Serial Killers: Article Analysis

In conclusion, although profiling serial killers is a difficult job, it is still successful in helping the community and investigators. One of the main aspects in profiling a serial killer is identifying and categorizing what type of killer the offender is. Next, investigators have to come up with a profile. This is one of the most difficult parts of the process, considering it is based off of predictions from the three different crime scenes and the victims. Investigators try and relate all the crime scenes back to one another in order to predict who the offender is going to target next. One of the downsides of profiling serial killers is the side effects of technology and social media. Since social media is a big aspect in today’s world,

When criminologists build criminal profiles, they think about how the killer gained access to the victim, what the killer did to the victim, if the killer tried to cover his or her tracks and how, what about the victim attracted the killer to target them, and what motive or fantasy drove the killer to hurt the victim how and where they did.

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.

The mind of a serial killer can be very interesting in being able to find out what makes them want to do what they do. Knowing if someone was abused as a child and if this makes them more likely to become a serial killer or not become a serial killer is something I was very curious to learn about. Something that happens in a person’s childhood can affect the way they act when they become adults. I found two sources talking about childhood abuse and serial killers. The first source was an internet article entitled “Serial Killer Motives” found on the website How Stuff Works and was written by Shanna Freeman. The second source I found was a video entitled “Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer” which is found off of the website Big Think. This

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

Serial Killers and Personality Disorders It is not difficult to realize that any human who can murder multiple other humans in cold blood is suffering from some type of mental illness. From schizophrenia, to antisocial personality disorder, serial killers suffer from many dangerous disorders. Borderline personality disorder is one in particular that can create some of the most dangerous human minds in the world. Serial killing, the murder of multiple people by the same killer in different events, is a vicious crime that is commonly caused by people with mental disorders.

Growing up, there are many signs that can help one determine if a young child’s behavior is normal or abnormal. For example, many serial killers were said to have been “juvenile arsonists” and found pleasure in setting fires. As far as the harm aspect goes, it was shown that males enjoyed hurting small animals as adolescents. Many serial killers suffered major abuse as a child. The abuse would range from psychological, to physical but often was sexual.

This article is about serial killers in the Health Care profession. The article starts out by comparing health care serial killers to con men. Con men prey on the victim’s vulnerability to get what they want. Con men first gain the trust of their victims. This is the same thing that health care serial killers do. They gain the trust of their patients and the patients family to achieve their killing. “It is important to understand how healthcare serial killers are able to gain the trust and compliance of the victims and their families, as well as the trust of co-workers and/or hospital administrators prior to the killing” (Lubaszka, 2014).

Though serial killer may have a fairly specific definition, there is no single precise profile for the serial killer. Each has a unique identity, set of motives and methods, and a unique psychopathology that would attempt to explain the mens rea, that is, the purpose or intent of the murder. “Psychological profiling is an investigative tool used strictly to answer the how of the crime, not the why” (Severence et al, 1992; Lanier and Henry, 1998). By examining the psychological make-up of the serial killer, it is often possible to explain the behavior, which might make it a useful tool in solving crimes.

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,

go back as far as the fifteenth century, only a few were written about prior to

When it comes to team serial killers and solo serial killers, I don’t believe there is too much difference. Serial killers can be described as two or more people who commit murders between separate periods of time and work together to accomplish their terrible acts of violence. Selecting their victims can be random a times, but they are usually very methodical when picking their victims. From what I have knowledge of, these individuals will look for vulnerable targets because they know they will be able to get away with the crime (Crime Museum, 2015). Prostitutes have been a common target for serial killers because these women and men place themselves in very dangerous situations.

“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

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

Historically, crime and criminals have always caught the attention of law-abiding citizens. Whenever there is mention of serial killers or unsolved murders or abductions, psychological profiling, floats to the top of the list of concerns (Egger, 1999). Psychological profiling is an attempt to provide investigators with more information about an offender who has not yet been identified (Egger, 1999). Its purpose is to develop a behavioral composite that combines both sociological and psychological assessment of the would-be offender. The type of person who could have committed the crime can often be identified on the premise that accurate analysis and interpretation of the crime scene can point to a