhabitable home, had lackadaisical parents, or could have a different frame of mind. This being said, when one hears about mass murderers or serial killers, the first question that pops into a person’s head is, “What were they thinking?” For all a person knows, this could be the killer’s normalcy.
To begin, it is often said that all serial killers are born with the aggressive or violent gene but that’s not necessarily true. Nature versus Nurture has always been a huge argument in the psychology community. Nature is described as the genetic code of a person. For example, it is often argued that genetics is the cause of obesity or high blood pressure. Nurture is the complete opposite. Nurture is where the environment determines who a person is and what they will become. An example would be that poor eating can cause obesity and limited coping skills can lead to high blood pressure. Almost everyone knows the story of Jeffrey Dahmer. He is often seen as this monster who got a kick out of eating the remains of his victim. You see, Jeffrey wasn 't always this way. Jeffrey Dahmer was born May 21st, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jeffrey Dahmer lived what you could consider a “normal” life up until his family began to move around from state to state causing him to
Serial killers are the byproduct of many different things: trauma, death of loved ones, abuse, neglect, adoption, and even witnessing abuse (Are Serial). Serial killers have had to endure a massive amount of something such as trauma or abuse to an unimaginable extent to become what they are; the extent of the abuse, the trauma, the psychological damage they endure is incomprehensible to many. The destruction of one’s innocence can occur at any given time in his or her life, but he or she is more impressionable in his or her 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.
Criminals are the individuals who have committed a crime. Crimes refer to any unlawful activity that is punishable by a state. The term “criminal” is not a strictly defined one as different states have different laws regarding crimes and unlawful activities. A crime generally can be said to be an activity that causes harm to an individual, the community or the state. Criminals may commit crimes as a means of earning their livelihood, out of jealousy, greed or malice, for recreational purposes, out of boredom, or for a plethora of other reasons. Crimes may be classified as personal crimes, property crimes, inchoate crimes and statutory crimes. Offences that cause harm to a person such as assault, murder, sexual offences, etc. come under personal crimes while robbery, burglary, arson and forgery are categorized as property crimes. Often high profile criminals are given wide coverage in mass media which accords to them a sort of celebrity status. The first famous woman serial killers Aileen Wuornos was best known for being a murder and a serial killer some of her names include Sandra Kretsch, Susan Lynn Blahovec, Lee Blahovec, Cammie Marsh Greene, Lori Kristine Grody. Aileen was born on February 29th 1956 born in Rochester Michigan and died on October 9th 2002. She died in Florida state prison, Bradford County, Florida. Aileen Carol Wuornos was a serial killer who had killed seven men, widely believed to be the United States’ first female serial killer. She was convicted for six of the murders and sentenced to death, ultimately meeting her end through
Most serial murderers have been deprived of any control over their home, their body, and their entire life. “Psychokillers take their fantasies and make them a reality living their dreams” (Serial Killers: Nature vs. Nurture 2). Both physical and especially emotional abuse is the consistent, reoccurring factor among a majority of serial killers. Traumatic abuse in childhood has long been viewed as a primary cause of violent behavior in adulthood (Dolan 24). Abusive parents do not generally vent their anger equally on all their children. Such parents tend to unleash the anger and negative emotions on their more difficult children; this potential aggression and physical and emotional abuse of the child shapes the future criminal. “Most serial murders are not classified as psychotics, but rather as psychopaths- their perception of reality is clear except that they feel no social or moral obligations” () Killers are taking control of their own lives through their fantasies in the only way they know fit, through
An infant brain is like a sponge, it absorbs everything and learns off of their surroundings and from the people around them, such as their parents; infancy is the significant time of development that forms who that person will later be in life. If an infant has gone through a traumatizing experience, then they will most likely always keep that experience in their mind, no matter how much they try to ignore it and distract themselves from it. Infancy, childhood and relationships with one’s mother are often among the key parallels of serial killer. Typically, if the child was sexually assaulted they grow up to be the serial killers that sexually assault their victims and necrophilia can occur. Childhood trauma played a key role in the lives
(Attention Getter) We are fascinated by them, hypnotized by their true-crime exploits in books, and motion pictures. We bestow unabashed affection upon these multiple murdering sociopaths known as serial killers. As gendered pronouns indicate, serial killing is a man’s game.
P. Morana showed that 86% of serial killers fell into the category of a psychopath. Only 9% of them had some but not enough to be categorized as a psychopath. The study also showed that 93% of the psychopaths also showed sadistic disorder. People with sadistic disorder tend to be people who were victims in the past and now tend to do the same things they went through to other people. Serial killers can also be affected with this disorder and not have been abused as children but the reasoning behind this is not really known. “Among the most sadistic serial killers, there are various who experienced great violence and humiliation at the hands of one or both parents” and even though some don’t experience this abuse the majority of the killers do. To understand them better it is a good idea to take a look at their
A study by the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology showed that 34 out of a list of 50 male serial killers suffered some form of physical, sexual and psychological abuse prior to committing their crimes (2005, Volume 20, Number 1). This trend of abuse and neglect, may lead serial killers to grow up without a sense of anyone other than their individual selves. The majority of perpetrators of child abuse and neglect are surprisingly in the favor of females, more specifically, mothers abusing their sons (Dedel, 2010). When these children have no idea what is right and what is wrong, they also do not understand how to react and interact with society because they have not gained the social skills through the traditional family that are necessary to coexist peacefully. In the instance of Eddie Cole, his mother dressed him up in little girl’s clothes, beat him and threatened to kill him if he were to talk about her promiscuousness with the local boys while his father was away in World War 2. Cole would spend his adult life going to bars and seedy nightclubs picking up women and killing them if they had the same adulterous tendencies that his mother had. He once strangled a woman to death during sex after she disclosed to him that she was married (Greig,
Over the years we have witnessed various crimes through mass media and the news. As we view the horrific events, we become heartbroken for the victim and their family members. Then we find ourselves wondering, what could have triggered someone to act in such a manner. How could someone enter a school, business, or night club to take the lives of innocent people? This paper will explore the risk factors of becoming an offender, theories of criminal behaviors, and three types of offenders based upon the case studies.