A serial killer as defined by Brian and Wilfred Gregg in The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, is someone who kills three or more people with sufficient time intervals between each kill, known as a cooling off period.

Authors Avatar

pg.

        A serial killer as defined by Brian and Wilfred Gregg in The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, is someone who kills three or more people with sufficient time intervals between each kill, known as a cooling off period.  The name serial killer is one known all to well by ruthless killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Henry Lee Lucas, Gerald Stano, and Andrei Chikatilo, to name a few.  It is a scary thought but most serial killers come off as very ordinary people, they are mostly white males whose age ranges from late twenties to thirties, who can be extremely intelligent and even charming.  Some of them, however, are dropouts from school and could be perceived as mean individuals.  No matter what type they belong to, these killers appear above suspicion, and this makes it difficult to spot and catch them.  In this essay I am going to discuss the different types of serial killers, as well as what leads them to the break of destruction.  I am also going to argue that the blame and hatred towards serial killers should not all be directed towards them, but the people who influence their lives as well.

Prior to discussing what serial killers do, we must identify what a serial killer is.  We tend to use the term killers, to refer to different types of murderers such as serial killers, mass murderers and spree killers (Fox 23).  This is incorrect because they are independent and different types of killers (Fox 23).  Mass murderers do all their killings at once, usually in one place, and give little thought to escape.  They end up committing suicide or get shot down by police (Fox 24).  The victims of mass murderers may or may not be people they know.  Serial killers individualize their murders, and tend to avoid detection for years.  In recent years, it appears that their attacking strangers more often then before (Fox 25).  The fact that serial killers are usually sane, whereas mass murderers are usually psychotic, is very frightening.  A spree killer is neither a mass murderer nor a serial killer; instead it is someone who commits murder in two or more locations, with no cooling of period in between (Fox 25).  The murders of spree killers are all related in a way, that they form a part of one single event.  Both mass murderers and spree killers are very difficult to catch alive, most often they shoot themselves before police have a chance to arrest them (Fox 26).  Serial killers, on the other hand, rarely commit suicide; they also tend to select their victim, contrary to mass murderers and spree killers (Fox 27).  The term “motiveless murders” are used in cases where there is no apparent connection between murderer and victim, and can be used to describe the crimes of serial killers, mass murderers and spree killers (Fox 27).

Serial killers have certain characteristics that set them apart: they usually do not have a connection with the victim and very rarely, if ever, have a rational motive (Forwood 16).  Serial Killers like to murder people, usually with a high degree of overkill and often repeating a pattern.  They turn to murdering for a sense of power (Forwood 16).  For this sense of power they usually attack society’s weakest members and those weaker than themselves (Forwood 16).  This includes the homeless, the impaired, and usually the young of both sexes.  When they kill the homeless and the impaired they are usually acting on the “Missionary Motive.”  The killer feels that it is their responsibility to rid society of its unwanted members (Forwood 18).  There are also Visionary killers, who are usually instructed to kill by the voices that are in their head (Forwood 18).  The last type of killers is the Hedonist, who kill because it brings them the pleasure to do so.  This group is separated into three sub-categories, which are lust killers, thrill killers and gain killers (Forwood 20).  Lust killers are usually sexually underdeveloped and kill for sexual gratification (Forwood 20).  Thrill killers kill people because it brings them a rush.  Both Lust killers and Thrill killers of hedonists usually kill a lot more because they are addicted to this rush.  Gain killers usually kill for money but can also kill for a job promotion or any type of gain (Forwood 21).

Join now!

Most serial killers are white males between the ages of 25-35, and their intelligence varies from above normal to under normal (Ressler 8).  They are from working, or middle-class backgrounds and their victims are mainly white females (Ressler 8).  Ted Bundy, who is looked upon as one of the most intelligent serial killers of all time, is a prime example of this description of serial killers, since he was considered “normal,” charming, good-looking, bright, well dressed and well mannered (Ressler 8).  Serial killers can take many forms, as they can be working, married with children, and live among an unexpected ...

This is a preview of the whole essay