Why Do Individuals Become Serial Killers?

Serial killing as a phenomenon has been apart of the United States’ history for many years. Serial killers have been typically defined as individuals who have murdered a minimum of three to four people over a period of time with a ‘cooling off’ period between each murder (Wittington-Egan, 2008). There are various theories that give insight into why individuals become serial killers. One of the most prevalent theories being the idea that psychological disorders contribute to one’s likeliness to kill, the most frequent being antisocial personality disorder. Furthermore, through copious amounts of research, one can conclude that the population at the highest risk of becoming serial killers is males diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
Many times others may misunderstand an ASPD diagnosis as being nonsocial or shy, however the two are not related. According to the DSM-5, there are four diagnostic criterions in diagnosing an individual with ASPD. Those include the disregard for and violation of others rights (since the age of 15), being of at least eighteen years old, a history of conduct disorder, and the antisocial behavior does not occur in the context of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder(American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The DSM-5 emphasizes that individuals may not be diagnosed before the age of 18 as the aforementioned symptoms present in someone who is underage is known as conduct
Often times serial killers were abused—emotionally, physically or sexually—at on point in their life by a family member (Holmes & Holmes, 1998). This is a similarity that creates a link between ASPD and the cause of serial killers.
Wittington-Egan (2008) divided these serial killers into two different groups, the psychotics and the psychopaths. Those in the first group are deemed genuinely insane and tend to be the minority of serial killers. These individuals are deemed the psychotics and are genuinely insane. They often hear voices, see visions, and have trouble differentiating fiction from reality. The second group, the psychopaths, consists of those that are sane and know right from wrong but do not care. They kill because they want to and they like it and feel no guilt or remorse (Simons, 2001). It is in this group of serial killers that the most amount of individuals with ASPD are found. Approximately two thirds of all serial killers are diagnosed with a personality disorder found in the DSM-5’s Cluster B. Studies have shown that patients who are released from psychiatric hospitals who have ASPD are four times more likely to be violent after being discharged and 3.7 times more likely to have a reconviction for attempted and completed murder