On an individual scale every person has their own set of ideals, morals and common rules of citizenship bestowed to them at some point during their life. Many of these ideals are those that stand for good and society can agree with and also live by as well. However there is legitimate concern for those who have different ways of seeing things and while there are many types of people who fit that mold, I will further analyze the psychology of a serial killer and why they kill. A serial killer can be defined as “an unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(S), in separate events”. I am a criminal justice major and I find the methods and psychology of serial killers to be one of the most interesting yet mysterious puzzles of …show more content…
The first one being “organized” meaning they have an extremely high intelligence for the crimes they commit. Most of the times the crimes they commit are pre-meditated beforehand and also gain their victims attention play reversing roles and playing on the victim card themselves. A perfect example is that of Ted Bundy who was described by witnesses as someone with a cast on his arm asking for help getting something into his car. When profiling serial killers with multiple crime scenes, it actually gives way to a tremendous amount of information because the killer picks particular victims at a particular time, place, manner, and for a particular purpose. Although the choices the killer makes will reveal characteristics about themselves for example In the Case of the Long Island killer, his choice of selection being people who are willing to prostitute themselves. These prostitutes become high risk victims meaning that it becomes easier for him to obtain access to them rather than someone who is sheltered by their own home or even protected. He was hiding the bodies fairly well and in public places, the only catch was he used burlap sacks to stash his victims in. This is rather old fashioned compared to today where plastic bags are far more common and less forensically traceable. His most revealing characteristic is unveiled when he uses the cell phone of …show more content…
His murders included rape, torture, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. Once he lured his victims into his apartment after making false promises of taking professional photographs of them, Dahmer would then rape and torture his victims dead or alive. The part where it gets weird is he would dismember the body parts and put some of them in tanks of formaldehyde and then preserving the other body parts in his refrigerator for his later consumption. It was his way of keeping his dead lovers with him forever. Dahmer was later convicted of the murder for seventeen boys and men all of which were either of Asian or African American descent between the ages of fourteen and thirty-one. Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen terms of a life sentence totaling 957 years in prison, however once in prison he was later beaten to death by an African American
Each serial killer can be classified as a specific type. The four main types of serial killers are thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary, and power and control. Thrill seekers kill for the sole purpose to entertain themselves. They also want attention from the media. Thrill seekers send messages and keep a record of their killings. Mission-orientated serial killers have a reason to be killing the type of person they are. They think that by getting rid of a certain group; for example, prostitutes, then they are doing a favor for the society. Their crime scenes are organized. Visionary serial killers have another personality, this is known as dissociative identity disorder. They tend to think that God or the demon has told them to do this. Power and control serial killers kill because it gives them power. They like to watch their victims suffer and scream. The tend to be abused when they are
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.
Whether it is Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and person of the like, you may have a bad feeling about them due to their ill past. This is not due to an inner judgment of the person on your part, more than likely it is the media that has skewed your views of a serial killer. The news media is just playing their role in society and that is to inform people but they do so in a way that frightens people into coming back to view the media that they produce. The other types of media such as movies, television shows, radio stations, and books also portray serial killers as monsters to entertain people. Although it may be a great way to entertain and inform people, it is not the least bit true and gives serial killers a worse image by labeling them as monsters.
Often, organized killers are associated with a meticulous attitude and a keen attention to detail, they are highly intelligent and well-rehearsed; furthermore, organized killers wait days (or longer) for an opportune time to kill their victims. Organized killers are able to be socially charming and “blend” in with society. Prime examples of organized serial killers are Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. Infamously, Bundy would use his charismatic charm to persuade women into helping him while he faked an injury, he is also known for his academic success. Known well in the community and he was frequently active in volunteer work, Gacy was able to evade suspicion; additionally, organized serial killers are more likely able to avoid
The beginning of mass murder can date back to 753 BC to ancient Rome emperors who would use their power to kill hundreds of people. The relevance of the serial killers we know now, however, did not appear until a widely-known killer, Jack the Ripper, appeared in Europe in the late 1800’s. After this, more and more incidents with serial killers popped up. The term ‘serial murderer’ or ‘serial killer’, was not coined until the 1970’s by an FBI agent, though. The question asked is, “Why do serial killers kill?” Although the reason behind this question can never be known for sure, research has been done in order to get the closest answer possible.
Serial killers have different things that drive them to kill. Some kill specific groups of people out of hatred, others kill because they are psychotic and derive pleasure from killing. And then there are those who
Of course as a society we condemn people for being serial killers. But what we forget is that there’s still a human being behind that thick shell. We as a society think that serial killers are horrible, so we put them on trial; we put them in jail, death row. But would you think of them any differently if it were father, your neighbor, or some one you went to school with? Robert Maudsley was a British serial killer born in Toxteth, United Kingdom. There are a few nicknames that you might know him as, some called him blue, then others began to know him as spoons but the one that stuck was Hannibal Cannibal. You are probably wondering how I got these nicknames. They called Maudsley blue because that was the color John Farrell’s face turned as he slowly strangled him, he was Robert Maudsley’s first victim
They are all motivated to for different reasons; some kill to gain or exert power over the victims, entertainment or mission. Some kill because they believe they have the responsibility to society to do so (Julietta Leung N.D.) Frequently, homosexuals, prostitutes, and the homeless are viewed by serial killers because they might believe they are devalued in society or they view as being beneath humanity. They believe those kinds of people are easy targets based on the belief that no one would notice if they went missing.... ...
