Nature Vs. Nurture To Become A Serial Killer
Introduction What possible causes or forces of nature impact an individual so harshly they eventually evolve into a serial killer? The nature versus nurture debate in childhood development with physical impact will be used in an attempt to explain possible causes. Serial killers often blend into society with no inclination that they are a violent or even a dangerous person. Some form of psychological gratification is the main reason a serial killer is compelled to commit murder. Most serial killers start out by killing animals before moving on to sometimes torturing and eventually killing actual human beings. The causes of psychopathology in an individual is still unknown. Trying to understand how a killer’s mind works goes back hundreds
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of years as scientists have tried to find the key cause. Researchers suggest that histories of physical and psychological abuse and strongly correlated with brain abnormalities could be a key component in the development of psychopathology and is one of the most frequently considered and researched theories. However, these theories are usually provided by the background and childhood of a serial killer and with limited scientific research.
Literature Review A serial killer is someone that kills three or more people in at least a thirty day time frame with some sort of break or cooling off period in-between the killings.
The FBI estimates there could be as many as 50 serial killers active in the United States at any given time. Joel Norris, who studied episodic aggression and is a founder of the international committee of neuroscientists suggests that we should be spending more time trying to diagnose serial killers before they snap and kill someone than on funding an execution after killers have been caught and prosecuted (Richard 1988).
Many serial killers share common patterns and backgrounds. Genetic and mental defects like ADD or ADHD are common. Abusive and violent situations occurred in almost 50% of serial killer’s childhood homes. There were also possible abusive sexual situations like being forced to dress up as the opposite sex, being punished for childhood masturbation or bed-wetting, or sexual abuse from relatives or close family friends. Drug and alcohol addiction is also a strong prevalent factor among serial killers. Usually, they do not have strong bonds or relationships in their families. These are just a few of the suggested causes (Richard …show more content…
1988).
Many serial killers have violent fantasies about hurting or mutilating themselves and sometimes would re-live their abuse as the abuser who was hurting someone else. 99% of serial killers eventually follow through on these fantasies by starting out torturing and killing small animals. Fantasies start by preforming killings and evolve into how to perfect their kill. They were anti-social as teenagers and typically avoided family gatherings. Serial killers tended to not have normal sexual experimentation as teenagers and preferred pornography and preforming auto-erotic fantasies on themselves instead. They develop “deviant” fantasies and paraphernalia’s like breaking and entering or being a peeping-tom before moving on to more violent activities (Rys 2011).
Severe physical trauma and brain damage from accidents or abuse as well as chemical imbalances that cause no emotional responses in most situations are also frequently occurring factors. These components are intertwined by Norris and he suggests that the impulse to kill at random is actually a mental disease. The most common factor reported to Norris by serial killers he interviewed was their inability to control their impulse to kill. He also states that as children many of these individuals did not stand a chance because most of them did not have a normal upbringing (Richard 1988).
Psychologist Joan Cartwright implies that abused children that grow up to be violent never met a person outside of their home who was willing to help give them a different chance in life. However psychologist Dorothy Lewis speculates that a head injury combined with history of abuse is more likely the cause. The trauma caused to the brain destroys their ability to control their emotions. Other researchers are of the opinion Lewis is over-speculating about the two causes being correlated. With the number of serial killers on death row with a history of trauma to the brain; specifically the cerebral cortex, researchers suggest further studies and examinations be conducted on this theory of causation (Olszewski 1993).
Helen Morrison is a forensic psychologist who held several interviews with numerous serial killers, including John Wayne Gacy. While he was alive he gave her permission to physically examine his brain following his execution. After weeks of waiting for results of the autopsy, she got back a report with just two words. “Normal Brain”. There was no physical damage, no scars, nor any type of diseases. She has held onto it with the intention of conducting further research with the hope of finding another type of answer (Cohen 2004).
Being a psychopath goes back as far as their developmental years during infancy. After years of conducting research with other killers the results have led her to draw one conclusion. There is no motive or reason. They just kill. Findings from other research conducted by Morrison shows they have similar personality types. They appear to be your typical “neighbor next door”. They are friendly people who are capable of ruthlessness and committing unspeakable acts. Later they simply discuss it as though they are naming off what they need to pick up from the supermarket for dinner. Morris is also strongly of the opinion there is no way to fix a serial killer (Cohen 2004).
