History is full of tales of famous criminals, with the most brutal committing mass murder, both political and domestic. However, what is now called 'serial ' killing is something different. While there are those who hurt people or murder for profit or motive, serials killers murder for neither; their murders are rage based and usually filled with no remorse. The most entertaining and engrossing stories are usually the ones portrayed on television shows and movies. Though sadly they are entertainment for some, they are reality for others. The person or people committing these murders have a deeper mental issue, usually one that would be diagnosed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition) as a Personality …show more content…
One of the most dangerous personality disorders that many serial killers have personally suffered from is Antisocial Personality Disorder. As stated by the Mayo Clinic, Antisocial personality disorder is "a type of chronic mental condition in which a person 's ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional - and destructive." These individuals often have no regard for right and wrong, are known to disregard the rights, feelings, and wishes of others, and disreputably violate the law - landing them in frequent trouble, all without feeling any guilt or remorse. They also often times have problems with drug and alcohol use, which tends to only make their impulsive and violent behavior more evident. To make matters worse, people with ASPD are notorious for being both provocative and extremely manipulative individuals, and not to mention excellent liars. These characteristics usually result in unfulfilled responsibilities related to family, work, or school. In May 2010, it was reported statistically that somewhere between 3.9% and 5.8% of men, and 0.5% and 1.9% of women suffer from ASPD in the US general population (Black, Gunter, Loveless, Allen, & Sieleni, 2010). The numbers are evident in multiple studies that men suffer from this disorder more so
The mind of a serial killer is not right and is considered a psychopath. This can be caused by brain damage. “After Henry Lee Lucas was convicted, he underwent numerous neurological tests that revealed fairly extensive brain damage. Small contusions indicated a frontal lobe injury, and there was damage to his temporal lobe and pools of spinal fluid at the base of his brain” (Vronsky, 2005). Lucas’s brain damage is just one cause. Another common reason is that the serial killer would of had an abusive childhood. “Traditionally, the answer has been a horrific upbringing. Most serial killers were abused as children, many hideously so.” (Sandi, n.d) This can have a range of different abusive activities. One example would be an abusive mother. The killer’s mother would have abused him therefore making him hate women. That would be an example of how a man killing female serial killer would relate. He would physically abuse the women just like his mother abused him. Another form of abuse is an alcoholic parent. The serial killer would wait outside of a bar and look to see of his potential victims were under the influence. If they were then they would most likely kill the person. A serial killer can also have a euphoric moment. He could see his
Antisocial personality disorder is a disregard for others rights and violating theses rights. This disorder starts as a child to people who carry this disorder portray the characteristics of irritability, aggressiveness, lack of remorse, and irresponsibility. A psychopath falls under the umbrella of antisocial personality disorders. A psychopath is a person with a personality disorders which is inherited from their parents at birth. Flashes of these inherited factors show and happen in the child upbringing this includes torture animals at a young age, playing weird dark games as a kid, or ripping heads of toys. A perfect example of a Psychopath is Edmund Kemper. A man who showed his psychopath tendencies at a young age that grew into to him becoming a serial killer.
What is a serial killer? Retired Special Agent Robert Ressler, a twenty-two year veteran of the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit in Quantico, Virginia, is responsible for creating the term “serial killer.” He defines this person as “one who commits a series of murders, usually three or more, the victims most often being strangers, and usually with a cooling-off period in between each kill” (Kelleher & Kelleher, 1998; Pearson, 1998; Ressler and Shactman, 1997). This precise definition is necessary to distinguish this type of predator from the mass murderer (who kills many simultaneously), mercenaries, war criminals, or mafia hit men.
Throughout time there has always been mentally disturbed people, but the problem is that they are on the streets and not in a psych ward. As you read this paper you will learn about some of the most infamous serial killers of the 20th century and the horrific atrocities they committed. We will go inside the mind of a serial killer and discover what drives them to kill people and also why some serial killers love to devour their victims, keep their limbs and even continue to preform sexual acts with them even after there are already dead.
