Serial killing has been the most mystifying of all crimes for ages. Who are these people who are driven to conduct the most devilish of crimes? What drives them to such extremes? Often these killers are people who look like anyone else, live apparently normal lives and yet stalk and kill people in some of the most grotesque ways. The most intriguing aspect of all is probably the amount of power these killers wield--not just physical power as in some cases, but also their power to stun a nation. A popular myth is that these killers are born with a destructive streak that drives them to kill. A more detailed study of these psychopaths leads us to believe otherwise. Case studies reveal that most serial killers are victims of forces triggered by internal compulsions. The motives behind such killings are still a gray area to even the best of psychologists. Most attribute the causes of such psychopathic behavior to social pressures, childhood trauma and the like. The key to understanding the working of a serial killer's mind lies in analyzing the background of the killer. This line of thought may help us decipher the true cause for these repetitive and sadistic murders.

        Murder is classified as serial murder when it involves at least three victims over an extended period of time (Andrews & Bonta, 1998). People committing these crimes are referred to as serial killers. Studies conducted in the United States show serial murderers to be relatively rare in comparison to other homicide statistics. The serial killer follows a unique style in choosing his victims. He tends to stalk and seek out his victim, who is often a stranger. A study of serial killers by Dietz, Hazelwood, and Warren (1990, as cited in Frank, 2000) describes almost all such killings as sexually oriented.
        There are a set of variable elements that distinguish serial murder from single-incident murder, mass murder, and spree murder. Mass murder can be defined as an act in which a number of people are killed by a single assailant during a short period of time in roughly the same geographical location. The spree murder can be defined as a multiple number of killings which take place in a short period of time, hours or days. The serial murder exhibits several distinct characteristics that help distinguish it from mass and spree murder, the most important being the lack of any apparent motive and the degree of redundant violence (Fox & Levin, 1998).

        Robert Ressler, a Virginia based criminologist who specializes in psychoanalysis of serial killers believes that "serial killers are less likely to be born than created" (as quoted in Gratrix, 1993, p. 27). Ressler groups together what he believes are the causes that create the psychotic mind. The common thread linking all these killers is their disturbing background. Most killers, he contends, seem to have had direct influence with some form of mental illness, criminal activity, or alcohol or drug abuse. Dietz (2000, as cited in Frank, 2000), a renowned psychologist, concurs with Ressler's viewpoint. Ressler talks about parental care playing a pivotal role in the mental stability of a child. Acceptance from the outside community comprised of schools, the workplace, and the like is also an essential element for a stable mind.
        Ressler's analysis basically holds the environment in which a person is brought up as responsible. His argument on this front is presented logically. A child raised in an atmosphere of emotional abuse and neglect can be adversely affected by these factors. He brings to light the influence of a family on psychological well-being. This point seems emphasized through the entire article. He effectively sums up the factors that make up an individual's mind functioning normally.
        According to Andrews and Bonta (1998), authors of the book, Psychology of Criminal Conduct, most serial killers were cut off from society during their childhood. Psychologists refer to them as "rejects of society" (p. 142). This rejection is usually the cause of a feeling of deprivation of love, affection, and attention. Deprivation in turn causes the individual to be a loner, which leads him to be affected by an inferiority complex. According to Dietz (2000, as cited in Frank, 2000), this feeling of inferiority applies pressure on the individuals to change their lives. When pressure crosses a certain limit, the individual is driven to the boundaries of insanity or mental instability. At this point, the individual ceases to think rationally and loses a sense of right and wrong. The sense of morality disappears, and a sense of animosity is born. The individual then gradually becomes a victim to this overwhelming emotion. This condition of abnormality is referred to as "borderline personality disorder" (Andrews & Bonta, 1998, p. 132).
        A famous instance of such a personality would be Ted Bundy, a serial killer, who started his rampage after his wife deserted him. His wife, being a blonde woman, came to serve as his standard for all of his later killings. Almost all his victims turned out to be young to middle-aged blondes. The negation reaction to overcome another terrible experience is what Bundy underwent. Emotional abuse over time leaves a "ticking time bomb" inside the criminal mind (Andrews & Bonta, 1998, p. 144). The occurrence of a new incident that provides emotional stress, which in the case of Ted Bundy happened when his wife deserted him, triggers the psychopathic mind into committing acts that relieve the stress. In the case of serial killers, these acts are brutal homicides.
        The borderline personality disorder may also help to explain impulsive attacks of some serial killers who repeatedly murder in a state of frenzy without making much of an effort to plan the crime or cover their tracks. Despite the merits of their argument, Andrews and Bonta appear to overstate the role of the borderline personality among serial killers. Given the care and planning with which they kill, most serial killers are organized both in the way they approach and leave the crime scene (Ressler, 1998) and do not possess the pattern of unstable mood and impulsivity that characterizes the borderline personality type.

