INTRODUCTION (Draft)

Environmental factors that contributes into making a Serial Killer

A Research Paper Presented to

Mr. Dustin Celestino of the English Resource Center

Asia Pacific College

Magallanes, Makati

In Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements for the Course

RESWRITE-Research Writing

  

Leonah Delle C. Salvador

February 2013

Chapter 1

A. Background of the Study

In the past decade, the fugitive creature known as the Serial Killer has captured the attention of America culture. Serial Killer is those who kill more than once and creates a special problem to crime investigators because of their creative tactics and their motives are often far less obvious than those who commits a homicide. Crime investigators have three types of killer who commit multiple murders. A mass murderer kills several people at one time. A spree killer sometimes goes on a rampage with guns or knives killing one person after another. And lastly serial killer dispatches one victim at a time, with a 'cooling-off' period which last for weeks, months and even years between each murder. (http://twistedminds.creativescapism.com/serial-killers-introduction/)

Serial killers are defined of how they kill; according to the FBI it is the cause of having a childhood trauma or having a mental disorder. Everything they do have a reason, the motives, what they claim is internal not external. It is not linked to financial gain or belief on the cause. The development of a serial killer involves a combination of these factors, which exist together in a certain individuals. (http://people.howstuffworks.com/serial-killer1.htm)

As stated by the article of Shanna Freeman above, there are two types to classify a serial killer. First is based on the motive and second is based on organizational and social pattern. There are characteristics to identify a serial killer they not only fall into one type. These types explain what might actually turn someone into a serial killer.
(http://people.howstuffworks.com/serial-killer2.htm)

It is known that they all came from a horrible childhood experience where the father left and only the mother is taking care of the child. This leads to lack of love to the child, education from their parents and social interaction. On the way they were raised, how they are being raised is already negative and how people treated the child, this makes the child have a different perspective in life. The child that have no friends and loves being alone has a chance to create his own world in his mind because of this a higher possibility that the child would adapt a fantasize world that the fantasy may lead to serial murder. (http://www.macalester.edu/academics/psychology/whathap/ubnrp/serialkillers/childhood.html)

Knowledge on knowing about the true environment of serial killers will give the society a higher chance of understanding why a serial killer exist. A question being asked if they really do know what makes a serial killer, there's a higher possibility that their answer would be because of 'evil'. This research will help other researchers to know the environmental factors that contribute into making of a serial killer.

B. Statement of the Problem

The study aims to the question

1. What are the environmental factors that makes one a serial killer?

C. Significance of the Study

Society: This research will educate the society about serial killers and knowing about why and how they exist.

Parents: This research would give them idea that the way they treat their child would change their life as they grow.

Future Researchers: This study would help the future researchers to understand and being able to use this as a guide for future references, especially to those who are interested in knowing more about the topic.

D.    Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on environmental factors that contribute to serial killers. This leads us to how to prevent having a serial killer and also lowering the crime rate.

E.    Materials and Methods

The research will give informative and descriptive information about serial killers because of the environmental factors. It is for society to open their eyes that the reason criminals exist is because society itself creates them. Questions will be asked to different point of views of people.

F. Definition of Terms

Cooling-off Period: a period during which the contending sides to a dispute reconsider their options before taking further action.

Environmental Factors:  a factor that influences living organisms (society’s way of living)

Post 4: The Difference between Psychopaths and Sociopaths.

In the popular movie Batman, the Joker has the behavior of a psychopathic. The popular book series the Harry Potted by J.K. Rowling, Lord Voldemort is stated by the author that he is a psychopathic although he is more like a sociopath. Also a sample of a sociopath is Count Olaf from the novel series "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket. These are the example of the fictional characters I know that have sociopath and psychopath.

Many thinks that psychopaths and sociopaths are the people who have no emotional feelings towards other people. Psychopaths and sociopaths are labeled under the section of antisocial personality disorder. There is actually a pattern for both traits, these are the factors of antisocial personality:

• They don't have any concern for others and even to themselves.
• They are undependable who cannot provide themselves a financial obligations and cannot sustain their work behavior.
• They tend to act without a thought and doesn't have a plan for the future.
• They are used at lying to others without getting caught.

The list that I have mentioned above are applicable to both psychopaths and sociopath but these symptoms fail to give the clear distinguish factor that may lead to confusion in giving conclusions.

While searching about serial killers I have encounter this blog by Dr. Scott Bonn with the title of "Sociopath or Psychopath, Which is a Serial Killer More Likely to Be?"  Explaining that both antisocial personality share the same behavioral traits that makes us confuse if the person is a psychopathic or sociopath. Both personality have an unique characteristics that I will explain what.

