Juvenile Homicide Offenders

In today’s world, murderers aren’t a surprising thing, as long as they are fictional. Plenty of TV shows and movies have plot lines around murder, but what about real life? As Scott Bonn states in his writing, of the approximate 15,000 murders in the United States, only 1 percent are serial killings, amounting to about 150 victims per year, with between 25 and 50 serial killers active at any given time. There are plenty of statistics on serial killers. 1 in 20 had the same three characteristics as a child: bedwetting, fire setting, and torturing animals. Animal torture is a common indicator that the child will be violent in the future. Also, over 30 percent of murderers use killing as a way for their sexual arousal (Stone). A murderer

The same psychiatrist, Johnathan H. Pincus examined 14 other death row inmates who had murdered when they were under the age of 18 and realized that they all had the same factors of neurologic damage, abuse, and paranoid thinking (Pincus, 29). A study done by Lisa Marshall and David Cooke shows the differences between the childhoods of psychopath criminals and non-psychopath criminals. They used the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse to show how much the environment your surrounded with as a child can affect your adult life. Not only did they study the results of familial childhood factors such as neglect, physical abuse, and psychological abuse but they also looked into societal factors such as negative school experience and negative school performance. Results showed that “Inadequate or incompetent parenting leads to insecure attachment bonding that forecasts low levels of empathy, compliance, cooperation and self control.” (Lykken,199). The most obvious differences in the childhoods of psychopath criminals and non-psychopath criminals were in parental discipline, parental neglect, and negative school performance. (Marshall and Cooke, The Childhood experiences of psychopaths). Another environmental factor that should

When it comes to kids, we tend to baby them. We organize their lives and set limits on everything. If they want to do something outside those limits we tell them they are not old enough or they have not experienced enough of the world yet. After all, what can they possibly know about love, major decisions, and what is best for them? Yet somehow, despite all this, when they commit a crime we turn into hypocrites. Magically, they are geniuses who know everything about the world. In society’s eyes, they are no longer a child, but a monster.

The article “On Punishment and Teen Killers,” by Jennifer Jenkins, explains why teens should be punished as adults and how the media is influencing the youth to commit serious crimes. The author, Jennifer Jenkins, shares her case where her sister with her unborn child, were murdered by a teen with a gun. She explains that there are advocates who wish to minimize the offender's culpability simply because of their age. Jenkins add that in America, weapons are easily available to our youth, and that they grow in a violence-loving culture. She says that the Inuit people of northern Canada had no juvenile crime at all until 1980 with the introduction of television into their culture, which influenced the teens to commit crimes. Jenkins affirms that if brain development would be the cause of the teens to commit crimes, so then the whole world should have the same rate of juvenile crimes.

This literature review focuses on serial killers from a psychological viewpoint while trying to answer the question, “Are serial killers born to kill or are they bred to kill?” Firstly, this review will define a serial killer and the different kinds of killers, then it will take a look at different case studies of children who fantasized about mass killing and identify similarities between the cases attempt to find a way to possibly prevent their fantasies from becoming reality. The debate of nature vs. nurture is also discussed as psychologists and researchers come to the conclusion that environmental factors play a bigger role in the developmental character of a person than genetics, but there is still no definite answer as to why some individuals grow up with the urge to murder other people and/or animals.

Researchers have found that adolescent murders tend to be not only violent, but extremely violent. One teen murderer stabbed his victim forty-six times (Kreiner 41). Josh McDowell, in his book Right from Wrong says, “Today’s youth are not playing loud music and wearing radical hairstyles; they have graduated, it seems, to a level of adolescent aggression, promiscuity, cynicism, and violence that bristles the hair on parents’ necks” (McDowell 6). The most significant change in the youth has been in their attitudes. The new generation is more inclined to resort to violence over trivial issues or for no apparent reason. Violent juvenile crime is now a national epidemic and is predicted to get worse. The group most associated with juvenile violence in America is males aged fifteen to nineteen. Statistics show that this segment of the male population will increase by 30 percent by the year 2020 (Grapes

The psychic of the young person is shaped by social interactions as well as the parental training. Often the young murderers were brought in pathological environments, they did not experience the parental love and acceptance, and they forced themselves to drown particular emotions so as not to appear weak. All these factors results in social dysfunctions that triggers violence and violence becomes the perfect self-defense mechanism, because it brings attention. According to the FBI’s list of traits that describe young murderers the most common syndromes are the feeling of isolation, the narcissist disorder, and depression6. A perfect example to support the above argument will be a background check of Jeff Weise, a young sixteen-year-old boy who killed 9 people and committed suicide in the Red Lake Senior High School in Minnesota in 2005. Weise’s family was the kind of pathological one, his parents were separated, his mother had a habit of drinking too much being an abusive alcoholic, what is more Weise himself was often bullied at school7.