Individuals with antisocial personality disorder frequently commit illegal acts like destroying property, stealing, and harassing others. They often employ manipulation and deceit to obtain profit or pleasure. The criterion of impulsivity is often seen in a lack of planning. In other words, these individuals live in the present, not thinking about the past or future. This is often seen in numerous and sudden job changes, homes, or significant others. They tend to repeatedly fight with others and commit physical assault. A reckless disregard for one’s safety and that of others is often shown by unsafe driving behavior like drunk driving, drug abuse, or high risk sex. Those diagnosed are irresponsible. For example, it is not uncommon to see erratic work history, large gaps in employment (even when employment was readily available), departing a job with no plan to get another, and repeated unexcused absences
Serial murder crime though rare, is not a a new phenomenon. This crime has been committed for centuries and will continue to be a crime that is committed throughout the world. It is unfortunate and scary that this is probably one of the most serious of crimes that cannot be prevented. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, serial murderers commit their crimes because they want to. Rehabilitation is not obtainable for serial killers due to their inability for remorse and empathy, or to see people as people and not objects(Knight 2006). This research paper will focus primarily on serial murder within the U.S. First and foremost, a legal definition provided by the U.S. Department of Justice will be presented to set forth the discussion of this research paper. As follows will be a detailed discussion explaining serial killer typologies with the use of examples of known serial killers in the U.S. Types of serial killers are: power oriented, mission oriented, visionary, and hedonistic, each typology will be clearly defined and explained. Some serial killers can have a mixture of each typology’s characteristic. Serial killers that will be discussed and used as examples to represent the content of this research paper will be, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Robert Berdella, Jeffery Dahmer, and lastly the most prolific serial killer in American history, Gary Ridgeway. Problems with studying serial killing, are that because of rarity and access. Most of what we think
Antisocial personality disorder (APD or ASPD) is a mental disorder in which a person’s approach in any given situation as well as his style of thinking is neglecting towards others. People with this disorder are commonly known as psychopaths or sociopaths. An individual with APD shows empathy and disregards people’s thoughts and feelings. Those with APD can be characterized as morally reprehensible. They are the ones that seem to say all of the “right” things. Antisocial personality disorder, in contrary to
One of the reasons is why serial killers commit such tragic and gruesome actions. Nature has been the case in an abundance of different murderers when concerning mental illness. Most serial killers struggle with schizophrenia, which is a disorder that affects a persons ability to think, feel, and behave clearly(holdren 2015). A key example of schizophrenia is serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer displayed his schizophrenic habits whenever police discovered dismembered body parts and organs inside his apartment(holdren 2015). Schizophrenia is a serious issue that must be addressed when dealing with a serial
Throughout history, serial killers and murderers have received a significant number of news articles dedicated to them and have attracted audiences all around the world; however, the question that nobody can seem to answer is, “Why?” What causes people to grow up with the desire to kill and what can we do to prevent others from becoming serial killers in the future? “All serial killers are murderers, but not all murderers are serial killers,” as stated on The Undergraduate Times. A serial murder is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as “the unlawful homicide of at least two people, carried out in a series over a period of time,” while mass murder is the
A serial killer is defined as someone who has murdered two or more victims and the incidents occurred at separate events at different times (Morton). Serial killers can be motivated by a variety of things like anger and the power and thrill they feel by gaining control. The common misconception is that people become violent because they are mentally unstable, but not all mentally unstable people are serial killers. So the important question is what causes the distinction. One common theory is that they are molded by their childhood experiences and their environment. This theory is accepted by many because the profiles of serial killers are always the same. Another theory is that serial killers are formed by abnormalities to the brain, like trauma and irregular hormone levels. Gene dysfunction is also another recognized theory and is backed up by countless experiments. But the real cause for someone to become a serial killer is a combination of all of these theories. Brain abnormalities and genetics coupled with childhood environment and experiences both play a big role in the molding of a serial killer.
Antisocial Personality Disorder [ASPD] is characterized by a lack of sensitivity, aggression hostility, deceitfulness, manipulative behavior, impulsiveness, imprudence, narcissism, and irresponsibility. According to Donald W. Black, M.D., ASPD is “a recurrent and serial pattern of misbehavior that involves all significant facets of life and is marked by violation of social norms and regulations that occur over time, ranging from repeated lies and petty theft to violence – and even murder, in the most serious cases.” (2013). According to the DSM-5, ASPD has four
The mind of a serial killer has been researched for years and years. Since the earliest serial killers to the most recent, everyone wants to know what goes on in a serial killers’ mind. Do they just kill because they want to see people suffer or deep down is there something wrong with them? It could be that they are “working for the devil” as some people may say. It may just be that these people are downright crazy and killing is what they want to do. A lot of things in the mind can force a serial killer to kill, whether it is the mental disorder they are suffering from, the feelings they have (lust, glory, rage, et cetera), or it is the history of mental, physical, and sexual abuse they have gone through.
“The serial killer ‘is an entirely different criminal,’ ”The term serial killer is misleading on the ground that each murder is intended to be the last.” We see them as a figure of “the dark side of human potential,” but they believe they’re “on a heroic quest for the biggest score possible” They believe they are “the archetypal figure of impurity, the representative of a world which needs cleansing.” However, society knows that serial killers are not heroes, and they’re not cleansing the world. “The figure of the serial killer is violent impurity personified, and it is a construction that necessitates figures of violent purity to confront it.” While it can be argued whether having mental disorders should prevent a serial killer from being capitally punished, it is proven that many serial killers suffer from “paranoid schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, or psychopathology.” It’s even said that “this crime is actually a form of disease. Its carriers are serial killers who suffer from a variety of crippling and eventually fatal symptoms, and its immediate victims are the people struck down seemingly at random by the disease carriers.” Serial killers usually have a stressor in their life that makes them start killing, and when they do “homicidal mania becomes ‘a necessity… linked to the very existence of a psychiatry which had made itself autonomous but needed thereafter to secure a basis for its intervention by gaining recognition as a component of public
others, they may display a superficial charm and use technical tenns to make themselves seem
First of all, the antisocial personality disorder is one of the most common disorder that many people have the least knowledge. Another name to the antisocial personality disorder is Sociopath. Since this disorder is antisocial, the symptoms that involve this disorder reflect some lack of involvement in society. “Disregard of right and wrong” is one of the symptoms that involve the lack of involvement in society. Since an antisocial does not acknowledges between right and wrong, the involvement in criminal activity is common. These people can also be “persistent lying or deceit to exploit others, being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others, using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or personal pleasure, arrogance, a sense of