Sociopaths cannot maintain a normal relationship with anyone, even family, friends and co-workers and they can't even stay in one place. A person who is a sociopath, have a personality disorder that is marked of anti-social behavior. They never feel any guilt about their act, instead they blame others for the act they have committed. They also tend to change their image very often and their life story to avoid prosecution, as they fear their true self being revealed to others they often move to one to another.

Psychopaths are very sociable and can gain peoples trust easily but they don't feel any emotional attachments to others. It is also very easy for them to manipulate the person's feelings treating it like a game. They aim to have a relationship to those who are around him/her and he/she can able to get married. They tend to be very aggressive and can easily lose their temper over small things, one of the reasons is that they can't control their behavior and cruel to the pain and embarrassment to others due to their actions.

They believe the cause of being a psychopathic is because of the genetics and for sociopath is the environment. Being a psychopathic is the cause of the brain that is responsible for emotions and impulse control. For the sociopathy, it is the cause of the childhood traumas and abuse.

If you know any person that have the same characteristics that I have mention above - also try to search more about psychopathic and sociopath - try to keep records of what they are doing. A crime might happened and you could help the police solve the case.

"It should come as no surprise that the entertainment industry has provided many inaccurate examples of psychopaths in film, television and books, etc.  Psychopaths are often incorrectly presented by the media as scary people who look frightening or have other off-putting characteristics. "

I also want to add this. While reading the article, these quoted word made me realize that media really do misinterpret serial killers. And made the society think negative things about them without knowing the truth. With this things always happening it would really lead to confusion and everything won't be clear anymore. Not all people read about serial killers they prefer to watch and because of that media can really control the society. The only thing I could say about this is 'don't judge a book by it's cover.' try to learn more about the environmental factors of why do they exist. Think about it, is it our fault that they exist?

Post 3: Society Creates Serial Killer?

Have you ever wondered why a serial killer exist? Where did they come from? Did you think that it's also the fault of the society? Do you know why? Those questions have answers and we're going to talk about it.

While reading the biography of the some infamous serial killers. Those questions that have been mentioned pop out in my mind. It made me ask why? And I hardly believe it. I know it really happens and we can't really avoid it. It's part of life. 

So I tried to search an article about the society and serial killers. And I came across the article of Senedra Glen with the title of "Serial Killers and the Media". The article is all about the Media talking about what serial killers do and impact on the society.  

The media use the opportunity of making a report about the serial killers, which means if they create a report with good information the people will watch the news and make the ratings of the show higher and most of the time, the given information given by the Media is not true. The FBI never gives all the information about their process because if they do they won't be able to capture the culprit. If the Media leaks the information the killer will make another move or distraction to confuse the FBI and it will then make the case unsolvable for now.

Also the background of the infamous serial killers that I have read are the faults of the society. Why? Because they are raised in a not well manner. We could say it that the Parents don't care about the child, they are being abused and others. Because of that there is a great impact on the child. The child would want the others to feel what he had felt and he already have negative thoughts about life, that life is cruel world, that some people don't deserve to live. The world is not a perfect place, there are flaws. Like what I have told you about in my previous article that there are types of serial killers. By those types we could know what is the background of the killer.

"We've become so used to hearing these things laid out in the media that we tend to take them at face value and never question their validity. In fact, as a society we tend to spend more time on the movies that grossly misrepresent the truth of serial killing."

This quote caught my eye in the article. I haven't watched any movies about serial killers so I don't really know if they have really misinterpreted it. But by thinking about it, logically, the director wouldn't create a story about the background of why the serial killer kills. They would give information but not that much. They would just show how the killers would kill its victim. The movie would want to scare the audience and by watching it the audience would somehow really misinterpret the killers. And them knowing that the killers have the 'evil' inside them. 

As a teenager, still trying to learn more about life. We shouldn't just always listen to the media. Media is the most powerful entity in the world. It's not always right, they create fake news to gain money. Because of the Media it affects our society. Media is society, if Media have told us something we are becoming those. That's not right, we have our own mind, our own point of view in life. Don't let them control our minds. We should be open minded to know more about others and able to understand them.

Post 2: Types of Serial Killers

Serial killers are just serial killers. There are actually types of Serial Killers. It depends on the motives of the killer. The motive, they claim is internal not external. It is not linked to financial gain or belief in a cause. Those motives stems from pleasure of killing. And sometimes other motives are linked to the need to eliminate certain categories of person (eg. young women, prostitutes, etc.)

The article of Jennifer Chase with the title of "Investigating Four Types of Serial Killers" The article states the four basic types of Serial Killers. These types will basically explain on what method they use and how the serial killer kill it's victims.

