Since the 'Jack the Ripper' murders of 1888 in Whitechapel, London, the incidence of serial killers had increased at a steady rate. Names such as Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Myra Hindley strike fear and horror into the hearts of normal people who cannot comprehend the subhuman actions of such violent people.
Arguments still continue as to what drives these people to kill. Many believe that bad parenting and traumatic childhood experiences are a major factor in creating a serial killer, while others believe they are simply born evil, and that no amount of either good or bad parenting can change their basic personality.
Statistically, the average serial killer is a white male
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Years later, Fred and his wife Rose were eventually found to have raped and murdered at least seven girls, one of which was their own daughter.
Charles Manson's prostitute mother Kathy Maddox, indifferently declared his name as "No Name Maddox" on his birth certificate. She hoisted him off on relatives, and in one story, famous but probably untrue, she traded the infant Charlie for a pitcher of beer. When he was sent to live with his aunt, his uncle told him he was a sissy, and punished him by sending him to school dressed as a girl. This humiliation obviously had a huge dramatic impact on Manson's life, making him strike back at society later in life.
These are all typical examples of how a severely traumatic childhood can have devastating result in later life.
Serial killer Ed Kemper actually blamed his mother for all his murders and rapes. While in custody Kemper stated that
"Those girls are dead because of the way my mother raised her son."
Kemper's practice was to beat violently, behead and sexually assault attractive young girls of the type his mother taunted he would never date. Kemper eventually killed his mother in this same way.
In some cases, the abuse of children by their parents is barbaric, and it seems little wonder that anything but a fledgling serial killer would come from
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
Some of the most infamous acts of terror on American soil took place on numerous campuses across the nation. School shootings, like Sandy Hook and Columbine, have started to become an ordinary event seen on the news, which causes a numb reaction in the hearts of countless Americans. According to an article written by AJ Willingham and Saeed Ahmed, from CNN, “...30 deadliest shootings in the United States dating back to 1949, 18 have occurred in the last 10 years.” In all of these cases, the news will give the attacker the attention they so dearly crave and always giving the same justification “they were mentally ill”. This one phrase reflects on all of those who also are affected by mental illness, does this make them corrupt like these terrorists?
Teenage gun violence is on the rise. Gun violence has become a major problem for America. We have more privately owned guns than any other country. This could be one of the reasons that guns are being used by teens, because of the access they have to guns. The availability of guns to our youth is making the world unsafe. Although lawmakers are working on gun control laws, I wonder is the problem too far gone.
School shootings, gang violence, drive by shootings, murder, and thousands of acts of violence are committed every day. Members of our society criticize their own people for this violence while they continue to sit back and do nothing about it. These acts of violence have many contributing factors. Violence in our country today is escalating because we don't control the distribution of the guns sold. There are not enough restrictions on guns sold legally. The illegal purchase of guns through the black market is out of control. There is not enough education on the usage and storage of guns.
Throughout the years, gun violence is increasing dramatically. Mass Shootings are becoming more frequent, suicides are now mostly caused by a gun to the head, and crimes are being involved with guns. Somehow minors and criminals are gaining firearms. The government isn’t telling us the real story. They claim that they have very strict laws, well it turns out they don’t. There are so many things that the government hides from the public’s eye. Criminals get their way (hiding from the government) and they gain access to guns of their choosing. From pistols to machine guns, to rocket launchers. In this essay, I will explain to you how criminals are getting their way, causing so much gun violence across the United States, and how the government is doing nothing about this.
brothers had to move in with relatives, then he had no family left and had to become a man after
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?
In the African American community, 83 percent of homicides are due to gun violence. In black communities gun violence is commonly misunderstood as gang affiliation, which is false. Studies show over 50 percent of gun crimes committed were not related to a felony, but were due to some disagreement. The gun epidemic in predominantly black communities aren’t just disagreements, but race wars, police brutality, gang related, and even no reason at all.
