What makes a serial killer

[Thomas Kirby]

Large groups of people, even Americans, latch on to reasons to kill large numbers of humans or animals. They will go as far as killing anyone who tries to get them off it, and will definitely abuse anyone who tries to stop them. It is an amazing demonstration of the meaning of the word "dissociation" that anyone can for as much as five minutes hold on to the idea that serial killers are any different from this.

[coquina]

This is from a fictional crime novel, but it made me wonder....

 

The person who was the serial killer was found to have had a brain injury as a child which caused an undiagnosed hemorrage into the temporal lobe. After the perp was caught, brain imaging tests were performed that revealed the injury. I haven't finished reading the book, so I don't know the outcome. I did some research and found that frontal lobe injuries can indeed affect social behavior and judgment, and can cause people to become psuedopsychopathic. (Backed up by this page: http://www.neuroskills.com/index.shtml?main=/tbi/bfrontal.shtml)

 

One of the most common effects of frontal damage can be a dramatic change in social behavior. A person's personality can undergo significant changes after an injury to the frontal lobes, especially when both lobes are involved. There are some differences in the left versus right frontal lobes in this area. Left frontal damage usually manifests as pseudodepression and right frontal damage as pseudopsychopathic (Blumer and Benson, 1975).

 

Sexual behavior can also be effected by frontal lesions. Orbital frontal damage can introduce abnormal sexual behavior, while dorolateral lesions may reduce sexual interest (Walker and Blummer, 1975).

 

 

Just throwing this in as food for thought.

[beautyundone]

^yes, i've heard of cases such as that one. in those circumstances, i do believe that if the person has the hemorrage removed (or whatever they do to make it go away) and are proven to be aggressive no longer, they should be let go. at that point, they are no longer a danger to society and have not purposely done anything wrong.

 

then again, this also makes me think of the movie 'identity'. anyone ever seen it?

[arkain101]

What makes a serial killer is probably not one absolute reasoning. There would be alot of varible reasons behind what makes one. I would assume for whatever reason they perform their actions for reason of personal payoff. If somehow it makes them feel good or better then normal at the time, that person can be as easily addicted to killing as someone on drugs or smoking. If it made the person feel like they wanted to kill themself while they were doing it chances are they would be a 1 time killer and that would be the end of it.

 

Ive looked through the eye of madness. It is as clear as the eye of saneous and is why it is so difficult to understand that you are infact mad. It is often looked at that the person is distorted.. to us (anyone sane) I suppose they are but for the individual themself it is or can be the exact opposite of distorted. That is probably why they continue the path the lead.

 

Emotions can merge and become what is know as alive and you can not decifer any of them apart from one another, and anything that can allow you to do that is probably going to be your favorite thing to do. Killing someone, raping, or hurting someone can often be the trick to getting that payoff of a different or better feeling/reality. Very hard to explain.

does that make sense to you?

[aiza]

suddenly I have a liking for this topic... It could be coz of nervous break down, or dual personalities.

[ronblue]

Serial killers are more sensitive to others feelings. The emotional reaction of others generated an internal response. The opponent process will generate an opposite response.

 

So terror and revolt will generate a strong psychological high. Unfortunately, the serial killer habituates to each murder which means he or she must use greater procedures to experience a drug like high by torturing his victims.

[Aumsonata]

Serial killers, from what I have heard, feel less empathy than the average person, making them perhaps unresponsive to the pain that they inflict on others. I can't cite sources, as I don't have any offhand, but I remember reading that these types of people are basically like the child that tortures insects and animals, out of a strange curiosity and facination.

They might experience a disconnect when it comes to the pain of others, perhaps because they are so caught up in their own psychological suffering.Or maybe hurting others puts them in touch with their own feelings.

Just some random thoughts.

[Bio-Hazard]

Wheaties. You gotta' have your wheaties. Breakfast of champions!

