Analysis Of Serial Killers

PURPOSE

To further comprehend why serial killers possess the urge to kill, more research has to be conducted on the means and motives of a serial killer by the exploration of a link between child abuse and serial killing behaviour, due to its detrimental effects on a persons psychological makeup.

BACKGROUND

Although the term serial killer is widely known and explored among academics, health professionals and criminologists, a consensus has not yet been met regarding one true definition of a serial killer. According to the FBI, a serial killer is someone who commits at least three murders over more than a month with an emotional cooling off period in between.

The majority of society has an interest in serial killers partly because of the

A large quantity of society enjoy the thrill of horror movies yet retain from committing such acts. For serial killers, however, such fantasies outgrow their vicarious function and become a cognitive staging ground for the actual commission of their crimes (Miller, Laurence 2014).

There are myriad of theories as to why a person may kill but little information on the contributing factors that impact the aetiology of a serial killers psychological makeup. A Plethora of Serial killer typologies have been explored but they only address the obvious not the hidden and inferred behaviour of a killer. Childhood abuse has been given varying levels of blame in the development of serial killers ( Mitchel, Heather 2005).

A prime example of a serial killer that could have been motivated by child abuse and childhood experiences is John Wayne Gacy. A serial killer unable to curb his homosexual perversions, he was convicted for killing thirty-three young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy’s thirty-three victims were raped, sodomised and tortured. ( Berry-dee ,

It was a thrashing John Wayne would remember for the rest of his life ( Berry-Dee, 2010). John was continuously subjected to countless acts of mental and physical abuse from his bullying father. Child abuse and neglect appear on their face to be the kinds of negative experiences that would weaken or break an individual’s social bonds, thus facilitating delinquency ( Watts, Stephen 2017 ).

Without doubt, John Wayne Gacy staggered with faltering steps into his teens, abused by his father, he could only rely on the often misguided support of his mother to protect him ( Berry- Dee, 2010). It can also be noted that the way John treated his victims could be an echo of the maltreatment he received from his father. Gacy would have felt worthless due to the abuse that he endured and use killing to compensate for his sense of inferiority by taking revenge and obtaining power immorally.

Option 1: Continue with the status