Arthur Shawcross: Serial Killer

Although serial killers come in all shapes and sizes, there is a general profile that criminologists go by when trying to profile a criminal. The typical serial killer is a white male in his late 20s to early 30s, kills within his own race, his targeted victims share specific characteristics, and his method of murder is “hands on” in means of strangulation. The types of serial killers include visionaries, missionaries, lust killers, thrill killers, gain killers, and power seekers. Depending on the type of serial killer, their profile may change; for example, certain clues from missionary-type killers can help decide their religious affiliation. Also, certain types of serial killers may generally have different age groups. Most serial

The criminal justice system plays a fundamental role in achieving justice, as the system aims to protect all members of the community fairly and equally. However, in the criminal case of R v Loveridge, it is evident that the justice system fails to apply the law to equally balance the needs of the victims and the community. In this case, the offender Kieran Loveridge pleaded guilty to five counts of offences; three charges of common assault, one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one charge of manslaughter by an unlawful and dangerous act, the victim being Thomas Kelly, Loveridge received 4 years’ non-parole for manslaughter, Loveridge’s total effective sentence therefore is 7 years and 2 months with an effective

Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.

The National Geographic film, A Portrait of a Killer, examines the types of stress that living beings can endure, and how it can thus affect the rest of their bodies. Severe chronic stress can lead even lead to the destruction of brain cells. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a neurobiologist of Stanford University who has been researching stress for over thirty years. In order to study stress and its implications upon nonhumans, he went to Africa to study baboons. This species has only three hours of stress caused by eating, and the rest of their daily routine is consumed by about nine hours of free time. Much like Western society, baboons socially stress out one another, as they have social hierarchies to regulate how them interact with one another.

Ever heard of the zodiac killer? He was a serial killer who operated in northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. The Zodiac murdered victims in 5 states between December 1968 and October 1969. The general profile for a serial killer is a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern. There are many types of serial killers. There are natural born killers who are born willing to kill someone, insane killers which have mental and physical disorders and criminaloids who do not exhibit specific traits. The childhood of a serial killer would typically be someone who is neglected by their family mainly their mothers. They tend to be antisocial and have anger issues. Poor families often cannot provide what the child always wants so they might commit crimes to get want they want. Abused children have a higher chance of being killers also because they have a lot of built up aggression and anger. All can lead to substance abuse which is never a good thing to mix in with a potential serial killer in the making. General behavioral progression from pre-crime to post-crime are that they use killing as a source of relief. Before committing a serious crime they could have built up anger and hatred. They is a high possibility that they are suffering from depression and anxiety too. After killing someone the killer feels relieved. They also feel

A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, usually in service of abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break which can also be called a "cooling off period” between them. There are different types of serial killers. Some are mission oriented serial killers; others are visionary killers. There are equally power and control killers and thrill or hedonistic killers. There are many serial killers in the world at large with different motives for killing. Some people are serial killers on their own while others kill as a couple. In this case, we will talk about serial killers as a couple. We have the Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo who have a mix of hedonistic killers and power and control killers. We equally have Ray and Faye Copeland which also falls under power and control killers. The paper will focus on the background, victims, and trail of Ray and Faye Copeland and Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo.

Henry Herman Holmes was known to many as the first American serial killer. Better known as just H. H. Holmes, he committed many murders in a suburb on the south side of Chicago during the late 1800’s. Holmes once admitted to police that he killed 27 people, but many actually predict that the number of murders he committed is near 200 (Handley). So what is the real number of people that he killed? Let’s take a closer look at the facts of Holmes’ life, occupation, and the mansion that he built to determine how many people he may have actually murdered.

America has some of the most infamous serial killers who marked history, serial killers who once didn’t even think to harm any human being. Many people grow up differently from others, some people grow up in a safe environment surrounded with caring people and others grow up in a completely different environment being missed treated by others, therefore are serial killers made or born?

