Serial Killers Modus Operandi

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Serial Killers' Modus Operandi

A plethora of serial killers, dead and undead, have been most horrifying in their methods. There are several types of serial killers, some have been caught while others continue to haunt their surroundings. There are several approaches in categorizing serial killers. One method requires examination of the crime scene, the other requires counseling with the serial killer. In profiling a serial killer, law enforcers realize that serial killers are not unlike regular people; there are several exceptions like schizophrenics but most of them look like everyone else. Serial killers, often, do not just kill, they might also eat their victims, torture, or rape them, and then they finish them off. A serial killer is different from a mass murderer, in that mass murderers kill many people in one instance, whereas serial killers annihilate individuals one at a time and do not go on to kill again until a month or so has passed. There is much agreement that all serial killers deserve to be punished it is how they are punished that brings in controversy. Another aspect of serial killers are their motives, why do they do what they do? More interesting however, is how they go about doing what they do. The myriad amount of hazardous serial killers fall into one of two types.

To begin, the Holmes typology suggests that “serial killers can be act-focused or process-focused” (Freeman). If a serial killer is act-focused, then he or she only cares to kill and kills quickly. Whereas a process-focused serial killer prefers to torture their victims, thus kills as slow as a turtle. The act-focused manages to justify themselves by being missionary, believing that they are destined to exterminate a group of people or by bein...

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...BSCO. Web. 11 Mar. 2011.

Freeman, Shanna. “How Serial Killers.” How Stuff Works. Discovery Communications, 2 Oct. 2007. Web. 8 Mar. 2008.

“Henry Lee Lucas, 64, Murderer Who Said He Killed Hundreds.” New York Times. 14 Mar. 2001: 9. Newspaper Source Plus. EBSCO. Web. 9 Mar. 2011.

Hickey, Eric W. “Serial Killers: Defining Serial Murder.” Serial Murderers and Their Victims. Serial Homicide. Kozel Multimedia. Web. 11 Mar. 2011.

McCormick, John. “Jeffrey Dahmer's 'revelations'.” Newsweek 124.24 (1994): 40. Vocational and Career Collection. EBSCO. Web. 9 Mar. 2011.

Ngo, Linh Kieu. “Cannibalism: It Still Exists.” Rise B. Axelrod, and Charles R. Cooper. The St. Martin's Guide to Writing. 9th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. Print. 132-135.

“What made Dahmer a Killer?” Dominion Post, The 28 Aug. 2007: TV5. Newspaper Source Plus. EBSCO. Web. 11 Mar. 2011.

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