The societal opinion that serial killers are white men with unattractive features and dysfunctional relationships is dangerous and false. Not all serial killers tortured animals, were abused as children, or have abandonment issues. The current literature review set out to discover the why of serial killing: what makes them do these things? It looks at five serial killers who each have entirely different motives and histories, and what turned them into monsters. Unfortunately, this is not a question that can be answered easily. Almost all of the information used was taken from books, master’s theses, or government organizations. After extensive research, the following factors were identified: neurodevelopmental complications, genetic influences, …show more content…
Lust killers, such as Albert Fish, search for sexual gratification. They typically find this by using necrophilia, cannibalism, torture, and dismemberment to harm their victims (Choi et al, 2019). Albert Fish, also known as the ‘Brooklyn Vampire,’ is an example of this. Fish’s victim count is unknown, but it was the murder of ten-year-old Grace Budd, in 1928, that led to his arrest. Fish was a serial killer, rapist, child molester, and self-proclaimed cannibal who exclusively targeted children, of both sexes, between the ages of four and seventeen (Wikipedia, 2021). It is unknown what led Fish to committing such crimes, but it is known that he was also a sadomasochist, and that he got sexual gratification from inserting needles into his own pelvis.
Aileen Wuornos was also a hedonistic killer, but with a significantly different modus operandi, the term used to describe criminals’ mode of operating, than seen with Albert Fish. Wuornos was a sex worker from the age of seventeen, and specifically targeted men who were her clients (Grades Fixer, 2022). Wuornos had claimed that these men tried to rape her but was later revealed that she was doing it for sexual gratification (Wikipedia,
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As each killer in this study was selected from different times in the twentieth century, there are multiple available interpretations to their words. Serial killers also have a tendency to exaggerate information they give, whether that be their victim count, methods, or reasoning. This effects not only the credibility of what they say, but also how much information we are able to understand.
The size of the sample that was researched is the third limitation. This study looked at a group of serial killers that were all Caucasian, with only one woman included. Had a larger sample size been chosen, a greater understanding might have been achieved.
The final limitation is the credibility of the authors of the work used. Unfortunately, it is natural to carry biases, and these works are not exemption. Majority of the research used in reference was from highly credible sources, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Institutes of Health, and other published works. However, there is no way of confirming that the work that was not from these sources is credible, and this may lead to information that is only opinion, as opposed to