 

Seriously though, most likely some type of neurotransmitter malfunction is occuring creating a biological predisposition. Since this biological fault exists and they are put in a regular environment.. say.. McDonalds.. when they see that the cashier can't count, their impatience and hate towards the idiots of society begins to grow more and more. This is most definitely a nature vs. nurture issue.

 

Supposedly they aren't suppose to have feelings..

I'm sure they have the feeling of want, otherwise they wouldn't pick what tool to use.. Of course they sometimes use random choices.. there is the emotion of want still existant.. want makes most of anyone's decisions in life.

 

There must be some type of feeling, perhaps selfish want. Perhaps they can't feel anything about others.. or else they can't interpret how they feel. Maybe they can have an emotion of their own.. but they can't feel someone elses making them careless of how they scream and shout while being pushed into the ground and stabbed multiple times with a fork in the face.

[j_p]

I saw reference to one experiment comparing empathic response measured by galvanic skin response between "psychopathic" and normal murderers (and I don't know the technical definitions of sociopath or psychopath by the way.) Normal murderers had a normal response, while the psychopaths did not (the same article referenced another experiment on autistics which showed they had normal rsponse as well.) Both single studies, but intriguing none-the-less. And if the results are upheld might be interesting to see what the response of non-murderous sociopaths might be

 

This supports the theory that severely limited emotional function is a characteristic of serial killers. Furthermore, the poor function would permit one to 'read' others more effectively that those with more emotional response do. One's interpretation of others would not be distorted by one's own emotions.

 

Low emotional response could be a very adaptive trait in unremittantly stressful environment. However, humans evolved in groups; the adaptive value of any trait must be evaluated with respect to how it effects group survival. Bashing heads in randomly would be bad; being able to evaluate the group and decide that it can not support the old hunters ["Sorry, Dad"] over the coming winter might be a good thing.

 

As for serial killers being more intelligent and charasmatic and better at 'reading' people, that might be a result of the stupid and unpleasent killers getting caught early. Only the very intelligent and charming psycopathic killers get away with it often enough to be labelled 'serial'.

[Aumsonata]

One common thread, for most serial killers, is an unusually tramatic childhood. So I would say there is some correlation with environmental factors and the desire/urge to torment and kill others.

 

Have any scientists done studies on the actual brains of these people to see if there are any damaged or unusual brain features? That could lead to further information on whether there is an innate or neurological predisposition for causing these violent acts.

 

I also find it to be unusual that Aileen Wournos was executed and Charles Manson and other male serial killers(they are mostly white males) are still alive . Not that I necassarilly agree with the death penalty. Was it because she was tried in Texas?

[Winterwolf]

Due to the brutality of their early existence (ie the formative years), could brain injury result and emotional development be derailed to such a degree as to manifest as serial killer mentality?

 

42 serial killers were studied and these were the conclusions drawn ---

 

Serial killer mentality has been linked to early traumatic factors, which include: lower socioeconomic status; broken home; parental brutality and emotional abuse; neglect; humiliation; or alcoholism. They are usually white males (with rare exceptions) with pronounced feelings of inferiority about their sexual prowess. This produces extreme amounts of ragefulness and aggressivity, which leads them to be mentally disordered to the point of being psychopathic sexual sadists.

 

MH Stone, Psychiatry Journal, 1994

 

By the way, Charles Manson is classified as a mass murderer, not a serial killer. There is a fine distinction between the two. Mass murderers, as in the case of Charles Manson who orchestrated the deaths of 8 people all in one night, kill many people all at once. Serial killers, as in the case of Dennis Rayder (aka BTK), usually kill several people, sometimes one or more at a time, oftentimes over a period of many years.

[MolotovCocktail]

I did a massive project on serial killers in school just recently in my Ethics Seminar Class, and a lot what you notice is that serial killers may have had some sort of personality disorder. What caused it remains unknown, but they do exhibit abnormal behaviors when they are young, and in many cases they did have some traumatic childhood experience(s).

