Mass Murderers Research Paper

Mass murder is defined by the FBI as the killing of three or more people in a single event or in the same day (Petersen & Farrington, 2007). Mass murderers are complex and can be examined by the many factors that regularly appear among them, such as violence precipitating events, weapon of choice, and mental illnesses. The motivations and methods for committing mass murder are easily broken down into specific groups, and through the examination of these definitions and specific cases there is much to learn about the mind of a mass murderer.

In our readings, we Define Visionary serial killers as someone who commits incomprehensible active serial fatal victimization. We described the crime scene as chaotic.

Murder, willingly taking another human's life, is considered a heinous crime in the United States, and from the sociological perspective, breaks an important more. Serial Murder, therefore, is a sociologically deviant phenomenon where a person kills two or more people in distinct events, and an FBI overview of serial killers states “No single cause, trait, or even a group of traits can differentiate or identify serial killers … from other types of violent offenders” (FBI). We can, however, use sociological perspectives to identify potential factors in these cases. As a boy, Jeffrey Dahmer was described as being a loner and a poor student- and had been sexually abused by a neighbor. He is homosexual, and all of his victims were males- which

Mass murderers are a diverse group of people. They are a danger to society and it is important to understand the wide variability among these people. The kinds of mass murderers revolve around two central types that branch off to several subtypes. The profile of a mass murderer generally contains a specific set of traits. These people are often driven by one of a series of different motives. In order to achieve their goals, mass murderers have plenty of different methods and weapons at their disposal. Inevitably, the discussion of punishment always ensues when the subject of dangerously destructive killers arises. The study of mass murderers is one that requires analyzing and profiling all of the components that make up a killer, from

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

Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile. Almost every major social, biological, psychological behavioural influence that has been seriously suggested as playing a role in causing crime has been thoroughly thought as potentially

The chances of being a victim of a mass shooting are a little less than your odds at being struck by lightning (Fund, 2012). If you take a look at our nation’s history you will see that the rate at which these killings take place are on the decline. This fact begs the question then what are the similarities with all these mass murderers? Is it the mental-health aspect of these murderers that link them all together? Is there a connection between the mass murderers that somehow will allow us to find these people before the acts? Finally, what is the reason that these mass murders are taking place? Are they doing it for fame, love, revenge or power? All of these questions have sparked several studies about these murderers in order to figure out

This literature review focuses on serial killers from a psychological viewpoint while trying to answer the question, “Are serial killers born to kill or are they bred to kill?” Firstly, this review will define a serial killer and the different kinds of killers, then it will take a look at different case studies of children who fantasized about mass killing and identify similarities between the cases attempt to find a way to possibly prevent their fantasies from becoming reality. The debate of nature vs. nurture is also discussed as psychologists and researchers come to the conclusion that environmental factors play a bigger role in the developmental character of a person than genetics, but there is still no definite answer as to why some individuals grow up with the urge to murder other people and/or animals.

The “psychotic” type had an intact family, but did suffer from or at least show symptoms of various psychological disorders or mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. Finally, the “psychopathic” type, who also came from an intact family, exhibited such behavior as narcissism and sadism and lacked both empathy and a conscious (Langman, 2009). It is clear that although researchers do not always agree on how to explain the behavior of school shooters, there are some fundamental traits that are very frequently included in their studies.

Most of the recent shootings seem to be contagious as their shooters’ plans and motives are almost all quite alike. These shooters have set a “stereotypical shooter” profile. They are typically male, white, and around the age of 20. Of all the mass shootings, only one was done by a woman (Mass Shootings in the U.S.). They are usually quite smart, part of a middle class family, and are normally quiet, lonely, and introverted. They are almost always socially awkward and have few-no friends. Yet, no one expects them to kill others as they are quiet. These shooters keep everything to themselves which may be one of the reasons why they are full of hatred. Often, they consider suicide, yet they refuse to talk to any sort of counselor. They are almost always constantly on a computer, frequently playing violent video games. Their shooting plan is almost always pre-meditated far in advance. They plan to make their shooting “great” and to ‘gain fame’ for their mass shooting. After the shooting, most commonly, they kill themselves.

Serial Killer: (n) A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, usually in service of abnormal psychological gratification; ex. Charles Albright. His childhood was quite unusual, being that he started out life as an orphan and was adopted by foster parents Delle and Fred Albright. It is said that his mother was extremely strict and overprotective, which caused him to have little to no friends. Charles was never a very social child. He did exceptionally well in school and was even able to skip two grades. He got his first gun at thirteen and proceeded to kill small animals with it as a taxidermist, or in other words, he kept the hollow corpses of the animals he hunted and stuffed them to be lifelike memorabilia. There is no

While several shooters had several traits in common, none of these traits were shared by all of the shooters who have been studied. The most common trait among active shooters is the perception that they were wronged in some way by someone or some entity. The majority of active shooters were not seen as loners and many had friends. Also, the majority of these shooters experienced some type of major loss (death of family member, etc.) prior to the incident. What the study found did not have any noticeable effect was violent video games, movies or other type of media. Very few active shooters showed any interest in this type of media prior to the active shooter event. However, over a third of active shooters did themselves write violent stories or poems (Ferguson, Coulson and Barnett, 2011). This study did focus more on school shootings, rather than active shooters as a whole. However, it appears these same traits can be found in some of active shooters who commit their crimes outside of a school setting. It should also be noted, active shooters who commit their crime because of an ideological purpose (i.e. Fort Hood attacks or the recent South Carolina church shooting) also may not necessarily display any of the above

6. To review the case studies as they relate to the process of becoming a serial

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

The result of research showed that the judge to commit the law towards the Premeditated murder is lack of effective. Judge consideration to verdict the punishment must be reflect in the sense of justice in this case for victims family although for the suspect. The application of criminal law for the Premeditated murder is not considered for using clause and sentenced of criminal law.