Serial killers have been described as actors with a natural desire to act. It is all a controlling act aimed at luring people to their trap before they strike (Morse, 2011). Instead, they train themselves to imitate ordinary human conduct by observing other individuals. Several studies have indicated that due to their psychopathic nature, serial killers do not know have sympathy for their victims, their immediate families, or the general population. However, one area of agreement is that whites are more likely to be serial killers than individuals from other races.
Criminology experts have asserted that the proportion of African American serial killers reflects their overall percentage in the general population. However, the FBI reports that there have also been African American, Asian, and Latino serial killers as well. In the US, the largest number of reported serial killers are always white males from a lower to middle class homes, typically in their twenties. The demographics of serial killers have always been a subject of debate, and largely depend on the source of information. Unfortunately, no concrete answers have been found and research is ongoing (Castle & Hensley, 2002). The main questions that psychologists attempt to answer in these studies are: where does the drive to kill originate? Why is the urge to kill more powerful in some individuals than in others?Ĭan potential murderers be identified and halted before it happens? Do murderers have sympathy for their victims? These are just a fraction of questions that require answers in order to have a complete understanding of the psychology of serial killers. Psychologists have for a long time researched the topic of multiple murders, or serial killers. Frequently, a sexual aspect is linked to the murders, but the FBI asserts that reasons for multiple killings include anger, joy, financial motivation, and attention seeking.
Other scholars define it as “a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone” (Morse, 2011). However, for this paper, we will focus on serial killers.Ī serial killer is generally defined as a person who has killed three or more people over a period usually more than one month, with a space in between the murder, and whose reason for killing can be pegged to psychological factors (Singer and Hensley, 2004). Multiple murderers can be grouped into three: mass killer, who murder three or more persons at one time, spree killers, who murder in three or more places with no time difference, and serial killers.