Serial Murder: Social Control and the Strain Theory - Essay Example

Serial Murder: Social Control and the Strain Theory INTRODUCTION The essay will discuss serial murder as a form of crime it will evaluate and critically analysis serial murder to two psychological. The theories consist of Social control theory which entails commitment, belief and attachment. The second theory will be the Strain theory which was developed in accordance with Merton. This type of homicide entails killing of more than three people at a given time interval (Wier, 2011). Each murder occurs in either similar manner or its mode changes but the executor(s) remains the same. It may be carried out by a single individual or planned by several individuals. The causes of this type of homicide defer and the essay will focus and evaluate a number of scenarios that contribute to this type of crime. The focus will be on the two theories and how they explain this type of crime. The type of homicides is never a gender issue as both males and females are victims and culprits. THE SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY The theory was developed by Hirshi, it relates crimes to bonds people have with the immediate society. He tries to explain how people get involved in different levels of crime. He relates it to social connections; he attributes four elements of bonds to society that drives a person in committing or not committing crime. The values of an individual are driven on the four bonds and they both apply to all types of crime. These sentiments are echoed by chapple (2003); he relates crimes to youthful commitment among various levels. He analyses the levels of control an individual has while attempting crime. The levels of crime vary in nature; the section will analyze the four bonds in relation to various types of serial murders. This will include the culprits and victims. Attachment The first bond is attachment which Gottfredson & Hirschi (1990) attributes this bond to a superego and it is driven by norms and conscience of an individual. They categorizes this levels of attachment into parental, communal and religion. Parental attachment always refers to both the family and parents. In that the teachings attained by an individual during his teenage years will determine whether one gets involved in crime and other delinquent activities. Brannigan et al (2002) indicates how the close attachment of an individual reduces the likelihood of a person engaging in crime. The nature of crime directly reflects on how the perpetrator attachment to his parents was at his childhood life (Sampson & Laub, 1993). Religion also plays a role in determining if an individual becomes a serial murderer. Religion sets out ethics and if one is attached to adhere to them the tendency of engaging in crime will reduce. Religions teach about the consequences of killing. The lack of attachment to this teaching will prompt a person to kill as a way of seeking revenge. The person may kill more people as a way of attaining perceived self satisfaction. The community is the other element where the nature of hostility an individual receives may determine is future criminal life. The additive nature of killing results from a self driven motive that arise due to lack of social and family attachment. Commitment It explains how laws are set and are meant to deter an individual from committing certain crimes. Those involved in these crimes will tend to ignore the consequences and knowingly commits the crime (Gibbons, 1994). There bonds to the laws of the land are no more to a serial killer. The first murder among the many series he will complete makes him a first offender the laws indicate the punishment for murder, the serial killer on the other hand ignores the consequences and develops an attitude that allows him to repeat the effense. This notion prompt a serial killer to continue killing as he is aware that the second and the third murder will carry the same punishment (Gibbons, 1994). Involvement This describes the nature of activity an individual performs. These activities occupy’s an individual to an extent of consuming most of his time. The period in which an individual could have planned his attacks is occupied by a number of day activities. Serial murders involves a well executed plan in that they appear to follow a given patterns. They are motivated by self and life events and which are causes of trauma, stress and dissatisfaction. When an individual gets time to reflect on this aspect may end up committing crime (Edward, 1993). Commitments also imply positive company where serial murderers tend to exhibit antisocial traits which intern affects their thinking while alone. The lack of consultation makes one dictate his actions. The morals at the given period are less an one uses his school of thought to justify what is wrong and distinguish it from what is right. Belief According to the social control theory by Hirschi (1969), belief refers to self assumptions. The society, religion and the governments sets codes and provides of what to adhere to and what is not to be followed. In a serial killer perspectives his personal beliefs remain supreme compared to norms from society. One may believe that killing someone may be way of seeking revenge. The culprit performs the act due to external forces. They exhibit egocentric traits that make them consider their school of thought to be the ultimate solution (Warwick, 2006). For instance a female who gets gang raped and his culprits go scot free due to lack of evidence may develop a hate attitude towards male. She may consider getting even believing that killing men will avenge the atrocities (Kelleher & Kelleher, 1998). For the case of a pair or some groups of serial killers