Serial Killers
... (Hagan p. 201) All serial murderers fit into one of these four main categories. These types of killers are not likely to receive treatment for their problems, instead they use killing as a way to escape. They are also very unlikely to stop killing after they have started in some way it becomes a need for them to fulfill. Serial killers stop only after being caught or if there is a great possibility of being caught. The next type of murderer is the mass murderer. These types of killers usually have no idea who their victims are going to be. These killers are best described as just one day losing it or going postal. There is usually little or no planning on the killer’s part. The victims are just ordinary people that are in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Texas there have been two well know mass murderers. The first was Charles Whitman who in 1966 climbed onto the University of Texas’s Bell Tower and shot forty-four people which only fourteen died. He was shot to death at the scene of the crime by a policeman trying to stop his rampage. In his autopsy there was a tumor found on his brain, which researchers thank had part to do with his actions. The other mass murderer was George Hennard. “In 1991 Hennard drove his pickup truck through the windows of Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and at point-blank range shot and killed twenty-two and wounded twenty-three, making the Killeen massacre the worst in U.S. history.” (Hagan p. 202) Mass murder is not as common as serial murders but it still happens. Mass murder is not as scary as serial murders, because the time for the act to happen is much shorter and the killer is usually apprehended on the spot. No one is quite sure what causes people to go on these rampages. Most of the time the killer is killed at the scene or commits suicide so little interviews or studies have been done on the mass murderers mind. The spree killer is a mixture of the serial and the mass. The spree killer sometimes picks out its victim, but then sometimes they will kill just a random person. There have not been too many spree killers in the past couple of decades. “One of the most celebrated cases of “spree murder” was the case of Andrew Cunanan, the murderer of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace in Miami Beach, Florida in 1997.” (Hagan p. 203) These killers are very random and erratic in their actions. They usually kill to make a statement about what they feel. These killers are still very dangerous because little is know about them and what makes them tic. Spree killers seem to kill because they get a kick out of it. The next thing that we need to look at is what causes multiple murderers to kill. Most people think that it is because the person is not mentally right, or it is because the person is possessed by the devil and he hears voices that tell him to do things. Or is it because of greed or lust or is it because the hate is so great that killing is the only way to release it. There are actually a number of different reasons why people kill. The most studied and documented are biological reasons, then psychological, and social construction. The first is biological; this has to do with all the functions of the body. This could include pre-birth and after-birth. For pre-birth this has to do with if the mother used drugs or drank or smoked while pregnant, or if she did not eat well enough to give the baby all the vitamins and nutrients that it needed. Most children that are malnourish often have learning disabilities and poorer health than normal children. After the baby is born biological factors include whether or not the baby was given medical treatment and regular shots to help fight off diseases. There have been two main chemicals connected with abnormal behavior one is testosterone and the other is serotonin. Testosterone usually only occurs in males and it usually only has bad effects if the levels are extremely high in an individuals body. “Testosterone may have two different influences on the behavior: a) organizing the brain in a particular way that some actions will be more likely, b) activating the physiological mechanisms that direct certain behaviors. Testosterone is the hormone that stimulates the development of masculine characteristics, and it may develop aggression. (Hale and Bolin, 1998) If a man has too much testosterone in his system it could cause him to be more aggressive then a normal male would be. The other chemical was serotonin which helps in the operation of brain activities and functions. If an individual is missing serotonin then they will not act like a normal person with normal brain operations. They do have some medicines now that will try to help regulate the amount of testosterone and serotonin in a person’s body. If you can catch these abnormities quick enough and have the proper medical treatment to control the amounts of these chemicals then you should have a pretty normal life. People that have any biological problems will have a difficult time with health and wellness which can lead to disease and mental illness. Alcoholism is one of the major factors in biological development, if a child had an alcoholic mother then the chances of the child becoming an alcoholic is greatly intensified. Alcohol has been known to be associated with multiple murderers. Psychological reasons can sometimes be helpful when trying to explain why some people do what they do. Psychological theories of a multiple murder “tend to explain multiple murder as a result of –individual propensity to commit murder, -inability to conceptualize right from wrong, -willingness to inflict injury on others, -inability to perceive future consequences of actions and degree of impulse management.” (Pinto and Wilson, 1990, p.3) Psychological theories are an easy way to say that someone is a wacko. No, not really but close. Psychological theories are theories that surround the idea that people sometimes have mental illnesses. Psychological illnesses explain depression, alcoholism, manic depressive, bi-polar disease, obsessive e compulsive, and post stress disorder. Obsessive e compulsive disorder is a common mental illness among serial killers. Even though these are real illnesses they still do not excuse a person from killing another. They are just here to help explain why some people do the things they do. The next step is social construction. This is how a person fits into his environment. This is how people learn social norms and behaviors. This is often called the social learning theory. For example people know that it is not good to pass gas in public, this is because it is a social norm. If you do then you know the consequences which usually are people laughing or staring at you. Another social construction theory is called the neutralization theory this has to do with the denial of other people’s rights. For example people sometimes do things without fully looking at the consequences that their actions might cause another individual. This is called the denial of responsibility, injury, and victim. Social control theory is another social construction theory that states people learn behaviors from internal and external factors. This also means that people sometimes have external factors that help them find reason in killing. These could range from divorce to corporal punishment and sexual abuse. These are just a few of the explanations of why some people commit multiple homicides. There are also other facilitators that might cause people to commit multiple murders. These usually include alcohol, pornography, and drugs. Most people that have committed murder are usually high or drunk, but with multiple murders this is not the case. Most serial murders are sober when they kill, it is one their down times that they turn to drugs and alcohol. The use of alcohol and drugs on a constant basis can destroy your brain in many ways that w...