Serial Killer Research Paper
What makes a serial killer?
Introduction
Reported incidents of multiple murders committed by an individual, who are now known to us as ‘serial killers’, have increased in notoriety since the 1870s. Although almost unknown at that point in time, they did exist. Mary Ann Cotton was Britain’s first acknowledged serial killer. Mrs Cotton spent roughly eight years killing her victims, most of which were her family members. However, when the notorious ‘Jack the Ripper’ began his reign of the Whitechapel region of London in the 1880s, the public became aware that such disturbed and sadistic people were living in their midst. (Jones, 2008 p 12.)
However, serial killers are not so unheard of nowadays. The media also play a big part in how society …show more content…
Adolf Hitler is one of the most infamous mass murderers of all time, due to his leadership in Germany during the Holocaust (Welch, 1992). In recent years mass murder has been blamed on religion and politics. An example of this is the perpetrator of the 2011 attacks in Norway, Anders Breivik. He bombed a government building, before carrying out a mass shooting at a Labour camp; he caused the deaths of seventy-seven people, mostly teenagers, all in the same day (Boyle, 2011).
Over the last few decades, serial killers have been labelled with a list of typical characteristics in which the public associate with serial killers in general. Many serial killers experience difficulty in finding employment and those that do work usually have menial jobs. However serial killers in some cases also appear normal; they often have families and live a relatively ordinary life. Research undertaken by psychiatrists has found that many serial killers were abused, physically, emotionally and in some cases, sexually by family members as children (Brown, 2008 …show more content…
They were gruesome killings that eventually caused huge media frenzy throughout the nation home to the victims. These are the killings that predominantly remain in people’s minds when they are thinking of serial killers. This is purely because of how inhumane and violent these cases are. This could be the reason for the assumption that every serial killer comes from a very troubled background. In contrast to this, other murderers, such as Mary Ann Cotton, used calmer methods. Mary killed her victims with doses of poison. This is a case that is rarely remembered by people. This is probably due to the fact that it was not gruesome or ferocious; therefore is not remembered as easily as the others. Although these are at either ends of the scale when you compare the two, they will still both be labelled with the same stereotype, as all serial killers tend to
Introduction
Reported incidents of multiple murders committed by an individual, who are now known to us as ‘serial killers’, have increased in notoriety since the 1870s. Although almost unknown at that point in time, they did exist. Mary Ann Cotton was Britain’s first acknowledged serial killer. Mrs Cotton spent roughly eight years killing her victims, most of which were her family members. However, when the notorious ‘Jack the Ripper’ began his reign of the Whitechapel region of London in the 1880s, the public became aware that such disturbed and sadistic people were living in their midst. (Jones, 2008 p 12.)
However, serial killers are not so unheard of nowadays. The media also play a big part in how society …show more content…
Adolf Hitler is one of the most infamous mass murderers of all time, due to his leadership in Germany during the Holocaust (Welch, 1992). In recent years mass murder has been blamed on religion and politics. An example of this is the perpetrator of the 2011 attacks in Norway, Anders Breivik. He bombed a government building, before carrying out a mass shooting at a Labour camp; he caused the deaths of seventy-seven people, mostly teenagers, all in the same day (Boyle, 2011).
Over the last few decades, serial killers have been labelled with a list of typical characteristics in which the public associate with serial killers in general. Many serial killers experience difficulty in finding employment and those that do work usually have menial jobs. However serial killers in some cases also appear normal; they often have families and live a relatively ordinary life. Research undertaken by psychiatrists has found that many serial killers were abused, physically, emotionally and in some cases, sexually by family members as children (Brown, 2008 …show more content…
They were gruesome killings that eventually caused huge media frenzy throughout the nation home to the victims. These are the killings that predominantly remain in people’s minds when they are thinking of serial killers. This is purely because of how inhumane and violent these cases are. This could be the reason for the assumption that every serial killer comes from a very troubled background. In contrast to this, other murderers, such as Mary Ann Cotton, used calmer methods. Mary killed her victims with doses of poison. This is a case that is rarely remembered by people. This is probably due to the fact that it was not gruesome or ferocious; therefore is not remembered as easily as the others. Although these are at either ends of the scale when you compare the two, they will still both be labelled with the same stereotype, as all serial killers tend to