By: Noelle Nguyen
The ongoing subject of the psychological traits of serial killers has long sparked interest for criminal psychologists, law enforcements, and the general public. To break things down, most experts interpret serial killers as “someone who has murdered three or more people over a month long period, with an additional ‘cooling-off’ interval in between.” However, a handful of criminal psychologists expand on this with the idea that serial killers must have a “deviant psychological motive”. While this gives us a basic grasp of understanding serial killers, there are still various unknown concerns regarding the motivations, possible histories of severe mental illnesses, severed contact with reality, and so forth. Thus, let’s break things down to the root cause of serial killers.
Early signs of a serial killer (based on the commonality of these individuals) consist of childhood neglect, delinquent behaviour, the MacDonald Triad which is a set of three factors: animal cruelty, fire-setting, and bedwetting. In addition, it is also discovered of a consistent psychological feature amongst these individuals including antisocial behavior, lack of empathy, incapability of remorse, disregards of law and social norms, and desires for revenge. Some might state that these elements may meet the criteria for psychopathy or sociopathy. Due to that fact, there are some cases where some serial killers have psychotic breaks that triggers them to commit a crime. While it is but a rare instance for serial killers to go legally insane, there are many diagnosed with psychosis, schizophrenia, and other personality disorders.
Now that we have a further psychological explanation of serial killers, let’s dive into a recent research study on how psychology may help explain why male and female serial killers differ. According to researchers, male and female serial killers tend to choose their victims and commit their crimes in different ways, which may be due to thousands of years of psychological evolution. For instance, male serial killers are told to “hunt” their victims who have no relation/connection with the killer. Female killers are said to “gather” their victims who are personally associated with them, and additionally targeted often for financial gain. In correlation with Marissa Harrison, an associate professor at Penn State Harrisburg mentions that these findings are highly beneficial towards murder investigations and quotes, “If a murder has been committed without a known suspect, you can sometimes use details of the crime to form a profile of what the perpetrator might look like / So if you know that men are more likely to commit a crime in a certain way and women are more likely to do it another, hopefully it can help investigators go down the correct path." Despite the public attention on serial killers, there is limited research on the crime due to the rarity of this subject.
In a previous study Harrison conducted, she noticed the difference between their killing patterns. It is believed that the difference has a relation to how humans have lived for 95% through history as hunter-gatherers. Harrison states, "Historically, men hunted animals as prey and women gathered nearby resources, like grains and plants, for food.” The researchers overseeing this case used mass media methods to gather data by looking through reputable news for data on serial killers, precisely using the data of 55 male and female serial killers each in the U.S. After a thorough analysis, it is determined that male serial killers are 6x more likely to kill a stranger together with 65.4% of the victims being stalked. Female serial killers as 2x more likely to murder someone they are familiar with along with 3.6% of the victims stalked. “In our sample, there were two female serial killers who engaged in stalking-like behavior during their crimes.” "Interestingly, reports indicate that men were also involved in those crimes." Harrison summarizes. Additionally, she stressed that evolutionary psychology may differentiate the difference between male/female serial killers and doesn't imply that any one person is specifically born to commit such crime, nor are any predetermined to act a certain way.
All in all, the research of said serial killers, through a psychological lens, continues to contribute to the criminal justice system. It is shown to benefit investigators, criminal psychologists and law enforcements to gain a glimpse into a criminal’s psyche and to expand their horizons on upcoming complex criminal cases. Understanding the mindset of criminals and their motivations for committing crimes are highly crucial elements in preventing future threats.
References:
“Serial Killers.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/serial-killers.
“Psychology May Help Explain Why Male and Female Serial Killers Differ.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 20 Mar. 2019, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190320110622.htm
Mehar, Pranjal, et al. “Psychology May Help Explain Why Male and Female Serial Killers Differ.” Tech Explorist, 20 Mar. 2019, www.techexplorist.com/psychology-may-help-explain-why-male-and-female-serial-killers-differ/21782/.
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