Serial Killers: A Fictional Narrative

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

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.

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.

When they woke the next morning, they wasted no time getting ready. They needed to stop by Kate’s apartment before they went to the precinct since she refused to show up to work in jeans and a ratty t shirt, even if she would change into her spare clothes immediately. She still took the time to take a shower at the loft, and Rick suspected it was only because she liked his shower more than her own, even though she insisted that it was only to save time.

The knowledge was debilitating, and there was nothing she could do about it; nothing at all. Just as she feared her mind would snap from the constant spiral of it all, the alarm on her phone woke her.

Every day when I awaken to see shadows of your irregular heartbeat imprinted onto the bed sheets - but maybe that's just my imagination. For many years, you have disappeared from my side. Yet I can still feel your lingering presence.

Once in a while we all express feelings of anger and rage, while some find ways to cope with emotions such as crying, screaming there are those out there who take to an extreme and commit crimes. The crimes can be anywhere from assault, murder and even turn out to be a serial killers. A serial killer is a term to describe that human being who commits series of murder. In the article “The Making of a Serial Killer” Publisher Berit Borgaard explains the mystery behind psychopathic killers.

Zee let go of my hand and opened the door.”This way my majesty.” He bowed as I walked through causing me to blush.

Carrying his coffee cup, Andrew entered the family room, noticing the TV was on, called out, “Honey, I’m going to watch the morning news before going to work.” Then he sat down in his Lazy-Boy chair, expecting to hear whose cat the firefighters rescued from the oak tree in the back yard. Instead, the announcer shocked him when he said, “We’re going live to our reporter in Jackson Heights, where yesterday afternoon police discovered a double homicide.”

Since a young age, I have wondered the age old question: why is there bad in this world? Only later did I learn about hormonal imbalances in the brain and the importance of an equilibrium between dopamine and serotonin. With my fascination of the mind and a question perhaps as old as time, I have decided to do my graduation project on the psychology and sociology of Serial Killers. My graduation project also relates to my current desired career, a clinical psychiatrist.

The right psychology is most definitely the key to someone becoming a killer, specifically a killer that gains some sort of gratification out of killing like serial killers do. The essential question is how the necessary psychological complex is created and the information found supports our hypothesis that how people become serial killers in usually a combination of both genetic and environmental factors. The conclusion is very much backed up by the data collected such as the data that shows the majority, but not all of serial killers were abused as children and that some personality disorders common in serial killers like psychopathy and schizoid personality disorder are genetic while others like sadistic personality disorder are usually

Serial killers are the result of a horrific mix of psychological, biological, and sociological factors. They are an enigma to society due to their deviant and unusual lifestyle but they do raise interesting questions regarding how they got this way, why they murder, and how they choose their victims. Social theories and concepts of sociology can be used to give an understanding to answer these three questions since the construction and driving force of the individual is heavily dependent on society.

Many things today confuse, yet enthrall the masses. War, murder, medical science, incredible rescues, all things you would see on The History Channel. There is another topic that is also made into documentaries however, serial killers. Dark twisted people that commit multiple murders are of interest to the population, but what caused them to be this way. What horrible tragic set of events could twist a man to murder one or many people. Could Schizophrenia, psychopathy, or sociopathy? Many people have researched this topic and believe that childhood trauma, heavy drugs during the growing phase of life, as well as many other things have twisted the minds of men such as Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson,

Few subjects capture the headlines, imaginations, and collective public fears as the “serial killer” does. Headlines throughout the nation blaze such fear-provoking words as “masked killer on the loose”, “college campuses terrorized” or even “your neighborhood is no longer a safe zone.” Headlines that are read throughout barber shops, diner eatery’s, or bus stops. The normal brain tries to process the “why’s” whereas the criminal investigator brain tries to process the five W’s, who, what, when, why as well as the where…as in where will the next strike occur? When and Who will be next?

“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