 

I researched Ted Bundy, and he appeared to have some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder (He killed only people who resembled his former girlfriend) and anti-social personality disorder (Throughout his life he is documented to have avoided any and all social interaction, and took pride in his manipulative abilities).

 

With the exception of Ted Bundy and a few others, one major similarity between all the serial killers that I found interesting is that they liked the attention they got from killing their victims (Examples of such people who really liked attention was Ramirez and the Zodiac Killer, who both sent taunting messages to the police and bragged about their rampage).

 

Having knowledge of abnormal psychology does help defining why they do the things they do, but it is still under debate on whether or not they did it because of nurture or nature (Ted Bundy did not have ANY traumatic childhood experiences whatsoever, nor was he abused. In fact, he lived in a somewhat normal household).

[raday]

While I am new to this forum, I have enjoyed reading the various posts.

When I feel I can contribute to the subject, I will post as well.

From what I have read, all of you are very intelligent people.

Keep it up, I really do enjoy the discussion.

[Fieldata]

It should be noted that organised serial killers are very difficult to catch, only now with advanced police methods are they able to be tracked with efficiency. In cave man times, maybe no one knew who the killer was and the killer would had been cautious about it.

 

...of being stalked! Imagine the chem high the serial killer is getting, not only 'out smarting', but being pursued by law enforcement. Not to mention the fame of media coverage. Screaming, terror, squirming, fleeing, pleading, bleeding, 'P'ower= a megaton payload to the brain.

What could be more thrilling, bagging a Sabre Tooth Tiger or Mastadon?

"Just the eatin' it part afterwards!"

Whoever said brain research should be mandatory on these extreme specimens, I agree 150%.

Observation: children who are put through too much 'fight or flight' trauma seem to share the 'brain damage' <?> described above.

And what about those pesky lesions to the frontal lobes?

"Excuse me, if you torture, rape, murder & mutillate...we can study you however we damn well please. It's not like you won't be numb for our probes."

[Abdul-Aziz]

I remember reading somewhere that the police, such as the FBI or New Scotland Yard, find that catching serial killers is often very difficult because the serial murderers themselves are normally people of very high intelligence and creativity. Some serial killers, such as the so-called Zodiac Killer or Jack the Ripper, are never caught because they are able to outwit the authorities for decades, if not forever.

[iNow]

I remember reading somewhere that the police, such as the FBI or New Scotland Yard, find that catching serial killers is often very difficult because the serial murderers themselves are normally people of very high intelligence and creativity. Some serial killers, such as the so-called Zodiac Killer or Jack the Ripper, are never caught because they are able to outwit the authorities for decades, if not forever.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much a myth. It's just that we seem to remember the smart ones more, they are more "perceptually salient."

 

You suggested that serial killers are generally above average intelligence, but that is very much not the case. Many people have the preconception that serial killers are smart and that they tend to evade the police for long periods of time, but it is not really the killers intelligence that stops them being caught. More often, it is actually the lack of police manpower and equipment that lets them evade detection for such long stretches. They're a mixed bag, much like the rest of the population. No need for generalizations here.

[timetes]

TLDR but ill go with the "crap" option, i think its nurture not nature that brings on this sort of behaviour

 

I agree....enviorment....but conti, your discription of a serial killer sounds like every military person.

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Consecutive posts merged

Yeah, that's pretty much a myth. It's just that we seem to remember the smart ones more, they are more "perceptually salient."

 

You suggested that serial killers are generally above average intelligence, but that is very much not the case. Many people have the preconception that serial killers are smart and that they tend to evade the police for long periods of time, but it is not really the killers intelligence that stops them being caught. More often, it is actually the lack of police manpower and equipment that lets them evade detection for such long stretches. They're a mixed bag, much like the rest of the population. No need for generalizations here.

 

and human or animal instinct helps them evade police.