Psychoopathic And Serial Killers

Introduction
Background
The FBI defines a serial killer as someone “who has killed three or more people who were previously unknown to him or her, with a ‘cooling off’ period in between each murder”(Ellerbrok, 2017). Serial killers have been active for about as long as modern societies have existed. They have killed thousands of people for reasons that are not always clear. Many are psychopathic or sociopathic killers, who lack empathy for others and are therefore unable to understand the consequences of their killing. The difference between psychopathic and sociopathic killers is a subject of debate, however research shows that sociopathy “is believed to be a product of childhood trauma and abuse “(Bonn, 2014) while psychopathy is usually caused by genetic factors. Serial killers are monsters of society, they hunt their

In society, “certain classes of people are positioned as outcasts or ‘lesser’ humans” and these people are “disproportionately the targets of serial killers”(Ellerbrok,2017). It is common to target those who are looked down upon such as homosexuals, prostitutes, immigrants, or criminals. This is most likely a reflection of the learned morals or biases in place in society. In Grendel, the monster Grendel encounters exiles from society who he believed “were treacherous [and] in the end [he] had to eat them”(Gardener,1989,33). His feeling about the exiles was the same as the society they were forced to leave, they were seen as less important or undesirable. Killing people like criminals or prostitutes could also be easier to get away with. If someone has more high risk lifestyle, it is possible that their death would not be considered a serial killing but homicide, allowing a serial killer to remain hidden from police. Serial killers may also be punished less harshly if caught killing a criminal rather than an upstanding member of society who is trusted by a