Dahmer was a pretty normal, but very lonely kid. His loneliness followed him throughout the course of his life. Never having an intimate friendship or relationship, along with being consumed with confusion over his own sexuality eventually led him to become the household name he is today. From 1978 to 1991, Dahmer murdered 17 boys and men. Not only is he considered a murderer, but he committed (on several occasions) rape and dismemberment. After his later murders, he was found guilty of necrophilia, cannibalism, and permanent preservation of body parts. He is arguably the most well known, gruesome, and intriguing criminal in American history.
They have no close relationships with friends or family members. When this group of serial killers choose their victims, is usually when the opportunity is brought to him, like an impulsive action. They do not plan their attacks or take any steps to cover up their tracks; they usually kill at one site and consider their mission over, leaving behind evidence such as blood, semen, fingerprints, and the murder weapon. A character of this type is usually compelled to perform other rituals with the victim's dead body, like cannibalisms, sexual intercourse, or cutting it up; they tend to depersonalize the victim with a "thing" or "it." Moreover, considering their careless mechanism, they tend to move cities and even states a lot to avoid arrest. Disorganized serial killers are very straightforward: messy and
The criminal homicide rate for the United States is currently at its lowest rate during the last forty years (6.3 per 100,000 people in 1998: Bureau of Justice Statistics); yet according to the media and entertainment fields, homicide is reaching epidemic proportions. Unfortunately these fields tend to exploit the concept of homicide in American society, rather than attempting to understand and control it. No where is this more prevalent than in the study of a small subset of criminal homicide referred to as serial murder. This area of serial homicide specifically refers to the murder of several victims by a single person, generally unknown to the victim, over a designated period of time. Serial murder and those who commit it have always been around but have only really come to national attention in the last thirty years. Since the 1970’s people have been fascinated with and horrified by serial murderers. Despite the enormous amount of coverage of serial killers by video and print media, television, and movies, relatively few sources of information about them exist and even less is known. The details of ones crimes tend to be sensationalized, making rationalization very difficult, but what is lost among the horror and gore are the motives and reasons that lead a person to do this. What causes a person to kill again and again?
In order to identify serial killers before they kill repeatedly, a person needs to study the characteristics that makes up this type of criminals. Most serial killers have been abandoned, by one or both parents, they are emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by a family member, or relatives from unstable families who have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories, or tend to have hate for their parents and people in general which makes them have antisocial personality disorder. They have conflicted pain or tortured animals at a young age and most are highly interested in gaining control over things. Even though not every serial killers posses these characteristics, but most share these characteristics the same way they share the psychological need to have complete control and power over people.
There have been many serial killer cases that have attracted the attention of not only the media but of mental health experts as well. Many experts from a variety of different fields have come together to answer one question: Why did they do it? It is believed that most, if not all, serial killers have a mental illness, motives, and/or trauma during their lives that made them start killing. Serial killers are not only the effect of nurture but also nature. The environment of their country, the United States is our focus, can cause the number of serial killers to increase especially if the country itself is unstable.
“We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.” (Ted Bundy). Serial killers are not always those people that look like monsters or behave in strangeous ways. Sometimes they are the successful people, the ones that have a family and a job. The term “Serial Killer” was first coined by Robert Ressler, former director of the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. Serial killers are often defined as people that kill two or more people over a period of more than 30 days with “cooling off” periods between each kill. Many historical criminologists suggest that serial killing has been a component of society since the beginning; suggesting that old stories about vampires and werewolves were, indeed, based on serial killers. Regardless of public opinion, serial killing has been a part of society in the past and in the present. We can go from historical killers such as Gilles de Rais to “Jack The Ripper”, considered by many to be the first modern serial killer, to serial killers that still operate in the present. Many historians agree that the number of serial killers have considerably increase in the last couple of years due to the introduction of new media and technology. Statistics show that 80% of the 400 serial killers that have been active in the United States in the last century have originated since 1950. Although each serial killer is different in its own way, most exhibit certain key similarities that are constantly use to understand the reasons behind serial murderers. A big part of serial killers possess a type of mental disease and/or psychological problem. This may also suggest that serial killing is not solely a “nurture” problem, but tha...
The definition of a serial killer is almost always defined as a person who commits a series of murders, usually with a predictable behavior pattern known as their signature. Serial killers tend to have a psychological characteristic that is the motivation for their killings. There have been theories proposed and researched to help determine what triggers someone into being a serial killer. According to the Cognition 101 Journal, the most broadly recognized mental disorder associated with serial killing is Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). This is a cluster B personality in the DSM IV and is intimately related with psychopathy (Blair, 2006). Individuals who have been diagnosed with severe mental disorders and have desires to commit murder