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Do Bad Parents Create Mass Murderers? Essay

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

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

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