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A Critical Analysis of Healthcare Serial Killers

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Serial murder, which is defined as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims, by the same offenders, in separate events”(Lubaszka & Shon, 2013, p. 1), is a term that American society has become quite familiar with. At a ripe age, parents begin teaching their children not to talk to strangers in hopes of shielding them from the potential evil our world has to offer, but what if I told you the serial killer may not always be the scary man driving a van and offering candy? Our society, like it does most things, has placed a stigma upon serial killers. Although not all implied labels are untrue, this stigma makes us vulnerable to the hidden deviance lurking behind us, dressed in sheep’s clothing. Over the course of this analysis, I will …show more content…

Through the use of secondary research, Lubaszka and Shon compare and contrast offense characteristics and offender behaviors of serial killers to those of healthcare murderers. Their purpose is to bring attention to the fact that the two types of serial killers are not as comparable as previously believed. Therefore, asserting the necessity for future scholars to study the offenders separately(Lubaszka & Shon, 2013). In order to support their claims, Lubaszka and Shon focus on three limitations traditional serial homicide theories possess as they attempt to explain healthcare serial killers. Those three limitations are as follows: applicability of current typologies, stalking rituals, and geographical mobility (Lubaszka & Shon, 2013, p. 5). Currently typologies are inapplicable to healthcare homicides due to the fact that major differences such as victim selection, crime scene behavior, and motivation of control are not considered when studying offender characteristics. The second limitation, stalking rituals, further proves that there is a distinct difference between the two types of serial killers, also making it implausible to study healthcare killers on the basis of traditional serial killer theories. Traditional serial killers spend a substantial amount of time watching and getting to

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