Analysis Of African American Serial Killers

Baldus study was based on more than two thousand murder cases in Georgia, and “the study found that defendants charged with killing white victims received the death penalty eleven times more often than defendants charged with killing black victims.” (Alexander p.110) Baldus Study was significant to this chapter because it shows patterns of discrimination and how the government and police enforcement use race to harass African Americans.

Due to today’s advanced media technology, we as a society are more aware and instantly informed about mass murders and serial killers. There is a difference between a mass murderer and a serial killer, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, statistics Bureau. (“Mental Floss”, 2008). A “mass

Serial killers are a relatively rare, yet commonly publicized, part of our society. The media portrayal of serial killers skews the opinions and creates a stereotype of murderers for the public. James Knoll, MD states in his article, “Serial Murder: A Forensic Psychiatric Perspective”, that no evidence supports the idea that serial murder is a “growing epidemic” as people believe it is (qtd. in Johnson-Sheehan & Paine, “Writing Today”, pg 332). This misperception of serial killing was exhibited in the way the media portrayed the “Hillside Strangler”, a murderer who was killing women in the Los Angeles area by strangling them and leaving them nude in the hilly areas in 1977. The articles reporting the

One of the reason African-American serial killers which is known as a weak argument is that the commentators who are on social media announcing the killer would be seen as racist if applied to African Americans in a White media. An example, when an official form the Nassau County called serial killer Colin Ferguson an “animal”, many civil rights learned came into play saying that it was not the correct term (432). A second more reasonable reason would be that cops were less likely to take African-American crime serious unless the victims were white. The example for this reason was Jarvis Cote who kill African-American wome,n but then would switch to killing White women. In the beginning they would not focus on the crime, but once the race switch

"Blood Loss, the decline of the serial killer" by Christopher Beam was published in 2011 on January 5th. The story was published in a magazine that is usually directed towards the general public. In his article, Beam discusses how the medias intrest in serial killers has decresed thoughout the years. He explains how the medias facination with serial killers has fluctuated since the 1920 's to now. Beam talks about some of the more famous killers and why the media found them so interesting and then explains how the number of serial killers has decreased since the media changed its fasinations from serial killers to terrorism. The main point that Beam is trying to make is that the population is only interested in what 's "trending". As stated in his article, "What child abductors were to the 20 's and serial killers were to the 70 's and 80 's, terrorists are to the early 21st century.", the trend that the media follows is always changing.

First, it is important to see just how bad black victims are represented in the media as opposed to white suspects or killers. In Alabama, 2010, Amy Bishop, who at the time worked at the University of Alabama, shot and killed three colleagues and further wounded another three because her job was coming to an end. How she was represented in the media however was not as a cold blooded killer, rather the headline stated “Ala. Shooting Suspect Brilliant, But Social Misfit” (Anon, 2015). Whereas black victims are often slandered, a headline announcing the murder of Gregory Allen Ross read “Police: Slain Lakeland Teen Had Been Shot Before; Death Possibly Drug-Related” (Allen, 2014) the following media accounts thought it was relevant to tell the world about his past arrests and the fact that he had been shot before as what could only be their uninformed guess at why he was murdered, despite none of these details bearing any relevance to the story or the situation. This may seem almost unbelievable, nut it is happening every day in the United States of America.

"We simply cannot say we live in a country that offers equal justice to all Americans when racial disparities plague the system by which our society imposes the ultimate punishment." (Senator Russ Feingold, 2003). It has been proven that death sentencing across the USA is determined by the race of the victim and race of the defendant. In 1990, there was a report from the General Accounting office which concluded that those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks. (Focus, 2003) This injustice amongst us are because people are scared and don’t know. They don’t know whether a black man is pulling out a gun, their phone, wallet, etc. So just to remain safe, they retaliate by killing our men. Society has grown to function on the fear of black men. Capitalism and the imprisonment of black people have become profitable. They’ve made a big business to just imprison black men. Black men are inheritably a threat to the capitalist structure of America, it protects their money, their politics, and their society.

