SERIAL KILLERS--BORN OR MADE?

(Source)--Are serial killers born or made, a product of faulty genetics or environment? That fundamental question has been driving academic interest and law enforcement research for as long as serial killing has been recognized as a serious problem.

My research in the area of serial crime supports the fact that with very few exceptions(and there are exceptions to every rule) serial killers are sane or meet the legal requirements of "sanity". They do however suffer from a wide variety of psychological disorders. These disorders are not sever to the point where the killer wouldn't be able to function in society or have the ability to lead a normal life if he were to seek help from a mental health professional.

As for the question are serial killers born or made? We are all born with a personality some of us are warm and loving others are cold and aloft. From our earliest experiences, we are taught that the world for the most part is a good place (we learn the harsh lesson that the world isn't always a nice good place later on). We are told that most killers have grown up in homes where abuse (physical, sexual, emotional or all of the above) are common place. They come from single parents homes where the parent is sexually proscimious, drug addicted or otherwise unable to care for her children.

Growing up in an environment like that effects the child, but what about the other children in a killers family that grow up and don't kill or children that grow up in almost identical circumstances that become "normal" productive members of society?

Serial Killers aren't like the rest of us. They don't act like we do, they don't react to situations like the rest of us would. They have a major fundamental difference, they just aren't "hard wired" like the rest of us. Childhood abuse and lack of love and support can and will exacerbate this situation, it does not by any means cause the behavior.

Plenty of us have come from abusive backgrounds to lead productive lives. Sure we are scared by events of the past, but as we grow we leave childish hurt and pain behind. The killer is unable to do that. His body will mature, but part of his psyche remains "primitive" or childlike in its response to stimulus. He lacks the ability to just "get past it".

The killer isn’t "born bad". It is my belief that his mind just works differently. The best way to further our understanding of the phenomenon of serial crime is to study serial criminals in custody and advance our understanding of forensic psychology, and neuroscience.
As we have all been told knowledge is power. Now is the time to further our understanding of the root cause of serial crime.

Serial criminals aren't just going to go away with a little wishful thinking.
News articles and the like about serial killing are few and far between these days. The cause for this is twofold:


1) American attention has been diverted by terrorism and the war in Iraq. Serial killers are still killing, victims families are still feeling the pain of loss, but those stories have been lost in the shuffle of a suicide bomber. Yes, terrorism in is a real and continuing threat but it shouldn’t be the exclusive focus of law enforcement.

2) Killers are getting smarter. They are watching "CSI" and "Forensic Files" with the rest of us. They know what police are looking for, they take great pains to eliminate evidence. Also, killers are looking for the "easy victim" one that isn't going to be noticed. Those victims have been called by Dr. Steven Eggar "the less dead". Simply put, victims that didn’t matter in life and still don't matter in death. A killer who is victimizing pretty young middle class college girls will receive much more attention that a killer that preys on prostitutes.

Amazing advances have been made in the area of forensic science, now its time to make the same amazing advances in the area of criminal profiling. Enough bickering over who should be allowed to profile and what kind of educational or law enforcement background a would be profiler comes from. If the individual is willing and able to dedicate his or her life to investigating serial crime and criminal profiling, I say it doesn't matter. We should be embracing everyone willing to further our understanding of the phenomenon instead of pointing fingers and proclaiming someone not qualified.