may result from certain undefined beliefs some being cults. They believe in serial killing as a way of ensuring the ‘non believers’ either are eliminated from the earth or in some cases they believe in saving the human race from the evils of the world by killing. For instance, the case of Barbour and her husband they are accused of serial killing, their recent victim being Troy (Caulfield, 2014). She admits killing the man in an effort of reliving him of her sins as she is quoted saying that the man did terrible things. STRAIN THEORY It explains how social structures in given society prompts individuals to engage in crime. The theory was advanced by Merton (1938). The essay will focus on two versions of the theory. Their explanations of causes of train will link the two schools of thought to serial murders. The theory identifies strains to be the main reason that drives individuals to committing crimes. The causes of the strains defer the two school of thought will separately identify the strains and scrutinize them in an effort to identifying the main causes of crimes. Jie Zhang perspective In attempt to level these social disparities, he engages in crime which in our case may be forced to becoming a serial killer (Zhang & Lester, 2010). The first forces are associated to relatives in that an individual may conclude that other families are socially better than his own. He may believe that the resources gained where as a result of social injustices. The number of people he perceive to be living a better life than his may be more and he may connect them to a given syndicate. He picks individuals and kills based on his own perspective on life. The second cause is the failure by an individual to cope with what life has to offer. The individual adapts measures that will enable him cope with the current situation. The other cause of crisis is when an individual experiences love disappointments. The love disappointments are associated to female crimes. She may blame her ex- lovers for her current misfortune and failures in life. she then chooses the ex- lovers as her executing target. The effect is caused by post traumatic stress and depression. The inability by an individual to cope with current matters prompts the female serial killer to try and balance between her sorrows and revenge (Burton & Cullen, 1992). Robert Agnew perspective Agnew (1997) advances the theory by stating two levels in which the theory works best. The two levels focus on existence of negative stimuli and the gender levels. The negative strain arises when an individual fail to attain a certain objective. The levels of objectives vary depending on the age of an individual; he dismisses the aspect of money being the root cause of the crimes being committed (Agnew, 1994). This argument can apply to a serial murderer where the culprit is motivated by other factors other than money. Trauma and previous social misfortunes may be the motivational factor of a serial killer. Agnew (1995) sets social factors to be the main contributor of strain. The high rate of the male population engaging in serial murders as compared to the females is attributed to the large responsibility the male population is entitled. They attribute the strains by a female to be materialistic and in most cases the failure to achieve goals always results to self- destructive crimes such as suicides. The males’ failure to achieve set goals combines results to violent behavior which include serial murder (Agnew & Broidy, 1997). CRITICISM The two theories dwell majorly on human- social commitment to the higher levels of crime. They fail to demonstrate how personal disorders may have effect on the crime levels. These disorders destabilize an individual and dominate their thinking ability. The dormant factor is attributed to the state of mind an individual may be a given stage. The two theories fail also in demonstrating the cognitive aspect of the serial killer. There are instances that perpetrators get affected while committing crime. The gender aspect only contributes to the magnitude associated to each crime. The strain theory relates a background of an individual to crime, the aspect of learning is not demonstrated in the theory. Learning is a process and individual adapt to life events through their experiences (Akers & Jensen, 2007). The theories failure to define the differences in the crimes and how deferent scenarios may result to related crime activities. It fails to attribute post traumatic events to contribute to this crimes and the likelihood of personality disorders and bipolar disorder to be part of the contributing factor. The strain theory by Agnew (1992) succeeds in differentiating the gender aspect in crime. Social control theory on the other hand generalizes the aspects and ignores the differences in goals by both females and males. CONCLUSION Serial murders may differ in the nature of which they are executed but are similar in terms of the causes. The four levels by social control theory concurs with Zhang’s two levels as they all attributes crime to society effect and other social contributors. Other theorist have developed on the two theory but the main points remain the social control theory relates to social connections and attributes four elements bonds to be the main contributors of criminal activities. Zhang’s theory attributes crime to the failure by an individual to cope with what life has to offer and the family aspect. The presents of positive and negative aspects are what Agnew attributes crime and especially serial murders to. The two theories are important in the rehabilitation process as they assist those involved to recuperate. References Agnew, R. (1995). 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