Serial killers have plagued the world since before the 1500s. Theories have evolved over long periods of time for explanations as to why people begin killing. The earliest explanation was rooted in witchcraft and demonic possessions overtaking the person causing them to commit these acts of violence. Biological, psychological, and social theories have emerged over the years as society has developed and advanced. The latest theory suggests that the behavior of serial killers results as a combination of biological, psychological, and socialization factors. Despite the numerous theories trying to explain the phenomena of serial killing, no one knows exactly why or how seemingly normal people begin killing others. One of the most infamous serial killers was Donald Harvey. Harvey was a self-proclaimed “angel of death.” He murdered dozens of victims as a hospital aid. Due to Harvey’s difficult childhood and prolonged sexual abuse,  Donald developed a psychopathic-type personality disorder and killed dozens of victims.

Gary Ridgway grew up like any other ordinary suburban kid. He had a problem of wetting the bed which his mother would make fun of him and embarrass him in front of family and friends. As a young teen, he was always getting into trouble such as stabbing a six year-old boy in the ribs when he was a young teen. In high school Gary continued to go down hill and get bad grades. Gary graduated high school and joined the Navy. While he was in Vietnam, he discovered prostitutes and ended up getting sexually transmitted diseases. Soon after being home from Vietnam, Gary was killing and raping prostitutes on the streets of Seattle, Washington. Gary would go on to murder about 71 young women who he targeted because they were either prostitutes or runaways.

Shawcross’ first victim was Jake Blake. Blake was 10 at his death and he went missing for a period of time until finally his body was discovered after another Shawcross victim’s body was found. Blake was beaten to death and there were also signs of sexual abuse. He lured the victim into the woods where they would not be seen and he began his act.

Serial killers traumatize entire communities and cause tremendous disturbance to everyone. The Gilgo Beach serial killer is also known as the Long Island serial killer and Craigslist Ripper is said to have been responsible for 10 to 17 murders. The killer is said to target those who work in the sex industry and is believed to have been active for more than 20 years. Although the killer has been active more than 20 years the police are nit anywhere near to catching him. This essay will take a look at the investigation of the serial killer, take a look at who some of the victims were and finally give my opinion on how the case is being handled. It is important to note that the identity of the killer has not been identified therefore there has not been a trial and a sentencing. Also for the purpose of this essay I will be referring to the Unsub as The Gilgo Beach serial killer or simply as the killer.

Ted Bundy, infamous serial rapist and murderer, was first arrested for kidnapping and was sentenced for time in prison. He escaped two years later, and was recaptured eight days later. But he did not give up, again December 1977 he escaped and the authorities did not discover till fifteen hours later, giving him a head start to Florida, where he was headed. The following January one night, he attacked four girls and killed two of them, his last ones because in July 1979, he was convicted of murderer twice for those last ones. As he was investigated more, he has confessed to thirty six plus murderer, and investigator still suspect it to be much more, nonetheless, he killed people for his own satisfaction. Did he deserve the death penalty? Did he deserve to die when he kill only almost 40 people? It may be a little too late to ask that because on January 24, 1989, he died in Florida’s electric chair as he consewuence. Nonetheless,and as unfortunate as it it, people like bundy exist today, some yet to be discovered.

Say someone that has been in prison their entire life and is a cold-blooded killer, obviously just putting him where he can live happily in a prisons care, no, that doesn’t work. A man that has killed another should be killed the way he has killed his prey. Like Herman Webster Mudgett, a serial killer from the late 1800’s, the man was arrested for tax fraud, originally, but during the investigation the detectives found his killing room with a table in the middle and it being covered in blood. They claim here “ There they found bones of many victims mixed together, a dissection table covered with blood, and burnt body parts. Mudgett confessed to 27 murders, writing a detailed account of those activities, but the actual number may have reached over 100” (Fieser). A man like this simply cannot exist in society. What kind of punishment could possibly be more justified than the death penalty for a man that cannot function without

“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