When investigators look at how serial killers choose their victims, they look at how the murderer and the victim might have interacted together. They examine the profile of the serial killer to determine what was done to the victims, if there was sexual abuse or torture inflicted on the victim, and if they prolonged murdering them or if they killed their victims right after capturing them. Next, investigators try to understand and feel the way the killer feels so they can attempt to predict their next move and catch them before they have a chance to hurt someone else (Morganthu 1990).
Investigators also look at the profile of victims themselves.
Each serial killer has their own specific type of victims (Morganthu 1990). Normally there is some kind of history or motive as to why they chose that specific type of victim. Some serial killers choose gay or transgender individuals, some choose young boys, some choose drug addicts, some choose prostitutes, and some victims are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time (Rys 2011). Often a serial killer’s victims have similar physical traits that fall into a very specific range. These can be physical build, eye color, hair color, personality traits, and many other factors (Morganthu 1990). However they end up choosing their victim, they usually do so in a way that gains their victim’s trust. This results in the victims not recognizing danger when they are around it (Rys
2011).
John Wayne Gacy chose to kill teenage boys and younger men. In total he had thirty-three victims that he buried in his back yard and in the crawlspace under his home. He acted as a clown during kid’s birthday parties and lured victims to his home with the promise of providing them work for money or just offering them money (Babay 2010).
Dennis Rader, the BTK (blind, torture, kill) serial killer chose his victims by stalking them and learning their everyday routines several months leading up to killing them. He would tie his victims up and hang them upside down as he tortured them for days at a time before he finally killed them. BTK was a husband, a father of two, he went to church every Sunday, and he was a cub-scout leader. He stalked, tortured, and killed a total of ten women before he was finally caught (Rys 2011).
Ted Bundy was a law school student. When approaching his victims, he would fake having an injury to gain their trust before subduing them, usually by hitting them with a blunt object. He raped and murdered at least thirty women in Washington, Oregon during the 1970’s. He was also a necrophiliac and would return to the crime scenes after the fact to re-live the original assaults and murders. His trophies were some of the body parts of his victims. Some theorists speculate that Bundy’s patterns of violence started due to a lack of a father figure in his life during his childhood and after having a failed relationship in his early twenties (Boyle, Stephen G, and Crime Flashback 2012).
Jeffery Dahmer had a relatively normal childhood and his parents were not abusive; nor was he abandoned or sexually assaulted. Dahmer was not a violent or angry child, although he did keep to himself. He became an alcoholic in high school and his parents found evidence of satanic rituals and animal sacrifice in his bedroom as a teenager. Dahmer also kept a bunch of experiments in his boyhood room that was later discovered to be rotting human flesh. Jeffery had already committed his first murder before he went off to college. In July of 1991 the police discovered evidence in his apartment that Dahmer had killed, mutilated, and preformed necrophilia on the bodies of seventeen young boys. He was also a cannibal and stored the heads of his victims in his freezer (Miller 1994).
Henry Lucas had severe head trauma after being physically abused by his mother throughout his childhood. He started developing “weird” patterns of behavior and starting killing and preforming bestiality on animals. He later escalated to killing people (Richard 1988).
A spree serial killer is someone that kills several people in a short time frame, without the break or “cooling off” period between the murders. Edward Humprhey was a college freshman that killed five people from his campus in just over a week. Each of Humphrey’s victims had slash marks somewhere on their body, or their bodies were somehow mutilated during the course of the killing. Humphrey also decapitated one of his victims. He appeared to have no signature during his killings, but some investigators stated the mutilations might be the signature (Morganthu 1990).
Every serial killer has a signature, which is some kind of ritual or behavior that must be performed during each murder. Each signature is distinctive for each serial killer. It is something that is never skipped over during the course of a killing; whether it takes place before, during, or after the victim is killed (Morganthu 1990).
One investigator says that the best way to catch a killer is to look at their geographical profile and that looking for clues, looking at evidence, or looking in a database is not the best place to start. The technique was created by an investigative geographical profiler from Canada named Kim Romosso. Geographic profiling is based off of human nature and math (Armstrong 2001).
We all have set habits like shopping and where we go out to eat. Being close to home, we become accustomed to that general area. In most cases serial killers pick their victims in a geographical area that they are acquainted with but that is no close to their home zone. Romosso states that you can put the locations of the kill sites into a computer and measure the distance between them to determine and narrow down a possible home location for the killer. However this technique is not widely accepted in some areas (Armstrong 2001).
