Dr Harold Fredrick Shipman Essay

This paper explores four published articles that have been written about Dr. Harold Fredrick Shipman. He was a general practitioner with his own thriving single practice, though he was very abrasive, and aggressive at times says John Gunn (2010). These articles include detailed reports describing Dr. Shipman’s criminal actions, how he committed the crimes, the process of his arrest, his trial and punishment for the crimes. All of the sources declare that Dr. Shipman murdered two-hundred and fifteen people, and that it can be proven, but most sources believe he killed two-hundred and sixty, if not more. He killed his victims using injections of heroin, by giving them large amounts he was able to kill them slowly. Although he was only originally

Dr. Shipman’s criminal behavior can be mostly explained by one criminology theory. He can be characterized into the social control theory; which claims that criminal behavior can result from weak bonds with conventional social institutions like family, commitment, involvement and belief. Dr. Shipman had a weak bond with his family, which impacted him the most. His mother had cancer, which left him without a mother at a young age and he never had a decent relationship with his father. Dr. Shipman wasn’t known for having friends, girlfriends or any serious involvement with others until his later college years. Having weak bonds as Dr. Shipman did can lead to low self-control, and in result lead to delinquency. According to research by Hines (2016) he claims that Dr. Shipman’s actions profoundly affected the medical community, and he might just be the world’s worst medical serial

Shipman is not your standard serial killer; he murdered hundreds not just three, four, or five people. He had several motives for why he committed these crimes, he may have been angry with his mother for dying and that’s why he murdered mostly older individuals. His modus operandi or MO was apparent and can be seen as a reason why he killed his patients the way he did. He watched his mother get injected with medication for her cancer, and in some way that is important to him so that’s what he did to kill his patients. Dr. Shipman may have even believed the injections were what killed his mother in the end. Some researchers speculate that money was his motive, but he was only proven to have stolen from one patient, which is the one that led to his arrest. The most likely motive for why he murdered so many is the power he felt he had over them. He was a doctor who had his victims’ trust and they never thought twice about allowing him into their home and he literally had the power to choose whether they lived or died. Legally Dr. Shipman got the punishment he deserved, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole which honestly was the better sentencing; the death penalty is the easy way out. Dr. Shipman was a power/control serial killer who had to have control over his victims as he killed them and according to Gunn (2010), he was Britain’s most prolific serial killer, if not the world’s worst medical serial