Serial Killers Research Paper

People become serial killers for a reason. The expression “Serial Killers” first presumably originated in 1970 by late FBI Agent Robert Ressler. Before this time society categorized them with Mass Murders. Agent Ressler was lecturing at a college when he heard someone describe the killing as having an unending ‘serial’ cycle. Going back to his childhood, he remembered the movie industry titled “Serial Adventures” which showed short films of Batman and other heroes. None of the shows that were played came to a gratifying close. It always left you wanting more. Ressler came to the conclusion that there should be two separate category’s for mass murders, a single killing of many people at one location, and serial homicide, multiple killings that
occur at different times with a cooling off period.
Have you ever been sitting on the couch watching the news about the latest homicide and wondered why people kill? That’s a good question. National Center for Crisis Management points out two very important questions about why serial killers commit a homicide. Are serial killers born with genes that play a significant role in their killings or is it due to their surroundings as a child? Scientist and Criminologists have been working for many years trying to find the answer to this question. The media has portrayed serial killers to either have psychosis or just be insanely brilliant. The FBI has identified some common traits between the killings such as lack of remorse, power hungry, predatory behavior, and pleasure seeking. They found that serial killers had the same traits as someone who is considered a psychopath. A psychopath is a person with a mental illness that is great at manipulating people, they are intimidating, they have violent behavior, and they lack guilt.