Proposed Research Methods & Possible Results
Helen Morrison dissected John Wayne Gacy’s brain with the hope of finding some clue to the biological causes of a serial killer.
of years as scientists have tried to find the key cause. Researchers suggest that histories of physical and psychological abuse and strongly correlated with brain abnormalities could be a key component in the development of psychopathology and is one of the most frequently considered and researched theories. However, these theories are usually provided by the background and childhood of a serial killer and with limited scientific research.
Literature Review A serial killer is someone that kills three or more people in at least a thirty day time frame with some sort of break or cooling off period in-between the killings.
The FBI estimates there could be as many as 50 serial killers active in the United States at any given time. Joel Norris, who studied episodic aggression and is a founder of the international committee of neuroscientists suggests that we should be spending more time trying to diagnose serial killers before they snap and kill someone than on funding an execution after killers have been caught and prosecuted (Richard 1988).
Many serial killers share common patterns and backgrounds. Genetic and mental defects like ADD or ADHD are common. Abusive and violent situations occurred in almost 50% of serial killer’s childhood homes. There were also possible abusive sexual situations like being forced to dress up as the opposite sex, being punished for childhood masturbation or bed-wetting, or sexual abuse from relatives or close family friends. Drug and alcohol addiction is also a strong prevalent factor among serial killers. Usually, they do not have strong bonds or relationships in their families. These are just a few of the suggested causes (Richard …show more content…
1988).
Many serial killers have violent fantasies about hurting or mutilating themselves and sometimes would re-live their abuse as the abuser who was hurting someone else. 99% of serial killers eventually follow through on these fantasies by starting out torturing and killing small animals. Fantasies start by preforming killings and evolve into how to perfect their kill. They were anti-social as teenagers and typically avoided family gatherings. Serial killers tended to not have normal sexual experimentation as teenagers and preferred pornography and preforming auto-erotic fantasies on themselves instead. They develop “deviant” fantasies and paraphernalia’s like breaking and entering or being a peeping-tom before moving on to more violent activities (Rys 2011).
Severe physical trauma and brain damage from accidents or abuse as well as chemical imbalances that cause no emotional responses in most situations are also frequently occurring factors. These components are intertwined by Norris and he suggests that the impulse to kill at random is actually a mental disease. The most common factor reported to Norris by serial killers he interviewed was their inability to control their impulse to kill. He also states that as children many of these individuals did not stand a chance because most of them did not have a normal upbringing (Richard 1988).
Psychologist Joan Cartwright implies that abused children that grow up to be violent never met a person outside of their home who was willing to help give them a different chance in life. However psychologist Dorothy Lewis speculates that a head injury combined with history of abuse is more likely the cause. The trauma caused to the brain destroys their ability to control their emotions. Other researchers are of the opinion Lewis is over-speculating about the two causes being correlated. With the number of serial killers on death row with a history of trauma to the brain; specifically the cerebral cortex, researchers suggest further studies and examinations be conducted on this theory of causation (Olszewski 1993).
Helen Morrison is a forensic psychologist who held several interviews with numerous serial killers, including John Wayne Gacy. While he was alive he gave her permission to physically examine his brain following his execution. After weeks of waiting for results of the autopsy, she got back a report with just two words. “Normal Brain”. There was no physical damage, no scars, nor any type of diseases. She has held onto it with the intention of conducting further research with the hope of finding another type of answer (Cohen 2004).
Being a psychopath goes back as far as their developmental years during infancy. After years of conducting research with other killers the results have led her to draw one conclusion. There is no motive or reason. They just kill. Findings from other research conducted by Morrison shows they have similar personality types. They appear to be your typical “neighbor next door”. They are friendly people who are capable of ruthlessness and committing unspeakable acts. Later they simply discuss it as though they are naming off what they need to pick up from the supermarket for dinner. Morris is also strongly of the opinion there is no way to fix a serial killer (Cohen 2004).
When investigators look at how serial killers choose their victims, they look at how the murderer and the victim might have interacted together. They examine the profile of the serial killer to determine what was done to the victims, if there was sexual abuse or torture inflicted on the victim, and if they prolonged murdering them or if they killed their victims right after capturing them. Next, investigators try to understand and feel the way the killer feels so they can attempt to predict their next move and catch them before they have a chance to hurt someone else (Morganthu 1990).