Everyday 93 Americans are killed by guns. Whether it is due to homicide or suicide, it does not matter. At the end of the day gun violence is increasing exponentially. In numerous states, gun laws have been placed in the hopes of reducing gun violence. But now many people believe that gun violence should be treated as a public health problem. I for one feel that gun violence should be put in the category of public health. Every year more than 30,000 people are victims to gun related incidents. It has become such an issue that gun violence is causing more deaths than some life threatening diseases.
“I just know it’s a dark side of me. It kind of controls me. I personally think it’s- I know it’s not very Christian, but I actually think its demons within me” (Wenzl et al. 308). Dennis Rader, infamously known as BTK, commented about what he called his “factor X” above, which he claimed was his motive for killing. The demons within Rader supposedly caused him to murder four members from the Otero Family leaving the youngest daughter hanging in the basement nearly naked and gagged (Wenzl et al. 10). We now know that these demons within and “factor X” that Rader was referring to was his psychopathology, but we cannot ignore that these traits were triggered by early childhood experience. His early childhood experiences as in many other
It seems like an epidemic to turn on the television and have the screen be bombarded with news broadcasts surrounding a school, college, and even churches and having those two words engrained at the bottom, “Mass Shooting”. In just those two words dread stabs its way into our hearts. Soon the media interviews a bystander that witnessed the massacre. They describe how the blissful harmony of mundane life was broken by the abrupt thwack of lead as it glides through the air. The number of mass shootings has exponential increased. What drives a person to such an immoral act? Finding the irrational motivation behind this problem goes deeper than blaming firearms, instead it means finding the cure to the virus of mass shootings through the three causes in the seeking of glorification, lack of an authoritative figure, and the obsession of some radical ideology that devalues respect of human lives. These three factors are in part what have allowed the once random acts of mass shootings into an increasing occurrence of everyday life in America.
In 2015, 13,367 people lost their lives due to gun violence according to Gun Violence Archive. The Archive also states that out of that number, 693 were children from ages 0-11. We can all agree that there is indeed a problem that we have to address. The solution to that problem, however, has been debated by many. I believe the solution to this problem exists in three parts: Mandatory training and licensing along with more heavily secure gun storage, stricter regulations on the purchasing of a firearm—disabilities and criminal records should be more deeply looked into before transaction—and finally, equipping teachers at highs schools with the right kind of weaponry to prevent mass shootings.
When children commit a horrible act such as a school shooting their parents often look for someone or something to blame rather than looking at what role they, as parents, may have had in the tragedy. The often targeted entertainers, video game developers, teachers, drug companies, and writers are rarely, if ever, responsible for such tragic outcomes and, unfortunately, often become victims as a result of lawsuits filed in an attempt to place blame on them. The parents of dangerous children must be scrutinized and sued alongside every other entity being blamed for the heinous crimes that children commit.
There is an assumption that if you understand the minds of serial killers, or persons who commit mass shootings, that it may help prevent mass shootings. “Mass shootings are not on the rise, but have held steady over three decades, randomly clustering in time to trick our brains into finding a pattern of increase where none actually exists” (Shermer 3). Mass shootings happen at varying times without rhyme or reason. Some think that a psychological disorder or some genetic defect could be the reason people commit these crimes. Although we cannot prevent mass shootings, we can educate on how mental health issues can be a precursor to such a tragedy, and how better laws can create a safer environment.
The nature versus nurture debate is an ongoing debate among social scientists relating to whether ones personality/personal characteristics are the result of his/her inherited genetic traits or the result of environmental factors such as upbringing, social status, financial stability, and more. One of the topics that are discussed among psychologists is the study of violent behavior among people as a whole, and in particular, individuals. Social scientists try to explain why people commit acts of violence through explanation of either side of the nature or nurture schools of thought. However, the overwhelming amount of research done into the relation of violent behavior and the nature versus nurture debate indicated that nurture is the primary explanation to explaining violent behavior because violent traits are learned from adults, someone’s social upbringing is a major factor to why some people are more violent than others, and finally influences from news media, movies, and video games enhance the chance for someone to exhibit violent behavior. In conclusion, violent behavior is a complex issue without a clear explanation that is overwhelmingly supported by the nurture side of the debate.