Are Serial Killers Born Or Made

Serial Killers: Born or Made?

It’s September 14th, 1972, and a 15 year old Korean dance student headed to class misses her bus. Her name is Aiko Koo, and she decides to hitchhike. A man about six foot nine pulls up and offers her a ride, little does she know this is going to be her last car ride. The man who picked her up was Edmund Kemper, an infamous serial killer. Serial killers come in all shapes and sizes, but serial killing, defined by the FBI, is “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events” (FBI). I love crime shows; my favorite is Criminal Minds. The show is about the behavioral analysis unit that uses profiles to catch killers. In most episodes, the BAU looks into the background of potential

These illnesses can also be caused by a brain injury. When a serial killer is born with one of these illnesses, it is called hereditary predisposition. For example, mental disorders such a schizophrenia can cause a person to kill. Symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucination, paranoia, and hearing voices all of which can be the root of the reason a person kills. Sometimes they kill because “the voices told them to” but it’s really their brain playing tricks on them. James Fallon, a neuroscientist, studied the brain of serial killers for about 20 years. James and others have found the orbital cortex in the brains of serial killers is a lot less active than the amygdala while processing information (Hagerty). The orbital cortex is responsible for moral decision making, ethical behavior and executive decisions and the amygdala are responsible for fear, anger, violence and appetite (Hagerty). When the orbital cortex is not as active as the amygdala, the person is more likely to be violent and less likely to make good decisions (Hagerty). James Fallon also found that there is one significant gene associated with serial killers; the MAO-A gene, also known as the warrior gene. Some serial killers have a variant of this gene making them predisposed to violence (Ashley). Serial killers are also known to have a chemical imbalance in their brain when they are born,

Throughout the 1970’s, Bundy kidnapped, raped, and killed over 30 women. Bundy did not suffer abuse growing up. He grew up in the middle class, supportive family yet he took the lives of multiple women. In an interview Ted said, “‘You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You’re looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!’” (Philbin 6). Even though he had a normal childhood, Ted Bundy had a god complex and he was a fantasist which is not normally associated with killers who did not suffer abuse. But what many people don't know is that many experts found that Bundy displayed the same traits as antisocial personality disorder patients, who are also labeled as psychopaths. In the article What Would We Find Wrong in the Brain of a Serial Killer? Jack Pemment says “Many individuals with APD are not psychopathic, but a number of them, especially the ones who exhibit traits such as limited empathy and grandiosity, do demonstrate psychopathy (Pemment). Psychopathic traits such as charm, manipulation, and intimidation have been recognized by the F.B.I. as being thoroughly connected to serial murder”(Pemmet). Many women described Bundy as handsome and charismatic, traits he used to let women believe he cared about them, but in reality “Bundy had no regards to the life he was taking and he openly stated how he did not care at all for the crimes he had committed” (Lopez). Bundy might have not