Investigators also look at the profile of victims themselves.
Each serial killer has their own specific type of victims (Morganthu 1990). Normally there is some kind of history or motive as to why they chose that specific type of victim. Some serial killers choose gay or transgender individuals, some choose young boys, some choose drug addicts, some choose prostitutes, and some victims are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time (Rys 2011). Often a serial killer’s victims have similar physical traits that fall into a very specific range. These can be physical build, eye color, hair color, personality traits, and many other factors (Morganthu 1990). However they end up choosing their victim, they usually do so in a way that gains their victim’s trust. This results in the victims not recognizing danger when they are around it (Rys
2011).
John Wayne Gacy chose to kill teenage boys and younger men. In total he had thirty-three victims that he buried in his back yard and in the crawlspace under his home. He acted as a clown during kid’s birthday parties and lured victims to his home with the promise of providing them work for money or just offering them money (Babay 2010).
Dennis Rader, the BTK (blind, torture, kill) serial killer chose his victims by stalking them and learning their everyday routines several months leading up to killing them. He would tie his victims up and hang them upside down as he tortured them for days at a time before he finally killed them. BTK was a husband, a father of two, he went to church every Sunday, and he was a cub-scout leader. He stalked, tortured, and killed a total of ten women before he was finally caught (Rys 2011).
Ted Bundy was a law school student. When approaching his victims, he would fake having an injury to gain their trust before subduing them, usually by hitting them with a blunt object. He raped and murdered at least thirty women in Washington, Oregon during the 1970’s. He was also a necrophiliac and would return to the crime scenes after the fact to re-live the original assaults and murders. His trophies were some of the body parts of his victims. Some theorists speculate that Bundy’s patterns of violence started due to a lack of a father figure in his life during his childhood and after having a failed relationship in his early twenties (Boyle, Stephen G, and Crime Flashback 2012).
Jeffery Dahmer had a relatively normal childhood and his parents were not abusive; nor was he abandoned or sexually assaulted. Dahmer was not a violent or angry child, although he did keep to himself. He became an alcoholic in high school and his parents found evidence of satanic rituals and animal sacrifice in his bedroom as a teenager. Dahmer also kept a bunch of experiments in his boyhood room that was later discovered to be rotting human flesh. Jeffery had already committed his first murder before he went off to college. In July of 1991 the police discovered evidence in his apartment that Dahmer had killed, mutilated, and preformed necrophilia on the bodies of seventeen young boys. He was also a cannibal and stored the heads of his victims in his freezer (Miller 1994).
Henry Lucas had severe head trauma after being physically abused by his mother throughout his childhood. He started developing “weird” patterns of behavior and starting killing and preforming bestiality on animals. He later escalated to killing people (Richard 1988).
A spree serial killer is someone that kills several people in a short time frame, without the break or “cooling off” period between the murders. Edward Humprhey was a college freshman that killed five people from his campus in just over a week. Each of Humphrey’s victims had slash marks somewhere on their body, or their bodies were somehow mutilated during the course of the killing. Humphrey also decapitated one of his victims. He appeared to have no signature during his killings, but some investigators stated the mutilations might be the signature (Morganthu 1990).
Every serial killer has a signature, which is some kind of ritual or behavior that must be performed during each murder. Each signature is distinctive for each serial killer. It is something that is never skipped over during the course of a killing; whether it takes place before, during, or after the victim is killed (Morganthu 1990).
One investigator says that the best way to catch a killer is to look at their geographical profile and that looking for clues, looking at evidence, or looking in a database is not the best place to start. The technique was created by an investigative geographical profiler from Canada named Kim Romosso. Geographic profiling is based off of human nature and math (Armstrong 2001).
We all have set habits like shopping and where we go out to eat. Being close to home, we become accustomed to that general area. In most cases serial killers pick their victims in a geographical area that they are acquainted with but that is no close to their home zone. Romosso states that you can put the locations of the kill sites into a computer and measure the distance between them to determine and narrow down a possible home location for the killer. However this technique is not widely accepted in some areas (Armstrong 2001).
Proposed Research Methods & Possible Results
Helen Morrison dissected John Wayne Gacy’s brain with the hope of finding some clue to the biological causes of a serial killer.