The film Mind of a Rampage Killer, which first aired in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, highlights questions at the forefront of all of our minds: what compels a human-being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? As a society, we see the gruesome images of violence every day, but do we understand how children can grow up to become ruthless killers? Furthermore, how can we prevent another event, such as the Newtown massacre, from occurring again? In this documentary, produced and directed by Miles O’Brien, NOVA investigates the roots of violence, including neurological, environmental and psychological factors.

Although the prevalence of the serial killer is ultimately unknown, many researchers agree about “one-half of 1%” of homicides are determined to be the product of serial killers (Homant & Kennedy, 2014). In order to prevent future victims, improve the ability of law enforcement to detect and apprehend, potentially incorporate treatment for current serial killers, and increase the ability to detect potential future serial killers it is important to identify characteristics that may cause one to become a serial killer. The question researchers have strived to answer is are serial killers born or are there explicit factors that contribute to someone ultimately becoming a serial killer? Researchers have potentially exposed several factors that potentially contribute to one becoming a serial killer. These conditions are notably greater in prevalence in known serial killers compared to the general population. These factors consist of family dynamics/parental characteristics, experienced child abuse (physical, sexual, and neglect), and psychological disorders.

Parts of the frontal lobes, that inhibit reckless actions, restructure themselves with startling speed in teen years (Thompson). Gray matter is eliminated at a rate of 1 percent to 2 percent a year during the teen years (Thompson). This shows that a lot of kids don’t have the best judgement or self-control. The media has portrayed teenagers as something to be feared (Lundstrom). Voters support laws and propositions that shift power to prosecutors when deciding which juveniles to charge as adults (Lundstrom). This is important because it’s possible that people are voting to make it easier for kids to be tried as adults simply out of fear. Although these are good reasons, kids who commit the crime of murder are not

Many believe that no one is driven to kill unless they do it with their free will for their own reasons with no ties to their mental health or past. However, those who have physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as children are three times more likely to be violent as adults. (Neurodevelopmental and Psychosocial Risk Factors in Serial Killers and Mass Murderers, 2014)

Juvenile sex offenders are frequently treated in the same manner as their adult counterparts with regards to punishment and sex offender registering. “Nationally, juvenile sex offenders make up 20% of all individuals charged with sexual offenses (McGinnis, 2006).” Placing a sex offender label on a juvenile may unjustifiably put restrictions on his or her opportunities in adulthood so it is for this reason that cases involving juvenile sex offenders should be prosecuted cautiously. The term “sex offender”

According to statistics 50% of Serial Killers suffered emotional,physical and sexual abuse and neglect during childhood. Often times family members were usually at odds with each other and had malfunction and debilitating relationships. As young children they would be often forced to witness violent sexual acts between parents and family members. The forms of punishment that many had to face would cause them to suffer from humiliation, were normal if not always unfair, unpredictable, destructive, and wicked. When a child is merely neglected huge developmental failures can occur. More than 20 known Serial Killers were forced to dress up as a girl as a wicked punishment. They would also be sexually abused by family members and punished for masturabating as children. Such experiences in a young child will create violent fantasies that go into adulthood. From these forms of punishment a child would and will become desensitized and will begin to believe that this emotionally barren world that he or she lives in is normal. Thus due to these punishments a child will become devoid of empathy for others. (Gerber

There are many traits that make a serial killer, with abuse during childhood playing a major factor. The four main aspects of abuse that seem to make killers are: emotional, psychological, sexual and physical abuse. The serial killer group has six times more reported physical abuse during childhood than the general population. Research has demonstrated that many serial killers have much in common when it comes to their childhood experiences Emotional abuse often diminishes a child’s self-esteem, making it hard for them to adapt to their surroundings, such as situations involving school or work. Due to this factor, most serial killers often find it hard to keep jobs and intimate relationships for longer than a very short period of time. Emotional neglect also impairs a child’s ability to develop empathy, therefore lacking compassion. If the child grows up to become a murderer, having no empathy means they are able to kill someone without

A person may experience internal conflict in trying to decide which set of values, attitudes, and codes of behavior to accept and internalize. For example, to a kid living in a neighborhood that has many criminal types, these people may be symbols of economic and social success because they have money, expensive clothes, fancy cars, and other material possessions that inspire respect and jealousy. The kids may draw to the criminal life-style of these people because they want the same symbols of success for themselves. At the same time, several youths in the neighborhood may have good relationships with parents or other adults who are noncriminal in their life-styles and who try to instill non-delinquent values in them. A young person exposed to both types of influences must balance out their merits and decide whether to accept the values of one set of associates or those of the other. Between 1990 and 2002 there were 13,504 males and 3,168 females who died as a result of homicide. This showed that males, ages 12 through 17, were four times more likely than females to be murdered. Arrests of adolescents for violent crimes are reported by police headquarters