...disabilities and disorders. This course has taught me that approximately half of the populations of the United States have experienced or are experiencing some type of psychiatric disorder (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2010). The average person looks down on someone with any type of disability. They usually label them as deviant when their disorder allows them to commit a crime. What people don’t understand is that some of these people cannot control what they are doing. The only way for them to satisfy an urge is to do what they are thinking about. An example of this would be a serial killer. Serial killers usually have an internal motive for killing repeatedly, whereas a murderer usually commits one crime for a very specific reason. Serial killers need to satisfy some urge, and they do that through killing. However, not all people that have unquenchable urges resort to killing. Even serial killers may stop killing by turning to some other form of “entertainment” as a substitute. A deviant person or someone with a disorder is usually just a normal as you and I. Sometimes, people with disorders have issues socializing because of the stigma attached to whatever disorder or disability that they have (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2010). Take for example people...
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...Fallon Perez Psychological Theories Often times when discussing murders, people say the killer “just snapped.” In many instances, there is a downward spiral of mental and emotional damage. The killers leave behind warning signs and clues. To grasp more of an understanding of these signs and clues, one should research four main case categories: mothers who kill their children, children who kill their parents, mass murders, and serial killers. To gain better insight to these psychological theories behind homicides, this paper highlights individual cases in each category mentioned above. One of the categories to look at is mothers who kill their children. For this particular case, a prime example would be the Andrea Yates Murders. Andrea Yates was a former Texas resident, who drowned and murdered her five children on June 20, 2001. Andrea waited for her husband to leave early Wednesday morning to fill a bathtub where she would drown her five children. She began by killing the three middle children, “drowning them face first in the tub, then proceeding to put them in their beds and cover them with the sheets” (Ramsland). Then she went on to kill the six-month-old baby. Once the baby was dead, she left him floating in the tub. When she called her eldest son to the bathroom, he immediately realized the danger he was in and ran. “Andrea chased and dragged him to the tub” (Ramsland). She then struggled with drowning him, but eventually was successful but not before he could...
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...question that has been debated for decades. Are serial killers born with the lust for murder, or are their desires developed through years of abuse and torment? Many believe it is impossible for an innocent child to be born with the capability to commit a horrible act such as murder. But at the same time, how could we have corrupted society so much as to turn an innocent child into a homicidal maniac? Forensic psychologists have picked apart the minds of serial killers to find an answer as to what forces them to commit such perverse acts. Their ultimate goal is to learn how to catch a serial killer before he commits his first crime. In many cases, serial killers began their lives as remotely normal human beings. Most, however, have detectable characteristics of murderers before they hit puberty. Otis O’toole, for example, started a neighborhood fire when he was six. George Adorno was even younger when he first displayed his pyromaniac tendencies by setting fire to his own sister when he was four. Along with pyromaniac behavior, other often-cited warning signs are enuresis (bed-wetting) and cruelty toward animals. Often, serial murderers are abused physically, psychologically, and sexually as children, sometimes from a stranger, but in most cases from a trusted family member or friend. Serial killers tend to be white heterosexual males in their twenties and thirties, who are sexually dysfunctional and have low self-esteem. Serial killers generally murder strangers with cooling off...
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...VOLUME EDITOR S. WALLER is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Montana State University Bozeman. Her areas of research are philosophy of neurology, philosophy of cognitive ethology (especially dolphins, wolves, and coyotes), and philosophy of mind, specifically the parts of the mind we disavow. SERIES EDITOR FRITZ ALLHOFF is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, Allhoff is the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, including Wine & Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey & Philosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food & Philosophy (with Dave Monroe,Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). P H I L O S O P H Y F O R E V E RYO N E Series editor: Fritz Allhoff Not so much a subject matter, philosophy is a way of thinking.Thinking not just about the Big Questions, but about little ones too.This series invites everyone to ponder things they care about, big or small, significant, serious … or just curious. Running & Philosophy: A Marathon for the Mind Edited by Michael W. Austin Wine & Philosophy: A Symposium on Thinking and Drinking Edited by Fritz Allhoff Food & Philosophy: Eat,Think and Be Merry Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Dave Monroe Beer & Philosophy: The Unexamined Beer Isn’t Worth Drinking Edited by Steven D. Hales Whiskey & Philosophy:...
