Eg: Serial killer duo Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas, who were believed to have murdered hundreds of people, were both victims of physical and psychological abuse. Specifically, they were made to dress up as young girls and then beaten.
Dr Elizabeth Yardley, a criminologist, said that Wright's upbringing 'wrote the script' for his crimes.
WRIGHTS UNSETTLING UPBRINGING BEGAN IN WEST BEKHAM, NORFOLK, AND THE FAMILY WAS CONSTANTLY MOVING AROUND THE WORLD, TO WHEREVER HIS FATHER (POLICEMAN) GOT ASSIGNED. HIS PARENT’S ROCKY MARRIAGE ENDED IN A BITTER SPLIT WHEN WRIGHT WAS STILL A CHILD. HE WAS TO REPEAT THE PATTERN OF HIS CHILDHOOD, NEVER SETTLING FOR LONG IN ONE PLACE, AND MANY JOBS.
His father Conrad Wright believes his mother abandoning Steve when he was just eight years old may have turned him into a killer.
The second approach to explaining behaviour is -
The biological approach
Believes behaviour to be a consequence of our genetics and physiology. In this approach abstract values, emotions are examined from a biological and physical point of view, thus everything that is psychological was first physiological.
Factors include- chromosomes, hormones and the brain. They all have a significant influence on the human behaviour.
In a letter to his father written while he was in prison, Wright admitted that he had an unhealthy trait but it was one that stemmed from seeing enough violence and anger in his childhood that would last anyone a lifetime.
Having such anger issues run in the family naturally it got passed down to him.
According to the source Steven’s mother Patricia claimed in an interview that, “she was forced to leave because the marriage had grown violent.”
This gives us an idea that Wright’s family wasn’t one free from their own aggressions, thus it isn’t quite unexpected to have found such characteristics in Steven, although in no way it is to be accepted or justified.
Scientific lab experiments, brain scans, family and twin studies, uses of animals are a few research methods.
For example, in twin studies – the likelihood that certain traits have a genetic basis by comparing the extent to which both twins share the same characteristics is tested.
The thoughts and behaviour are reduced to actions of biological structures and processes
The biological approach is determinist in the sense that it sees human behaviour as governed by internal biological causes over which we’ve no control .This has implications for the legal system hinting, that a criminal gene could change the idea that the offenders are legally and morally responsible for their own actions.
Overall I think the social learning theory makes a bigger impact than the biological approach.
The Biological Trait Theories, Psychodynamic theory, behavioural theory and the Organized/Disorganized theory all attempt to explain the inexplicable actions of serial killers.
For the most part, the interrelationships between factors is explained separately for each serial killer because of different relationships between factors, and the role played by each factor in the lives of each serial killer. ·
To summarize, The discussion above suggests that many factors have played a role in the development of serial killers, (in our case Steven Wright). There has not been one sole factor or no one major factor leading to such behaviour, but a combination of various factors and the incapability to cope in a healthy way developed over time (However, even though the factors may be overlapping and interdependent, they do not guarantee each other's existence or guarantee that a person will become a serial killer).