In this class we have learned about mass incarceration and the criminalization of black and brown bodies throughout U.S. history. An early example of the criminalization of brown bodies can be seen in Los Angeles when the Spanish Crown came and deemed Native Americans as “lawless” and “ungovernable.” Then, later in time, we see the criminalization of black bodies in the South during the Reconstruction Era. Laws and ideology that are motivated by colonialism and settler colonialism, have helped put more black and brown bodies in prison and exploit them for labor through convict lease systems. The criminalization of Native Americans, Hobos, and African Americans served a political, social and economic purpose which helped colonialism and settler

Serial murder crime though rare, is not a a new phenomenon. This crime has been committed for centuries and will continue to be a crime that is committed throughout the world. It is unfortunate and scary that this is probably one of the most serious of crimes that cannot be prevented. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, serial murderers commit their crimes because they want to. Rehabilitation is not obtainable for serial killers due to their inability for remorse and empathy, or to see people as people and not objects(Knight 2006). This research paper will focus primarily on serial murder within the U.S. First and foremost, a legal definition provided by the U.S. Department of Justice will be presented to set forth the discussion of this research paper. As follows will be a detailed discussion explaining serial killer typologies with the use of examples of known serial killers in the U.S. Types of serial killers are: power oriented, mission oriented, visionary, and hedonistic, each typology will be clearly defined and explained. Some serial killers can have a mixture of each typology’s characteristic. Serial killers that will be discussed and used as examples to represent the content of this research paper will be, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Robert Berdella, Jeffery Dahmer, and lastly the most prolific serial killer in American history, Gary Ridgeway. Problems with studying serial killing, are that because of rarity and access. Most of what we think

The stereotype that exists for individuals who commit serial murder is one that mainly includes males of a specific race. However, it is now known that white males are not the only individuals who commit serial murder. Men and women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic statuses have been found to be serial murderers. Although this information has been presented to society, the cultural schema of the white male serial killer is still prevalent. The assumptions that involve serial murderers often include two aspects, the serial murderer is male and the serial murder is a type of “lust murder”, often involving sexual crimes by a sadist (Keeney and Heide, 1995). Keeney and Heide (1994) define serial murder to be the

African Americans are targeted by law enforcement more often than any other race (Toth, Crews & Burton, 2008). Because of this the term racial profiling was created to explain the process of targeting people for criminal activity because of race not evidence (Toth et al, 2008). African Americans are over represented in the criminal justice system based on their population amount compared to whites (Toth et al, 2008). African American males are incarcerated at a rate 9 times that of white males in most states, in others that number may be as high as 12 to 26 times more (Toth et al, 2008). Nationwide statistics show in most states 1 in 20 over the age of 18 are in prison, while 5 other states report 1 in 13 or 14 compared to the 1 in 180

Serial murders are not just part of the United States they also happen globally. There are many investigative tools that are used when working a serial murder case and we will discuss some of those. We will also discuss the problems with the media when it comes to serial murders. We will also talk about how the criticism of the public and media can affect serial murder cases.

The events of the past can hold a great influence on the actions and behaviors of the future. From being raised in a supportive and loving home, to one that is full of neglect and abuse, each event can potentially impact the future of an individual. In the case of serial killers, there has been some debate on whether the evil ones are made or born; does it happen because of a genetic factor, environmental factor, or is it simply they addicted to the feeling of slaughtering another individual’s life? Although, the most important key in finding the truth deals with the past and shapes the outcome of the future. Upon viewing in a psychological stance, there is no clear understanding of why one aspect that most serial killers share, namely

In recent years the killings of African American men have increased, especially those of unarmed black men. Between 2010 and 2012 it was reported that Blacks males were 21 times more likely to be

“The serial killer ‘is an entirely different criminal,’ ”The term serial killer is misleading on the ground that each murder is intended to be the last.” We see them as a figure of “the dark side of human potential,” but they believe they’re “on a heroic quest for the biggest score possible” They believe they are “the archetypal figure of impurity, the representative of a world which needs cleansing.” However, society knows that serial killers are not heroes, and they’re not cleansing the world. “The figure of the serial killer is violent impurity personified, and it is a construction that necessitates figures of violent purity to confront it.” While it can be argued whether having mental disorders should prevent a serial killer from being capitally punished, it is proven that many serial killers suffer from “paranoid schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, or psychopathology.” It’s even said that “this crime is actually a form of disease. Its carriers are serial killers who suffer from a variety of crippling and eventually fatal symptoms, and its immediate victims are the people struck down seemingly at random by the disease carriers.” Serial killers usually have a stressor in their life that makes them start killing, and when they do “homicidal mania becomes ‘a necessity… linked to the very existence of a psychiatry which had made itself autonomous but needed thereafter to secure a basis for its intervention by gaining recognition as a component of public