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...A Hunt for a Killer A common night on my favorite bar. The bar “Bourbon for men “I usually drink there. Yesterday I bought some pills from a guy on the street. He said that I should try them in clean bourbon. I’m going to try that. I crushed the pills with my glass. I poured the pill-dust in my glass. I drank the whole shit. I called for another bourbon. When I got it I looked down. Black tar was pouring op from the glass. I closed my eyes and shaked my head. I could not believe what I just saw. It was just a hallucination. It seemed so real. I had to get some fresh air. I rushed out from the bar and found the nearest bench. My head was killing me. It must have been the damn pills! I woke up. In an old dungeon. I got up quickly. It had to be a hallucination. No it wasn’t. I touched the cell door. Pushing it carefully. I took a peek outside the door. Nothing to see down the hallway just a faint light escaped from the ceiling. I grabbed a stone brick for defense. I stepped out on the hallway. I looked carefully around but which way should I go? left or right? On the left there was nothing but complete darkness and I didn’t have a flashlight. The right path there was at least a faint light. I headed right. I had been walking for at least 10 minutes that had to be the god damn longest hallway ever! I should probably check the cell doors for supplies. Nothing in any of the cells. I had no choice but to keep moving. I finally reached a door that was different from the others. I...
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...Elizabeth Bathory has been portrayed over time as one of the most prolific and sadistic serial killers the world has known. She was nicknamed “The Blood Countess”, and also “Lady Dracula”. Elizabeth Bathory is reputed to have not only drunk but bathed in the blood of young virgin girls. She is perhaps less well-known only than the infamous Vlad Dracula, who was an inspiration for Bram Stoker’s fictional Count Dracula. During the years since Dracula was published, the Blood Countess has exercised a powerful fascination on many writers and film-makers. However, recently, there have been many books and films that go against the usual image of Bathory, and take a new look at her. Through my essay, I hope to give a fresh look at the life and death of Countess Elizabeth Bathory and pick out the truth from many myths surrounding her, due to the portrayal of Elizabeth Bathory’s crimes in popular culture. Countess Erzsébet Báthory, also known as Elizabeth Bathory, was a member of a powerful family from an estate at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, the Bathory family. She was born in 1560 to Baron George Bathory and Baroness Anne Bathory (“Blood Countess,” par.1). Elizabeth was raised on Ecsed, an estate in Transylvania. Elizabeth was not an easy child, nor was life easy for her, despite being a member of the privileged class. She was said to suffer from a brain disorder associated with increased aggression which could be due to inbreeding, which was very popular in royal families...
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...was running from the scene, covered in blood, I thought ‘Was I a monster like all of them said or was I just pushed too far? (Hansen.)” Serial killers are one of the most fascination and morbid groups of people to study. A serial killer is someone who kills three or more people with a cooling off period (Hickey). Now the FBI has changed it to two people. In between their crimes the serial killer appears normal and fits in with society quite well. Serial killers are very different from all other murders. A serial killer is smart, cunning, and will conceal everything they can. A mass murder kills or tries to kill a lot of people at one time; like shooting up a school or movie theater. A spree murder kills one or two victims here drives to another town and does it again. There seems to be no logic to mass and spree killers. A serial killer is very special and has certain characteristics. Serial killers aren’t caught more quickly, because it is possible that many would-be serial killers are apprehended before they kill the three or more victims required to qualify them as such in the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Similarly, it is certain that some serial killers are detained under mental health regulations and do not directly answer for their crimes, others soon to kill many more people over the years without being apprehended. Serial killers, despite the media attention, commit only a tiny fraction of all the murders (James). Murder is usually either a crime of personal relationships...
