TYPES OF SERIAL KILLERS
Serial killers today are the same as what they were in
past years. It has been around since the early 1880s when Herman Mudgett alias
Henry Holmes, killed 27 women in his murder castle in Chicago, Illinois. It is
quite easy, however, to get the definition of a serial killer confused with mass
murderer or spree murderer. A mass murder occurs when an assassin kills a number
of people during a short period in the same geographical area. A spree murder
occurs when one assassin kills multiple people over a longer time, hours or
perhaps days. The FBI defines serial killers or killings as involving three or
more victims (Orey 1997). Serial killers tend to be very selective of their
victims. They study every move right down to what the victims wear and act.
Sometimes they can spend up to several days or years watching victims who might
fall to their crime.
Researchers who study cases or serial killers tend to devise
their own specific frames of reference (Egger 1998). There are four such frames
of reference that classify behavior and motive: sociological; psychological;
cultural; and biological. A sociologist usually studies large groups to
determine their commonalties and characteristics. A psychologist or psychiatrist
looks at cases individually to produce clinical case studies that contain data
fitted into a research report or journal. Cultural explanations look at issues
of historical development, media influence, trends, and so fourth. Biological
perspectives deal with genetics, neurology, and biochemistry. All these areas of
study help to understand the reasons for crime generally. Criminality is usually
influenced by numerous factors, whether it is chemical imbalances in the brain
or simply an abusive childhood.
Some researchers frequently characterize serial killers as
psychopaths, which is word implying motiveless behavior. Psychopaths tend to
have a personality disorder involving affective, behavioral, and interpersonal
deficiencies (Egger 1998). Such persons often act as if they had no conscience.
They resist social conventions and frequently come into contact with the
criminal justice system. Other researchers frequently characterize serial
killers as manifesting a chemical imbalance in the brain (Linder 1999). The
following information will tell you the four different types of serial killers
and a couple of examples.
Holmes and DeBurger (Holmes 1996) defined serial killer as
repetitive killing where the relationship between victim and offender is that of
a stranger or slight acquaintance and the motivation is lacking. This definition
is insufficient because it states that motives are lacking. There has to be a
motive, and it can be assumed that for every serial killer, there is a distinct
reason for his or her behavior. These motives may be hard to find because the
average person cannot imagine what would motivate serial murder. Not often is
the motive suspected to be for money, but it is often said to be linked to
power, control, sexual satisfaction, or thrill. This leads us to believe there
are many misconceptions about serial killers.
A serial killer is not the same as a spree killer. A spree
killer does not have a cooling off period. A mass murderer commits all their
killings in one place. Overall serial killers disappear for a period of time and
plan their next attack. Sitting and watching, trying to calculate their next
move on an innocent victim.
There are four types of serial killers (Holmes 1996). The
four types are visionary, missionary, thrill oriented, and lust oriented. The
visionary type is often insane or psychotic. An unknown voice is telling them to
kill. Perhaps the most notorious of this type was David Berkowitz, the Son of
Sam killer. He claimed that his neighbor's dog was telling him to go out and
kill people. Avoided by his mother as a child, Berkowitz grew up with an active
mental fantasy life. It was this lifestyle and his fantasies that drove him to
serial killing.
The second type, a missionary, is not psychotic. They do not
have a problem with their inside world since it is the outside world that needs
destroyed, or at least certain people in it that are considered immoral and
unworthy of life. An example of this type would be Ted Bundy; an extremely
intelligent offender who looked like a neighbor you could go and have a beer
with. His targets were mainly prostitutes (Serial Killers 2002).
The third type, thrill oriented, kills because it is fun to
do so. It is the way they get high through meanness and sadistic behavior. This
might be the most dangerous type of serial killer. These are the types of people
who get a kick out of watching themselves torture women, children or other men
by doing various things to them.
The fourth type, lust oriented, kills for sexual
gratification and, like the thrill killer, enjoys a certain amount of sadism.
Perhaps the best example is John Wayne Gacy. He liked luring young children to
his house to have sex, beatings, and sodomy. After all this type of torture
takes place, he then kills them. Most serial killers take their time in killing
victims. There is usually a cooling off period, which is used for planning the
next series of murders as a part of fantasy that these people dream up. The
fantasy I am talking about is very astonishing, and perhaps a type of mental
illness. They do not know when to stop, and will not stop until they are either
caught or die. It is a process of imagining brutality and sadism being inflicted
upon a victim.
Most serial killers are usually white males between the ages
of twenty and thirty years of age. Most of them live in the United States.
Usually, they go after a certain type of victim, prostitutes, hitchhikers, or
children. These victims often have similarities to the offender, being of the
same gender or race, for example. The methods they used to kill also tend to
stay the same. They strangulate, suffocate, or stab the victim to death (Douglas
1995).
Aggression plays an important role in all crime. As defined
by Goldstein, criminal behavior intends to do physical or psychological injury
to another person. Crime as aggression can involve physical or psychological
harm. Examples of physical harm would be homicide, rape, or assault. Examples of
psychological harm include name-calling and discrimination. Using this approach
which looks at all crime as aggressive, the questions then become what causes
aggression? There are many answers to this question. Wealth, power and the will
to achieve personal goals are probably the most important causal agents of
aggression.
