Motivation: What Motivates a Serial Killer?

What Motivates a Serial Killer? By Bridgette Craig (u3096690)

IntroductionSerial killers are rare so once convicted and incarcerated they become famous.

A Serial Killer has had many definitions over the past decade but the modern meaning describes an individual who has committed more than three murders over a period that exceeds a month (Tithecott, 1997; Cahill, 2014).

Figure 1. Charles Manson, (Wikipedia, 2014)Figure 2. Dennis Rader (BTK), (Vigliotti, 2015)

Psychological TheoriesMacDonald triad (Lee & Choi, 2014)The Attachment Theory (Myers et al., 2008) Child Abuse (Becker & French, 2004).

Theories such as these have been brought up in law Zagury (2001). But still these notions are thought to be inaccurate, generalized and obscure (Silvio et al., 2006; Keppel Birnes, 2003). Serial killers are very specific and individualistic, therefore no generalized murder theory can apply to every single one.

ResearchPsychology based research and theories are important because they are supposed to help find specific traits or characteristics within a child and therefore prevent deaths (Tithecott, 1997).Though this is unethical because you cannot convict someone who has not committed a crime. There is no known rehabilitation therapies that can aid serial killers because of their heinous crimes, it is unethical to give them the privilege of being rehabilitated and eventually be allowed to be released. (Giannangelo,1996).

ConclusionSerial Killers are hard to strictly define, as every convicted serial killer is different, and never fit the same type of theory or motivates as another. For this reason it is nearly impossible to predict accurately if someone will become a serial killer. There may be patterns shown, such as within theories but no hard evidence can determine a serial killer before they start killing, all that can be done is to convict as early as possible once they start killing and keep them behind bars so they cannot hurt anyone else.

For more Information a link in the description has been provided.

ReferencesBecker, F., & French, L. (2004). Making the links: child abuse, animal cruelty and domestic violence. Child Abuse Review., 13(6), 399-414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/car.878Cahill, T. (2014). Buried dreams: Inside the mind of a serial killer. Open Road Media.Giannangelo, S. J. (1996). The psychopathology of serial murder: a theory of violence, Westport, CT: PraegerKeppel, R. D. and Birnes, W. J. (2003). Profiling the serial killer: the efficacy of profiling, The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations, 32(3), 129-168.Lee, J. L., and Choi, K. (2014). Serial Murder: An Exploration and Evaluation of Theories and Perspectives. American International Journal of Contemporary Research 4(3) 99-106. Myers, W. C., Bukhanovskiy, A., Justen, E., Morton, R. J., Tilley, J., Adams, K., Vandagriff, V. L. and Hazelwood, R. R. (2008). The relationship between serial sexual murder and autoerotic asphyxiation. Forensic Science International, 176(2-3), 187-195.Wikipedia (photograph). (2014). Charles Manson [digital image]. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_MansonSilvio, H., McCloskey, K. and Ramos-Grenier, J. (2006). Theoretical consideration of female sexual predator serial killers in the United States, Journal of Criminal Justice, 34(3), 251-259.Tithecott, R. (1997). Of men and monsters: Jeffrey Dahmer and the construction of the serial killer. University of Wisconsin Press.Vigliotti, J. (Photograph). (2015). 10 Things You Never Knew About The BTK Killer [digital image]. Retrieved from: http://listverse.com/2015/03/17/10-things-you-never-knew-about-the-btk-killer/