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...Case Study: Theodore Bundy Jeana Avery PSY 410 University of Phoenix Jan 27, 2010 Case Study: Theodore Bundy This paper will look at the case study of the serial killer Ted Bundy, who had antisocial personality disorder. Background of Bundy’s life will be provided, as well as the definition and criteria of antisocial personality disorder. Last, the paper will look at the biological, emotional, and cognitive causes of antisocial personality disorder. Background Theodore Bundy was born November 11, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Bundy never knew his biological father, and was raised in his early years by his grandparents, who Bundy believed were his parents. Bundy’s mother, whom he believed to be his sister, eventually took Bundy from his grandparent’s home and remarried. Three children resulted from his mother’s marriage to Johnnie Bundy, and Ted Bundy reacted with anger, resentment, and jealousy. Bundy did well in school, attended Sunday school, and was an avid skier. However, Bundy was haunted by his illegitimacy, and his mother’s resentment towards him. Bundy’s step-father would become violent when provoked, and Bundy felt overlooked, unsupported, and ignored. As a child, Bundy looked at naked pictures of women, obsessed about material possessions, and was humiliated by his family’s economic status. Due to Bundy’s lack of social skills, Bundy was shy, introverted, and felt inferior to others (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009). “I am the most cold-blooded son...
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...the word “serial killer” comes to mind, usually for me the name Ted Bundy is the one that dominates. Before Bundy was executed in 1989, he confessed to killing more that thirty women in almost a dozen states across the U.S. during his four year long string of murders in the 70s. “The thing that set Ted Bundy away from the serial killer’s stereo typical analysis is that he was such a mainstream All-American man that the Washington State Republican Party hired him, so cunning that he escaped from jail, twice, and so dashing that a woman friend used to send marriage proposals to him on death row.” (www.crimemageyine.com) If this man was such a moral citizen, what could have brought him to the torturous murders of those young women? What psychological explanation is given on his behalf? I feel that a child’s upbringing and their exposure to different things can also trigger certain urges. Usually, the profile of a serial killer tends to be white heterosexual males in their twenties or thirties. While it is impossible to predict who will become a serial killer, there are traits that appear to be similar in all killers. These behaviors include cruelty to animals, bedwetting, lying, stealing, cheating, alcohol and drug abuse, and a very high fascination for pornography. A lot of these traits are prominent in Ted Bundy’s character. An obvious one was he was white, he had a history of torturing animals and was often found reading his grandfather’s porn magazines. The biggest...
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...Behavior Variable, Signature, & Modus Operandi Ted Bundy was considered to be an unusual serial killer. This is due to the nurturing and supportive home life provided to him growing up by his grandparents. This is conflictive with the social learning theory that links these behaviors to conditioning and behavioral modeling. However there has been speculation that there was potential abuse as a child. This could simply be an attempt to better explain what seems to be irrational and unfounded behavior being demonstrated. Behavior had been demonstrated by Ted Bundy as a teenager that although problematic was not considered to be completely uncommon for a teenage boy. He was a peeping Tom and had been investigated in connection with two burglaries but no charges were ever made. This behavior was demonstrated prior to the revelation that he was raised by his grandparents and abandoned by his mother. This was a revelation that led to him re-inventing himself. It severely affected his self-esteem knowing he was not wanted by his mother. This combined with the loss of his first love Brooks seemed to take Ted Bundy on a more sinister path than previously destined for. This is evident by the similarity of his victims to Brooks. His belief that good sex was derived from an attractive woman who believed that she was going to die fueled his behavior. A behavior that he stated stemmed from an addiction to pornography. He believed that this addiction fueled hatred towards women. His...
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...Media Exercise Assignment Derek Hayward 500393516 POL 128 SEC. 011 Laurinda Hartt-Fournier February 10, 2012 Dexter POL 128 Media Exercise Assignment “Dexter” is an American dark satire that goes against many of the social ideologies of standard American society through presenting a paradoxical perspective of a justified serial killer. In this way, the show reinforces its defiance through the absence of the traditional American family and the lack of trust in the judicial system, all while contradictorily supporting the aspect of fitting in among society. The series “Dexter” follows a man with a meticulously crafted life. By day, he is a blood splatter pattern analyst for the Miami Metro police department. By night, he takes on an entirely different persona: serial killer. However, he is not your average serial killer. He follows a very strict moral code, taught to him by his late foster father Harry, and only kills other serial killers. Season one, episode one, also known as the pilot episode titled “Dexter”, starts off with Dexter stalking and killing his first victim of the series, where it is learned that his victim had killed three young boys previously. Through a series of flashbacks with his late father Harry, it is discovered that at a young age, Dexter had psychopathic tendencies, which Harry was unable to control. Afterwards, his foster sister, Debra, a vice squad officer, pulls him into her world when a series of hookers are being murdered around Miami...