Many people attribute aggression to biological or social
factors. During the early twentieth century, their physiological type classified
criminals. As late as the 1960s and 1970s, the belief that hyper-aggressiveness
in males was caused by a genetic abnormality was widespread. It had been
reported that males imprisoned for violent offenses were more likely to have an
extra Y-chromosome. It was discovered that not all-violent criminals had an
extra Y-chromosome. Another theory of aggression is based on evidence of stone
artifacts dating back hundreds of years. The existence of destructive weapons
found buried with ancient human skeletons has been taken as evidence of human
innate aggressiveness. However, in recent years, it has come to light that these
artifacts were not weapons but tools used for hunting.
One study was shown that females were accountable for almost
15% of known serial killers operating in the United States from 1800 to 1995 (Hepburn
1998). The startling point about female killers is that they should be feared
more that they're male counterpart. The female killer has shown herself to be
more rare, but along with that, more deadly and determined and also more
difficult to apprehend that male killers (Kelleher 1998). The female's prime
motivation has typically been financial gain (Egger 1998).
One keynotes that is the gender specific way of killing.
Males are more likely to use force by shooting, strangling, suffocating, or
stabbing their victim. Females are more likely to use poison (Hepburn 1998).
Male serialists are also more likely to prey on strangers, although according to
one study, almost one third of a male serialist's victim are person's known to
him. A female is likely to kill persons known to her. Thus concluding, it is
ultimately the case that a serial killer preys on strangers, there are notable
findings that serial killers also prey on people known to them (Hepburn 1998).
They also prey on victims that aver vulnerable and easy to dominate (Egger
1998).
Do you believe Jeffery Dahmer is insane or not? Through the
eyes of former FBI agent Robert Ressler he is. From a book he said, "I felt
only empathy for the tormented and twisted person who sat before me" (Ressler
1992). John Douglas only thought the opposite. He considered him not to be
insane at all. Dahmer, who grew up in Bath, Ohio, was an intelligent boy but one
who did not live up to his potential. He would disrupt class in a clownish way
rather than pay attention to his schoolwork.
When he was 16, he had already become an alcoholic and was
showing signs of what his future would hold. He had an intense interest in
chemistry and in torturing and dismembering animals. At the age of 18, he
committed his first murder. He picked up a hitchhiker and killed him rather
spontaneously in June of 1979, the year before his parents divorced.
For the next 9 years, his fantasies built up until 1981, when
they became a reality. Like others his killings grew in number as he began to
feel more comfortable in doing them. Killing 1 in '87, 2 in '88, 1 in '89, 4 in
'90 and 8 in '91-until he was caught. His fall came in '91 when officers found a
butcher knife and some Polaroid's of men in homosexual activity. Some of the
pictures were also of dead men. In many of the pictures the corpses had been
dismembered and mutilated in other ways. The officer on the scene took a good
look at the pictures and realized that they had taken place in that room.
Through this information it can be hypothesized that serial
killers are not born, but made. Society or relatives create them, and
sociological theories will be reviewed for any insights into the motives of
serial killers (Kelly 2002).
Fantasy => Stalk => Abduction => Kill => Disposal
Types of Acts Evident from Crime Scenes
Characteristic Visionary Missionary Comfort Lust Thrill Power/Control
Controlled crime scene No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Overkill Yes No No Yes No No
Torture No No No Yes Yes Yes
Body moved No No No Yes Yes Yes
Specific victim No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Weapon at scene Yes No Yes No No No
Prior relation to victim No No Yes No No No
Victim known Yes No Yes No No No
Aberrant sex No No No Yes Yes Yes
Weapons of torture No No No Yes Yes Yes
Strangulation No No No Yes Yes Yes
Penile penetration ? Yes Not usually Yes Yes Yes
Object penetration Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Necrophilia Yes No No Yes No Yes
RESEARCH METHODS
Trends in the patterns of homicides involving multiple offenders and multiple victims are available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics in a document entitled Homicide Trends in the United States.
Less than 4% of all homicide incidents are known to have both multiple
victims and multiple offenders. Percentages by number of victims are expressed
in the following table:
The pattern known as serial killing, involving 3 or more victims, is extremely
rare. Age of offender is most closely related to the pattern of homicides
involving multiple offenders, as the following chart illustrates:
The mix of circumstances surrounding homicides has changed over the last two
decades. For example, circumstances, which were unknown, have almost doubled.
Argument involves circumstances such as brawls in which the influence of alcohol
or drugs is present as well as disagreements about money or property. Felony
types include homicides committed during a rape, robbery, burglary, theft, motor
vehicle theft, arson, and other vice or sex offenses. Gang homicides include
gangland killings and juvenile gang killings.
References
Douglas, J. (1995). Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. New
York, Scribner.
Egger, S. (1998). The Killers Among Us. New Jersey, Prentice Hall.
Hepburn, C. Hinch R. (1998). Researching Serial Murder: Methodological and Definitional Problems. http://www.sociology.org
Holmes, R. (1996). Profiling Violent Crimes. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Kelleher, M. and C.L. (1998) Murder Most Rare, The Female Serial Killer. Westport, Conn., Praeger Trade.
Kelly, D. (2002). Conversation with David Kelly about Serial killers. Interview. Goldsboro Police Department.
Orey, H. (1997). Ask the Expert-Serial-Killers-Why? http://mhsorce.com/expert/exp112497d.html
Ressler, R. (1994). Whoever Fights Monsters. St. Martin's Paperbacks. Serial
Killers. 2000. 2002 February 10.