Serial Killers - Assignment Example

SERIAL KILLERS There are many people who have committed a lot of murders, but it is generally assumed that people who have at least murdered three people they are considered as serial killer. Serial killers use a same kind of method for each and every murder they commit. Their killing sprees last over a period of few months. But these kind of shorter killing sprees are usually existent for males alone, woman usually have a longer killing spree. They space out their murders over a longer period. Usually the murders have a motive behind their killing; the motives vary from a range of things like, money, inheritance, sometimes a partner in marriage, anger, thrill, financial gain, sexual satisfaction and sometimes even psychological gratification. Sometimes, the murderers have specific targets; they choose people from certain color, race, ethnicity or religion. All such murders have a specific name to them. They are not similar to the mass murderers; mass murders are usually committed by a group of people who function together as a team. They have motives that are defined amongst them. Serial killers usually work alone and they have some particular reason to commit murders. They pick up murder victims through a similarity in the traits, gender, and characteristic. These people even have a cooling off period, during which they do not commit any murder and go about their normal routine as if nothing has happened; they behave like perfect human beings and do nothing that can make them susceptible. They interact normally with fellow beings and go about the societal norms. Then it happens again with them, some event or some person or some incident snaps something in them and they again start going on their killing spree once again. It so happens that the murders they commit again have a calming effect on them and they lay off the murders they are doing. It is a common thought that people have that the serial killers are males. This kind of bias that people have also makes them fantasize even if there is no such thing. The statistics show that there are all kinds of people who can be serial killers there is no specification or narrowing down the list. It is yet difficult to analyze the characteristics that actually make the people into killers; these people might have all kinds of reasons that made them think that they can bear no more. There is no limitation as to certain kind of person can only be killer. There are many people who are moving around us, interacting with us and we are not even aware of the fact that they might have tendency to be murderers. There is something psychologically within them that is holding them together, but sometime some particular event in their life actually snaps the thing that is holding them together and they lose their self control. It is more obvious in people from odd backgrounds and has a past in which there had been violence. It is majorly believed that people who have faced any kind of violence and difficulty usually are the ones who have greater tendency to have those murderer instincts (Goldman, Linda, Heminway, Sapolsky, Blackburn, Shively, Marmot, Roseboom, Lovett, 2008). That’s why it is common to see that the murderers are from some kind of similar background or at least have a bit of rough patch in their life that is common. People who come from poorer background are those who actually feel that they are in need to have some kind of venting activity, when they find no outlet some of them get sated by seeing the blood of others or torturing others or putting them through some kind of pain. The researches that have been conduced have shown that mostly murderers belong to the struggling class, and in some cases it was also evident that people belonged to higher class. The reason that was common among all the murderers was that they needed an outlet for venting their own frustrations. Therefore, it is highly recommended that it will not be proper neither accurate to actually make a list by having biases. The serial killers cannot be generalized, they have some kind of similar streak or characteristic that is to be found in each of them and that’s the thing that is common in them. It is also seen that sometimes people from the minorities are also involved in the murders most often. This is usually because they feel that they are being deprived of the basic necessities that they should be provided with. This gets them frustrated with the system and they think in the way that is only possible for them to think, they feel that they are being deprived because they are not of the same color, or same ethnicity or same culture or religion. They look for venting their hatred and they kill who belong to the same class, culture, race or ethnicity of the people who have actually wronged them. Some of the characteristics of the serial killers have been summarized below: It is a general assumption that people who are serial killers have real high intelligence quotient, they are very bright and posses high amount of intelligence. But it’s a recorded fact that people who have been serial killers have an IQ less than the population average. It was discovered that people who actually use bombs for killing people are those who have high intelligence quotients, rest all are usually dumb kind of people who actually lack intelligence. Though there have been some exceptions with regards to serial killers that actually held steady jobs and were earning a good and steady income, it has been usually seen that the people who tend to have murdering instincts are those who have held normal kind of jobs and usually have had to skip from one job to the other. They have families but the environment that their families have is quite disturbing. They have unsteady families and as well as have different kind of economic troubles that make them go looking for things that actually help them create a release. This makes them aware of the fact that they have some kind of things missing in them and they need to fill that gap and feel wholeness, for this they try to get rid of this feeling and end up killing people. Some people discover better ways to vent and get rid of their frustration while some become wild and lose all kinds of control (Kelleher, Kelleher, 1998). Usually the concept that people have is that the murder is male, but there have been instances in the history that have shown that women are equally capable of doing murders. The main reason for this kind of bias is that males apparently seem more violent and have more show of power. Male usually tend to mutilate, beat up and bash their victims, while females on the other hand are more subtle, they use poisoning or smaller weapon to kill. They are also very less obvious in their expressions. This makes the woman get away a lot of times. Men on the other hand use more violent tactics and attract attention towards them. The most common thing among all kind of killers is that they have been traumatized as a child either emotionally or physically or have been molested and they have a feel of inferiority complex. They look to get an upper hand on people and they feel that they have some kind of power over others when they are murdering people. Male Serial Killer: Dr. Joseph Mengel, was a doctor, he would lure the kids away from their parents or relatives. This luring would then make them an easy target; he would then send the kids to gas chambers. According to him any person with any kind of deformity had no right to live. He killed off people for his own satisfaction; his aim was to have a perfect world. When he was luring the kids away from their parents or relatives, and if the kid showed any sign of resistance and was not ready to join him, he would kill the relative as well as the kid then and there on the spot because in his opinion they were not perfect as they resisted. He gave out candies to befriend the kids and this helped him in luring. Female serial killer: Annie Walters was a woman who advertised that she would take in unwanted children, children who were born from unplanned pregnancies. She took a sum of 25 to 30 pounds to keep the child; she would then get rid of the child by giving a high dose of morphine. This way she did not have to spend a dime on the baby she was taking in and made lots of money. She was psychologically disturbed as she belonged to a huge family, and this troubled her and she felt neglected, that she felt that she was giving a relief to the kids. REFERNCES Cahill, Tim, and Russ Ewing. Buried Dreams: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. Print. Kelleher, Michael D, and C L. Kelleher. Murder Most Rare: The Female Serial Killer. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1998. Print. Goldman, Linda, John Heminway, Robert M. Sapolsky, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol A. Shively, Michael Marmot, Elissa Epel, Tessa Roseboom, and Marcus Lovett. Stress: Portrait of a Killer. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2008. Read More