        While the range of motives for serial homicide is quite broad, research on this topic has heavily focused on issues of power and control--the thrill, sexual satisfaction, or dominance that serial killers achieve by controlling the lives and deaths of their victims (Dietz, 2000). The media hype accompanying most killings also proves to be a significant fringe benefit accompanying the pleasure of the crime for the serial killer. They desire to make headlines and realize that sensational murders draw a good deal of media attention.

        Serial killers are sometimes referred to as antisocial elements or, more commonly, sociopaths (Frank, 2000). This is in fact a matter of perspective. For instance, a civil society is presumed to be efficient and effective in protecting the interests of its people and upholding justice. However, this is seldom observed in reality, and more commonly justice is often the interest of the strong and the powerful. Therefore, in a society where the government is unable to preserve the interests of the poor, features such as poverty, homelessness, and even prostitution are not surprising. When the government fails to preserve a just and equal culture, most of the people protest and revolt. However, some of the less rational people find their own ways of dealing with the problem. In my opinion, most would try to remedy the situation by performing community services, organizing events for charity, starting public reformation movements, and the like. Impulsive people with psychological disorders, as in the case of serial killers, who are directly affected by the same problems, tend to take a different route. In most cases they try to eliminate the problem themselves. This concurs with the ideas of the authors of the book Multiple Homicides when they state, "From their point of view, they are cleaning the streets of filth and ridding the world of evil" (Fox & Levin, 1998, p. 423). A real life example of the above mentioned might be "Jack the Ripper," who killed only prostitutes in the streets of London. The serial killer in this case falls prey to the strains of society.
        Ressler (1993, as quoted in Gratrix, 1993) blames the "devaluation and deconstruction of the nuclear family that has occurred over the last three to four decades" (p. 27) for the creation of psychopaths like serial killers. Single parent families, he believes, are unable to supply the stable environment required for psychological well-being. Abuse and neglect have been recorded as commonplace in the formative years of a serial killer. This can lead to isolation, where intense violent fantasies become the primary source of gratification. Instead of developing traits of trust and security, the child develops negative qualities of hostility. As a child, the "Boston Strangler," Albert DeSalvo, was sold off as a slave by his alcoholic father. Although dysfunctional families are a common element in the lives of these killers, the root cause is not necessarily impoverished or broken homes. Seemingly stable homes also serve as domiciles for psychopaths. Psychopaths, as in the case of serial killers, undergo an extended period of suppressed emotions, the effects of which prove to be dangerous. All he requires is a trigger to set off these emotions and transform them into an outlet that serves to be a psychological gain. In the case of serial killers, their instability is reflected in the grotesque murders they commit.
        I agree with Ressler's analysis on some viewpoints. His analysis stating the environmental influences on the development of an individual's mind seem sufficiently convincing. Abuse haunts a child and he becomes a victim to this amoral punishment. Excessive emotional exploitation puts a strain on his mind, thus pulling him away from sanity. However, Ressler's solution to such trends suggesting "intact, properly functioning families" (p. 27) as the only way out seems to present a logical fallacy. The idea seems to be a simple solution for what appears to be a problem caused by factors other than dysfunctional families. Hence I strongly oppose that view. I also disagree with his stance on single parent families, citing them as a cause for creation of unstable and insecure children. Single parent families seem to be an emerging trend. Although most parents are unable to spend as much time as they would like with their children, most might be unable to do so in the process of trying to secure a good future for their children. It does not necessarily imply that all children brought up in such families are victims of psychosis. In saying so, he also disregards day care centers as places that are unable to provide the necessary elements for normal childcare. His viewpoint on the influence of media seems rational as media promoting sex and violence could prove to be harmful. I concur with his opinion that it promotes the mental instability of an already affected person.

