The Serial Killer Essay Research Paper KILLER

The Serial Killer Essay, Research Paper

KILLER 2

ABSTRACT

Traditionally, most murders and violent crimes were easily understood and solved by law enforcement. These crimes generated from feelings we all experience: jealousy, greed, anger, revenge, etc. Once these emotional outbursts were over the crime spree would end, someone would be dead and the police would generally know who they were looking for and solved the crime. But a new type of criminal has come to the forefront, the serial killer, who doesn’t stop until he is caught or killed. He learns from experience and gets better at his craft, constantly perfecting his scenario from one crime to the next. Serial killers have been present throughout history, but viewed as monsters that had to be supernatural. These heinous crimes could not possibly have been perpetrated by human hands. The stories and legends of witches, vampires, werewolves and the like were probably a way to explain crimes so hideous that no one in the past could have comprehended the perversities we now accept as almost commonplace in modern life. The purpose of this paper is to make the public more aware of their presence in society.

KILLER 1

OVERVIEW OF THE SERIAL KILLER

JIM SHAHAYDA

SURVEY OF FORENSICS

SEPT 28, 1996

RUNNING HEAD: KILLER

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The serial killer is your neighbor, he kills one by one, while leading a seemingly normal life between killings (Cahill 6). To be classified as a serial killer, the killer has to kill at least three people in separate murders with a cooling off period between each murder. Usually there is a sexual component to their murders. They follow a ritualistic pattern by choosing a certain type of victim and they kill them in a fashion that becomes all too familiar with investigators and the media. (DeWitt 3B). Serial killers murder only for the psychological release they receive from the act itself. The majority of serial killers are white males in their late twenties or early thirties and usually begin their murderous sprees when they are at a low point in their lives. Many started as child molesters and were molested as children themselves. They typically suffer from enuresis, are pathological liars, have violent fantasies, chronic daydreaming, tortured animals as children, and were prone to firesetting as adolescents. Serial killers can’t psychologically distinguish between a human being and an inanimate object because they don’t go through the infant stage of individualization, in which they learn they are independent of the environment (Methvin 36). With access to the interstate highway system, serial killers can move quickly and anonymously from crime to crime in several states, making detection and capture extremely difficult.

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The FBI has studied more than one hundred serial killers and their uncanny psychological resemblance is extraordinary, which makes previous serial killers a good reference point for catching present ones. Because of that fact, the FBI created the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes (NCAVC) for the Behavioral Sciences Division to examine serial killers, mass murderers, and other violent criminals for use in further criminal investigations(42).

To date, no universally accepted typology for violent serial offenders exists. There is no common language that both the law enforcement community and the mental health community use to describe violent criminal behavior, or to discuss motive and means. Even the best classification efforts, produced by such groups of motivated and respected individuals as the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, have yet to be widely accepted. This is largely because everyone associated with the field has their own idea about the criminal mind, and none of the professionals involved like to be told how to think about criminal behavior by someone else. The progeny of this unhappy relationship between law enforcement and mental health is a lack of mutual understanding and discarded professional respect on both sides of the fence.

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Not enough psychologists and psychiatrists have been to a crime scene, and not enough investigators have studied principles of psychology, psycopathology, and human behavior. Each could greatly benefit from the experiences of the other. More importantly, the successful investigation of a violent serial offender often takes skills from both disciplines(Davis 13).

Most of these individuals have long criminal histories and become progressively more violent as they grow older and gain more experience. Their killings are almost always sexually motivated and are part of an elaborate sexual fantasy that builds up to a climax during the actual killing. Many of these violent episodes are directed at women and children, although there are homosexual killers who like to hunt gay men. The victims of choice are prostitutes, male hustlers, drifters, etc, easy prey that wouldn’t be immediately missed. As adults most are substance abusers of one sort or another and all grew up in violent households. Several enjoy necrophilia and cannibalism and keep some sort of trophy from the kill, such as body parts, personal effects, and pictures or video to relive the event over and over again. For some, David Berkowitz for example, just returning to the crime scene or rolling i

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