1. Power & Control

        It is difficult to identify from lust or thrill-seeking type. But serial killers act based on desire to show total control over human being. Power is the main factor of committing crimes and sometimes sexual abuse of victim to only demonstrates the killer power. They are also sadistic, they hurt to derive pleasure and enjoyment of the pain of their victims, physically.

2. Visionary

        This type is being 'obedient' because of the voices they hear and the visions they are seeing. Those they hear and visions order them to kill a person.

3. Mission

        This type of killer is aware of what he is doing and knows the action is wrong. They also murder a certain type of person because it is their goal to make the society better.

4. Hedonistic

        This type of killer kills for pleasure. Hedonistic has two types: Thrill-oriented killer and lust killer. Thrill-oriented killer is very sadistic kills for enjoyment and excitement. And the lust killer, sexual pleasure is increased by the amount of the victim's pain.

Through these four types of serial killers. I noticed from what I have read about those serial killers. These are caused of their childhood experience, the rejections and the love that they didn't get. Because of these, researchers say, there is a possibility to a child to grow up without anyone telling them what is right other than themselves.

Post 1: What is a Serial Killer?

As a student, while growing up. I noticed something that affects the world. Serial killers; known to be notorious killers. They kill not just because someone ordered them to.  They kill for their own reasons. It really made me curious. Why? What defines a serial killer? What motivates them to kill over and over again? These are some of the questions that are on my mind right now.

While searching it says that there have been approximately more than four hundred serial killers in the US. But there’s no way to know how many serial killers are active at the moment. Knowing those serial killers is that many. It kind of scares me because knowing it makes the world not a safe place.

Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Chase, Andrei Chikatilo, Pedro Alonso Lopez – and the list goes on. These six men that I have mentioned are the infamous serial killers that have been responsible for at least more than twenty deaths.

Serial killer by definition is a person who has killed three or more people with a “cooling-off” period between any of them. They don’t kill continuously; it might even take a month or even a year for a serial killer to kill again. The killer doesn't know who his /her victim is. They attack randomly in different places but it really depends on the killer.

An article of Shanna Freeman with the title of “How Serial Killers Work” with the topic of “Serial Killer Classifications” The article states the types of serial killers. Studying serial killers requires the knowledge of psychology a scientific study of human behaviors and mental functions. In the article the Holmes typology method is mentioned. Holmes typology is based on the obsessive-compulsive characteristics of the serial killers as indicated on the verbal interview data on the reason of why they kill.

There are many reasons why would they kill. It opens my eye to learn more about them.  We mustn't judge them yet, we must look at their backgrounds, as well the environment they grew up in. Knowing the world is not perfect, we should try to understand of why they would do that.  One of the main reasons is that they had a horrible childhood experience that made them their point-of-view in life change in a wrong way.

In the article “Serial Killer Behavior” was also mentioned. There are two types of serial killers. This is the disorganized killer and organized killer. Most of the serial killers (about 5/6) are organized and their victim count seems to be high. The reason why is because their intelligence is above average. While the disorganized killers are lonely and only kills to express his/her anger. Their IQ is below average and they suffer from mental disorder.

An organized killer plans, fantasize and dreams about the kill before he does it, he will often stalk his victims and will try to learn more about them. He/she already has a clear plan before he/she strikes, not just to attack but also what the killer will do to the victim and what he will do afterwards. (eg. disposing of the body in a different location etc.) A disorganized killer is someone who doesn't have a plan. He/she only kills when he is in the mood and strikes randomly. The killer only has a few ideas of what he will do for the victim, simply doing whatever the killer feels like. Once finished, the killer doesn't have a clear plan for disposing the body, often leaving it someplace that is easy to find or simply dumping it near where he/she killed the victim. Some serial killers display the both characteristic of an organized and disorganized killer. And these types of killers are called "mixed". These are basic classification of both types.

Categories and Attributes of 'how serial killers work' 

Disorganized Killer (eg. Ed Gein, Richard Chase)

• Will not attempt to hide the body, bury it etc. Not concerned about its discovery. But they often take anatomical "souvenir"
• Socially awkward
• Does not bring any tools. Only use weapons found at the scene.
• Lives near the scene of the crime
• Does not care for evidence left at the crime scene

Organized Killer (eg. Ted Bundy, John Gacy)

• Will attempt to hide, bury etc. the body. In an attempt to delay discovery.
• Cunning, even charismatic.
• Will bring a "rape kit" (handcuffs, ropes, chloroform etc.)
• Lives far away from the scenes of the crime
• Kill with awareness of evidence (which is destroyed, cleaned etc.)

Knowing more about them will made one realize something about life. Life is not perfect, some struggles every day to live and some enjoys the day being happy. All of us don’t have the same life, everyone is different, and everyone has their own experience. So open your eyes and try to understand what’s around you. Maybe one day we will be able to find the answers that we are looking for.