Essay Sample on Serial Killers: Chilling Statistics From Public Records

More often, when the words "serial killer" are mentioned, one's thought is quickly reversed to a popular serial killer book read or a film they watched. The scenes are certainly disturbing. It is often a cold and troubled psychotic individual who goes on a killing spree that usually involves psychopathic patterns. But the statistics around the reality of the subject are even more disturbing. According to Crocket (2016), an analysis of public records on serial killings shows that over the past 25 years, the United States only has had approximately 3000 serial killers accompanied by 10000 victims. These killers used repulsive killing techniques such as acid injections in victims head, strangling, stabbing, axing and burning the victims alive, among other cold methods. The disturbing statistics show that serial killing is not an accident. It's a psychopathic expression that, unfortunately, has claimed a lot of innocent lives and left many in agony of losing their loved ones. The review delves into the current research to understand the psychology of a serial killer for informed decisions around the subject issue in the future.

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Before immersing into the intricate issue, it is imperative to understand the fundamentals of serial killers. According to Ioana (2013), serial killers are either psychopathic or psychotic. However, from the author's experience, the latter category, which is triggered to kill by psychosis, is rare. As such, most of the serial killers fall into the psychopathic group, which kill simply because they enjoy doing it. But this fact prompts a critical question of the reasons why a person, with full comprehension of his or her horrific actions and consequences to the victims, is unable to feel remorse and regret for his or her actions.

The simple answer to the above question, according to Brogaard (2012 b), is because psychopaths have blunted emotions, are callous and have impulsive inclinations that render them unremorseful and unable to feel guilty. However, to fully understand the making a serial killer, it is only logical to explore the causes of psychopathy. Primarily, there is no universally accepted cause of psychopathy. There has been the genesis of conflicting ideas about psychopathy. For the divide supporting the attachment theory, they believe that psychopathy and predatory aggression are manifestations of early childhood experiences. They claim that personality development, which is founded by primary caregivers at the tender age, plays a critical role in developing adolescent antisocial disorder and attachment disorder that is highly associated with psychopathy (Arrigo & Griffin, 2004). To support the above stance, Arrigo and Griffin (2004) mention some of the coldest serial killers such as Richard Kuklinski, Henry Lee and Ed Gein. For instance, Richard was brought up in an extremely violent family that is believed to have consequently triggered his violence from an early age. For Henry and Ed, they grew up with extremely disturbed and violent mothers hence explaining their disregard for social norms and the loss of regret and a sense of guilt during their violent crimes (Perez, 2012).

From the analysis above, it is safe to attribute these early childhood experience to inhumane actions of a serial killer. However, it is also vital to note that most people who go through abuse do not turn into psychopathic serial killers as suggested by the attachment theory. In fact, according to Davies (2018), 32% of 50 serial killers analyzed in their study had no history of abuse. This divergence is explained by Motzkin et al. (2011), who researched whether psychopathy was associated to some sort of functional or structural abnormality in the brain area. The research findings revealed that there was reduced connectivity between amygdala and vmPFC as well as amygdala and the medial parietal cortex. When the connectivity in the two mentioned linkages is low, a person's brain is unable to translate any negative stimuli processed into strong negative emotions. As such, that person cannot feel embarrassed for doing bad things or feel sad when someone else is suffering (Brogaard, 2012b).

Going by the above findings by Motzkin et al. (2011), it is apparent that there is a correlation between brain abnormality and psychopathy. However, it is important to note that this abnormality is not an abrupt event. It is encoded in the psychopath's DNA, which according to Brogaard (2012a) is 60% hereditable. While the study does not explain the cause of the mentioned connectivity, it points out what brings about the characteristics of psychopathy. This link is not only important in clinical implication but it also informs on the puzzling quest to understand how a person turns into a serial killer.

As seen from the in-depth analysis of literature, a serial killer is a complex construction of trauma, genetics and environment. However, despite identifying brain abnormality that affect processing of emotions and sense of remorse, the studies linking psychopathy to brain abnormality fail to specifically connect the two. This is a research gap, if addressed would not only help in criminal profiling but also, it would provide leeway to clinical solutions that can prevent the making of a serial killer. Nonetheless, the review clearly shows that the three factors primarily impede one's sense of regard and consequences hence the exhibition of extreme impulsive behaviour with poor emotional control. As such, each serial killer is unique, depending on their circumstances and experiences but at the core, all serial killers have genetic and environmental triggers that turn them into cold-blood murderers.

References

Arrigo, B. A., & Griffin, A. (2004). Serial murder and the case of Aileen Wuornos: Attachment theory, psychopathy, and predatory aggression. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 22(3), 375-393.

Brogaard, B. (2012 a). Identical Twins Are Not Genetically Identical. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201211/identical-twins-are-not-genetically-identical

Brogaard, B. (2012 b). The Making of a Serial Killer. Retrieved 25 July 2019, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201212/the-making-serial-killer

Crockett, Z. (2019). What data on 3,000 murderers and 10,000 victims tells us about serial killers. Retrieved 23 July 2019, from https://www.vox.com/2016/12/2/13803158/serial-killers-victims-data

Davies, N. (2018). From Abused Child to Serial Killer: Investigating Nature vs Nurture in Methods of Murder - Psychiatry Advisor. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/violence-and-aggression/from-abused-child-to-serial-killer-investigating-nature-vs-nurture-in-methods-of-murder/

Ioana, I. M. (2013). No one is born a serial killer!. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 81, 324-328.

Motzkin, J. C., Newman, J. P., Kiehl, K. A., & Koenigs, M. (2011). Reduced prefrontal connectivity in psychopathy. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(48), 17348-17357.

Perez, P. R. (2012). The etiology of psychopathy: A neuropsychological perspective. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(6), 519-522.