Derrick Todd Lee Essay

Location of a university is a contributing factor to the safety of the students and campus. The overall crime rating of the university is based on reported crime on campus and in surrounding areas. Colleges with low amounts of reported crime are valued as being safer. Bradley University earns an overall crime rating of C- when comparing on-campus, city, and regional crime against all other schools nationwide. According to the data, Bradley’s campus rated as a D+, Peoria rated as an F+, the region rated as a D (“Bradley University Crime”). In this section, I will be addressing the crime factors related to the city of Peoria and on campus.

Serial killers, we have all heard of them and most of us are petrified of them. They commit horrendous crimes that many people cannot even begin to wrap their head around. Unfortunately, for those of us who are afraid of them it is likely we have encountered at least one if not multiple in our lifetime. That last sentence really puts the “be nice to everyone” quote into perspective, doesn’t it? It is not known how many serial killers are actually walking around among us however most studies conducted reviled we may not want the answer. Chances are the number is higher than we would have thought and definitely higher than we had hoped. Although I highly doubt we will ever get an actual number. It is not likely that a survey will be given to see how many serial killers are actually walking free. Even if this hypothetical survey was given I do not think an actual serial killer is going to put a checkmark in the are you a serial killer box. Although if they did mark the box they would save a lot of lives. Answering yes to such a question would land them in a psych ward. We may not know how to identify a serial killer simply by looking them up and down but we do have theories that help predict why they choose to commit unspeakable crimes. One of these theories that will be discussed is the biosocial theory. Throughout the report, the biosocial theory of crime will be thoroughly explained and applied to this topic to better understand serial killers. Anyone who has some time to

Serial murder is one of the most baffling crimes that occur in the U.S. and all over the world. Knight (2006) defines serial murder as the killing of three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cooling-off period. The cooling off period may be weeks, months or even years long. Researchers have proposed various psychological, biological and sociological theories that offer a partial understanding of the nature of serial murder. Some propose that the basis for criminal behavior is a predisposition to violence as well as a mix between environment, personality traits and biological factors. Serial killers are predominantly male. Only 3 percent of serial murders are committed by women (U.S. News and World Report,

Serial killers represent a social problem in many ways. Many innocent lives are taken away by these serial killers. We as a society should care if serial killers or spree killers operate within our culture because we never know that we or a family member could be next on the list. People’s lives are taken away by these criminals; people who have a whole life ahead

Wayne Williams was charged with murdering two people in Atlanta, Georgia. Shockingly enough, he was also linked to the killing of ten other boys. The way the evidence effected this trial is what makes the case so well known. There were 28 different types of fibers linking Williams to the murder victims. That can be an overwhelming amount of evidence. This case happened in the 1980s and the evidence presented in the case was crucial to proving Williams guilt.

A serial killer is someone who has murdered at least three people on at least three different occasions with a break between the murders (Egger, 2002; Hickey, 2002). … It is likely that they kill during a time of stress and after it is done, they feel temporarily

Serial killers are the byproduct of many different things: trauma, death of loved ones, abuse, neglect, adoption, and even witnessing abuse (Are Serial). Serial killers have had to endure a massive amount of something such as trauma or abuse to an unimaginable extent to become what they are; the extent of the abuse, the trauma, the psychological damage they endure is incomprehensible to many. The destruction of one’s innocence can occur at any given time in his or her life, but he or she is more impressionable in his or her youth by the negativism of someone else’s actions (Scott, Shirley L. What Makes Serial Killers Tick ~ Childhood Event). People are susceptible to what they endure in their adolescence, and cruel upbringings, such as

The victim's name is Diane Marie Dalton Schofield, (Born Nov. 1, 1953), murdered July 4, 1975 in Des Moines, Iowa. Case # 1975-24048. Diane was a 21 year old mother of a five year old daughter, Shawna. Diane was bound, strangled, placed in the trunk of her car which was then driven to Warren’s Steakhouse. The motive was not believed to be robbery as her purse and jewelry were untouched.

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

A serial killer is traditional defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media.

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

“The mind changes, the word changes, time doesn't stay still, history is a verb, it is ongoing, there is no past tense, future tense, history is constant” Hung Liu told interviewer Rachelle Riechart (Riechart). Hung Liu is a Chinese woman who was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She was born during the age which we call the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which heavily impacted her life. She lived in China for 36 years and then left for the United States. She now resides in Oakland, CA, where she teaches art at Mills College (“A World of Art”). A lot of her artwork is based on photographs and memories she has from China and photographs she’s taken in the United

There are many people who choose to do bad things and break the law; however, there are people known as serial killers who take breaking the law and harming others to an unbelievable level. Murder is a very serious crime. Murders happen for many different reasons such as turf wars and drugs for gangs, by having an argument with another person and not being able to control your anger, or murdering because of a troubled past. Serial killers often come from a troubled past and seek some sort of revenge to what happened to them when they were younger. Serial killers are people who murder over and over again. There are many different types of serial killers. There are serial killers who choose to rape their victims, choose victims whom they know, choose victims because they are a different gender, choose their victims because of some fantasy that they have, or some even choose their victims to prevent them from going through what they had to go through as a young teen. There is no set description of what a serial killer looks like or if they are a woman or a man. Women serial killers tend to be more alluring with their crimes. Women tend to choose victims they may know but murder in a less heinous way. However, there are more male serial killers then women. The male serial killers tend to keep to the more violent and heinous murders. Although not all serial killers have something happen to them in order

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

What is a serial killer? Retired Special Agent Robert Ressler, a twenty-two year veteran of the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit in Quantico, Virginia, is responsible for creating the term “serial killer.” He defines this person as “one who commits a series of murders, usually three or more, the victims most often being strangers, and usually with a cooling-off period in between each kill” (Kelleher & Kelleher, 1998; Pearson, 1998; Ressler and Shactman, 1997). This precise definition is necessary to distinguish this type of predator from the mass murderer (who kills many simultaneously), mercenaries, war criminals, or mafia hit men.