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...Amy Hankins LE300 capstone: serial killers as heroes in popular culture Final Project The Evolution of serial killers and societies fascination A serial killer is someone who is known as a friend, father, co-worker, politician, in fact a serial killer can be anybody. For centuries stories about serial killers have graced the covers of newspapers and magazines. Many famous stories have influenced a lot of films that have been produced and continue to be produced. There is an endless amount of questions as to how serial killers become serial killers, which falls under nature vs. nurture. “The causes of psychopaths remain a mystery. We don’t even have a satisfactory answer to the question of whether psychopath is a product of Mother Nature or a feature of upbringing (Brogaard & Marlow, 2012).” Nevertheless, due to the many serial killers that plague this country, they have come from a very unstable background mostly during the childhood years. Within this essay I would like to discuss not only what has been learned throughout the semester but also bring to light the possible reasons as to why serial killers kill and why society has such an enormous fascination with them. According to the dictionary a serial killers is a person who commits two or more murders at different times. Serial killers are extremely intelligent and some have most likely obtained a degree of some sort. This sort of intelligence is evident in Mr. Brooks, Dexter, silence of the lamb and perfume. All...
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...For my third research project, I would like to research the infamous Dan Cooper. I would like to research this topic because I find it very interesting just how someone could commit such an astonishing crime and still not be incarcerated after over 45 years on the run. The man seems to have “fallen off the grid” since that day of November 24th, 1971 with no hard evidence to lead authorities to any conclusions. The fact that such an act is possible, quite frankly, astonishes me and intrigues me to look deeper into why this man has not been apprehended. I have conducted a fair amount of prior research on the subject, which primarily included the watching of many film specials broadcasted by popular media networks such as CNN and ABC News. In this research, I have the means in which Dan Cooper, or D.B. Cooper as he is more popularly known by, committed his crime. I now know how he took control of the plane by showing the bomb in his briefcase to a flight attendant; the demands that he stated to the flight attendant to get the pilots to land the plane in Seattle, where they were met with $200,000 in cash, four parachutes, and jet fuel; and the stories of how he jumped out of the plane over what is thought to be somewhere north of Portland into the cold stormy night. Also, I have read about many of the people who have recently came to authorities saying that they have a personal connection with D.B. Cooper, or saying he is family or friend. I do not necessarily have a personal connection...
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...smart. They need to be to catch the felons. The characters all have a close bond with one another and use that to benefit them to find the criminals. As for the criminal. These criminals have strong motives. Weather their motive is for profit or it’s for revenge. But the FBI comes down on them and locks them up. For example, in a scene of Criminal Minds a boy tries to get revenge on his mother by threatening her daughter to get her to confess that she always hated him. After this happens a standoff comes between the boy holding a knife to his little sister's throat and Morgan an FBI agent. Morgan then tells the boy to drop the knife or he’ll shoot. The boy then says “you can’t shoot a kid” (Criminal Minds). Morgan then says “I can shoot a killer.”(Criminal Minds). This shows the kids motive is revenge on his mother. And it also shows that the agents will do anything to bring justice. Criminal Minds and Agatha Christie's And Then there Were None novel is very different. The Criminal motives are completely different. In most Criminal Minds episodes the Criminal’s motive is either profit or revenge. While in Agatha Christie's And Then there Were None novel Justice Wargrave’s motive was to give himself joy. Justice Wargrave loved being the executioner so much he brought 10 supposed murders to his island to become victims in his mass murder for pleasure. He did this very well thought out lined up with a poem “Ten little Indians.” There is another difference. In Agatha Christie's And...
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...Nature vs. Nurture The stories of serial killers have intrigued all of us at times. One of these stories is Devil in the White City written by Erik Larson. It tells the story of the World’s Fair and of America’s first serial killer, H.H. Holmes. Scientists and psychologists have wondered why people like H.H. Holmes do what they do. It brings up the question which has a bigger effect on your personality, the genetics you were born with or the environment you were brought up in. In other words, nature versus nurture. This concept was debated by well respected scientist, Matt Ridley. He looked at both ideas in a chapter he wrote called “Free Will”. Another story where nature versus nurture could be debated was in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak....
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