The Huffington Post States that there are many benefits from keeping a journal, like evoking mindfulness, gaining emotional intelligence, improving communication skills, and healing (Nguyen, 2015). Perhaps Carl Panzram, a notorious serial killer, earned some of these benefits when he journaled throughout his last years on Earth—in jail. Either way, Panzram's writing benefitted sociologists, for they provided insight on the inner mind of a serial killer.
Along with that, sociologists have developed many theories on deviance of serial killers.
Consequently, two of these theories, along with Panzram's overall improper socialization, explain Carl Panzram's many acts of extreme deviance.
To begin, Panzram's early childhood consisted of many unpleasant
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According to the Differential
Association Theory, primary groups transmit deviant behaviors, and characteristics that influence them include the significance of the deviant person and the age of exposure. Therefore, because
Panzram's father, a significant influence, abandoned him at such a young age, Panzram became deviant, creating a significant encounter with improper socialization. Likewise, around the same time, Panzram worked in the fields of the family farm; here, the other workers, most likely his other siblings, beat Panzram if he made any mistakes (Lanthorne, 2015). Again, their significance and deviance when Panzram was young explain why he demonstrated similar deviant behavior. Finally, when he was eleven, Panzram's family sent him to Minnesota State
Training School after he robbed his neighbor. While he spent time there, the employees beat and sexually abused him (Lanthorne, 2015). Specifically, Panzram claimed, "They started me off by trying to beat the Christian religion into me and the consequences were that the more they
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Similarly, Panzram followed the rebellion branch of the
Strain Theory; this branch states that a deviant person replaces old goals and old means of obtaining them with new ones. Thus, when Panzram committed his many murders, he replaced his old goal and means of obtainment, success using theft, with essentially eradicating the human race and disregarding punishments; he claimed this when he wrote, "I hate the whole human race, including myself... I started out in life enjoying it and hating no one. I am winding it up now by hating the whole human race including myself and having no desire to live any longer
(SDSU, 2016)." To sum, Carl Panzram's motives and means of crime coordinate with the Strain
Theory of sociological deviance (Panzram, 1928).
All in all, throughout his life, almost everyone in Panzram's life socialized him improperly, but with the help of some theories on deviance of serial killers, one can see connections between Panzram's deviant behavior and this lack of socialization. Even Panzram himself explained this when he wrote, "Every single thing in life that men hold worthwhile