Serial Killers, By Flannery O ' Connor

This essay aims to examine weather serial killers are born a certain way and their genetics define their psychotic tendencies or whether they're a product of a bad environment that they grew up. This essay looks at recent killings in the late 20th century as there is more information on the killers from this period and it's easier to gain details about their childhoods. Whilst I will look at various different killers to reach more rounded conclusions (see appendix for comparison table), this essay will focus on four in detail to examine the debate; Ted Bundy (1946-89), Jeffery Dahmer (1960-1994), John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994) and Gary Ridgway (1949-present).

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

Psychopaths have been around for more than a century, and have found themselves to be able to make the public fear them. Belle Gunness, the Zodiac Killer, and John Wayne Gacy are all examples for the character traits compatible with psychopathy and have been able to provide more reason to the research of psychopaths. Statistically, psychopathy is found in three percent of the male population and in one percent of one percent of the female population. A psychopath’s behavior of exploitation, lying, recklessness, and arrogance has been studied to further understand how their brain structure is different in MRI scans and how they are able to use special abilities to catch its victims. Many research studies have been able to provide more information

Through the use of secondary research, Lubaszka and Shon compare and contrast offense characteristics and offender behaviors of serial killers to those of healthcare murderers. Their purpose is to bring attention to the fact that the two types of serial killers are not as comparable as previously believed. Therefore, asserting the necessity for future scholars to study the offenders separately(Lubaszka & Shon, 2013). In order to support their claims, Lubaszka and Shon focus on three limitations traditional serial homicide theories possess as they attempt to explain healthcare serial killers. Those three limitations are as follows: applicability of current typologies, stalking rituals, and geographical mobility (Lubaszka & Shon, 2013, p. 5).

Abandoned and shunned by his friends, he began writing to serial killers on a whim and discovered that the same traumatic brain injury that made him an outcast to his peers now enabled him to connect emotionally with notorious murderers. Soon many of America’s most dangerous psychopaths were revealing to him heinous details about their crimes—even those they’d never been convicted of.

(Winerman, n.d.) However, the simple ‘’organised/disorganised’’ classification did not provide any real clues as to specific personality types of serial killers nor did it address the specific motivations as to why they killed in the first place. This proved to be a tricky task for criminal profilers at the time because even today, a single ‘’serial killer personality'' trait has never been found. However, over the years as more and more serial killers have been identified and brought to justice, profilers have been able to identify common denominators within different serial killers and as a result have been able to group them into a six different classifications: Visionary types, Mission-oriented types, Hedonistic types, power/control types, recognition seeker types as well as material gainer seekers. (Labuschagne, 2009) Visionary killers often suffer from psychoses or other severe forms of mental illnesses. This variety of serial killer usually commits their crimes based purely on psychotic delusions or orders from ‘’God’’ ‘’Demons’’ or other supernatural entities. (Labuschagne,

Next, the topic of Nature vs. Nurture is addressed according to serial killers. In an article from the FBI, the subject of how a serial killer is conceived is replied. The article focuses its findings around the question: Are serial killers born with predetermined genes that play an integral part in creating their homicidal tendencies or do psycho-killers become murderous through their surroundings as children (“Serial Killers: Nature vs. Nurture”)? Grover Goodwin, who profiles serial killers, gathered information from one hundred and seven serial killers and their seven hundred and twenty- eight victims.

According to Freda Adler’s Criminology, “between twenty to sixty percent of state correctional populations suffer from a type of mental disorder . . . called psychopathy, sociopathy, or antisocial personality” (Adler, 2017). It is well-known that many serial killers struggle with mental disorders that push them to commit multiple murders or other crimes. Mikhail Popkov, of the Siberian region of Russia, recently confessed to committing several murders and is known as “The Werewolf” because of the manner in which he carried out these killings (Babash, 2017). The evidence from his confession and the Antisocial Personality Theory leads to the conclusion that Popkov is one of the many serial killers suffering from psychopathy.

Cruel serial executioners have been broadly analyzed as sociopaths who are inadequate in compassion and exorbitantly worried with impression administration. In the expert writing, a comparative impression of the savage serial executioner is energized by scientists and writers who concentrate on specific qualities that have been broadly viewed as mentally unmistakable of the cruel serial executioners—specifically, their absence of compassion for the torment and enduring of casualties, their excessive worry with impression administration to augment individual joy, and their absence of regret. The individuals who look to comprehend perverted serial killers might have acknowledged uncritically the customary expert astuteness delineating twisted

While the characteristics associated with psychopathy indicate inherent violent tendencies, cross-sectional studies of criminals confirm that a high percentage of psychopaths are involved in violent crimes and are more likely to reoffend. Most serious crime is committed by a disproportionate few of the criminal population. In fact, as evidenced by longitudinal studies, about 5 percent of criminally active subjects are responsible for over half the offenses recorded. To this end, psychopaths appear more prevalent in the criminal community. While psychopaths exist in the general public at an estimated 1 percent, this estimate jumps to a startling 15-25% in the incarcerated population.

In the life of James Clayton Vaughn Jr. he portrayed a plethora of psychological characteristics that correlated to the serial killer he was. One may ponder what creates a serial killer and what exactly a serial killer is. There are many things that define a serial killer’s psyche antisocialism being one of the many. Moreover, Vaughn claimed to have certain compulsions that made him complete tasks that he ordinarily would not do which demonstrated him to have obsessive compulsive disorder. Another characteristic Vaughn displayed that he and his fellow serial killers shared were their psychopathic personalities. The abundance of psychological traits present in James Clayton Vaughn Jr. has progressively influenced the many negative deeds he has participated in throughout his lifetime.

First, Psychopathic serial killers appear normal is society. The Protagonist shows that he is normal by welcoming the police officers into the house to search. “The officers were satisfied my manner had convinced the”. The protagonist shows he is normal by satisfying the police with his normal behavior.

The Student Scholar’s Day in James Commons featured several sessions covering different majors and topics. I attended Emily Murdock’s Into the Lives of Serial Killers: Psychopathy, Abuse, and ‘Inherent Evil’, from 9:30-10:45 am, which was a session by a student from the psychology department. Murdock’s research focused on serial killers, what makes a serial killer, and the psychological aspects and approaches that are underlying for a serial killer’s psyche. In the study that Murdock conducted, she mainly focused on four cases: two men and two women. However, in all four cases, the multifactorial approach was used, which included psychological, biological, environmental, and sociocultural approaches.

“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

In the past two decades, the creature known as the serial killer has captured the attention of the American culture. With the dozens of books and movies centered around serial killers the term has become a trendy catch phrase, replacing earlier terms such as "homicidal maniac". Fiction and screenwriters use the term "serial killers" with such casual abandon that is seems the meaning of the term escapes them.