Serial Killers Essay

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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.

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