Serial Killer Essay

Serial killers commit horrible crimes, and that is why people think they are interesting. It has a lot to do with their childhood that affects them in many different ways. They develop traits that aren’t normally seen in the average population. They also have many motivations that will only help their personalities. A disturbed childhood can influence would-be serial killers to develop traits of serious crime.

Serial killers are a modern thing due to social and cultural conditions. Things like social media have become a huge part of every day life and many serial killers like the publicity they get because of it. Though serial killing will classified as someone who has killed 3 or more people they do not know, it is also one of the rarest forms

Since their childhood was bad, the only thing they could do was survive it until they can get out. A lot of abuse can happen to them as physical or sexual. Abuse isn’t the only thing they go through, there can also be a dysfunctional family or even absent parents that don’t take care of them. One serial killer, Dorothea Puente, had abusive parents that were alcoholics. Her parents were absent because of their alcohol abuse so, she had to scavenge for food to survive (Dowd, 2023). Her father died when she was younger and her mom died before she turned 18. Things with a family can be a big factor in why people don’t grow up normal but another thing can also be their genetics. They can end up being violent and find bad ways to cope. Therefore, Dorothea had to take care of herself so she did not develop proper coping skills and because of that, she went into prostitution at

Lack of remorse, impulsiveness, need for control, and predatory behavior are some of the worst traits that they can develop. Not only are they motivated by their traits, but also by the media coverage and fame that they can get by committing these crimes. To put these traits into a better perspective Dorothea Puente is a good example. Due to a lack of remorse, she had a box made and she threw it into the river. Then, 3 years later the box was found, and in it was Everson a pen pal of Dorothea when she was in jail. Then after she got out they opened a joint bank account. An example of impulsivity was when she met Fred McFaul, and they got married, and on the papers, she put her age as thirty and put a different name on it. Also when she was caught with a body in her back yard she fled to Los Angeles away from the police. Need for control, when she owned a boarding house she would take the residents' mail and read it along with taking their social security checks so she can cash them and get the money from them. Then we have fame, so after she fled to Los Angeles she went to a bar looking for an older man with a pension, but the person she was talking to recognized her from the news and he reported her to the police. Once she was caught she was convicted of 3 counts of murder, got 2 life sentences, and was sent to Central California Women’s Facility (Crime Museum,