        Dietz (2000), however, asserts that there exists a sharp contrast between mental instability and psychosis. The former is prevalent in almost all killers and criminals of other kinds. Psychosis is a condition with a maximum of three symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, and a disorder in the form of thinking. Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer who resorted to cannibalism, was declared to be mentally unstable but not psychotic (Salholz & Miller, 1992, as cited in Mathews & Seringen, 1992). Psychologists believe that Dahmer was aware of his actions as he committed the crimes. Unlike in the case of psychosis, the killings were not done in a state of frenzy.
        Responding to Hollywood portrayals of bizarre serial killers in films from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho to Silence of the Lambs, lay people often assume that anyone who kills for the thrill, pleasure, or power must be crazy. Curiously, both films were loosely based on the actual, but highly atypical, case of Edward Gein of Plainfield, Wisconsin. In the early 1950s, Gein killed and cannibalized his neighbors, robbed local graves, and mutilated his victims (Tonry, 1998). Similarly, the prevailing view in psychiatry, as I noted through my research was, until recently, that such offenders were deeply disturbed and legally insane. However, with a few notable exceptions, most serial killers do not suffer from a profound mental disorder. For example, only one of twenty sexually sadistic serial killers studied by Warren, Hazelwood, and Dietz (1990) was psychotic.
        Expert analyses on psychopathic minds in reference to serial killers gives us a deeper insight into not only the functioning of the criminal mind, but also that of other people. These killers were normal people before pressures of society forced them to seek refuge in their worlds of crime. The line between sanity and instability seems to be a thin one. The determining factors being purely coincidental. All it takes to turn an individual from a normal functioning person to an insecure and instable personality is a change of environment. As Ressler (1985) puts in perspective through his article, the most important stage of such transitions are the formative years where a child passes from childhood to adolescence.

        Although analysis on psychopathic behavior continues, the question of prevention still goes unanswered. Ensuring that a child grows up in a secure environment free from inessential pressures is not an easy task (Zerta, 2000). Experts universally agree that exposure to detrimental media provides an added base for the development of the psychotic mind. Dietz (2000), who is credited as "technical advisor" for the TV drama Law & Order, believes that directors should withdraw material that might be helpful to real-life criminals. Eliminating sex and violence might be a difficult task, however. Therefore, a more helpful alternative, Dietz believes, is that show producers should try to separate sex from violence as far as possible. However, he faces opposition on such matters from studios which claim that the policy would interfere with the "artistic discretion of producers and directors"  (Frank, 2000, p. 82).

        Thus, a closer look at serial killers and their backgrounds reveals them to be victims of unstable upbringing. Exposure to damaging material and abuse through their formative years turns them into mentally unbalanced and potentially harmful individuals. Hence, taking measures such as those suggested by Dietz 1985) may help to curb the recent increase of psychopaths in our community. The limited but growing literature on the topic of multiple murder is fairly rich with a wide range of explanations for the development of the serial killer. Unfortunately, this feature of the multiple homicide literature is more speculative than definitive and is based primarily on anecdotal evidence rather than hard data. Even the most rigorous of studies rely on small, and in some instances biased, samples. There exist several problems concerning the explanation of multiple murder.
        Killers, to their own advantage, could unfortunately exploit the emphasis of child abuse as a cause of murderous rage. The serial killer in particular is an accomplished and convincing liar. The presence of evidence of apprehended killers having fabricated tales of child abuse reminds us to be skeptical about the self-serving testimony of accused killers eager to escape legal responsibility for their own crimes. The second problem in explaining multiple murder concerns its especially advanced age of onset--usually in the late twenties and thirties (Andrews & Bonta, 1998). This is particularly troublesome for those researchers who focus on relatively unchangeable constitutional factors or early childhood development. Thus research needs to be extended to cover various other aspects leading to such tendencies, for example, job loss, divorce, and the like. This second problem leads to another area of setback--the inability to predict this behavior from an understanding of early childhood events. A large or substantial segment of the serial killer population, as I learnt from research, shares common traits. However, a few cases that differ in mannerisms are enough to refute any prior predictions.
        In spite of several insights offered by experts, criminological research into the causes of serial and multiple murder is still in its infancy. Lack of time is not the only reason for the dearth of systematic research. There remains a strong sense of skepticism among many criminologists that the study of multiple homicide is more popular culture than serious relationship. However, the purpose and benefits of such research still has a strong hold: "We can learn much about the dynamics of ruthless inhumanity by examining sadistic serial killers, we can learn about vengeful violence by studying workplace mass killers" (Tonry, 1998, p. 421).

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