Do Serial Killers Feel Remorse?

One of the most common thoughts that runs through the minds of Psychologists, is whether the murderer regrets the murder. This question obviously has different answers, depending on the individual who committed the crime. If the killer, kills one person for one specific reason they tend to end up turning themselves in or regretting what they have done. This feeling is most commonly found in personal killers: “Serial killers have no remorse when killing people”(Yepez). Personal killers are people who only commit one murder and the personal they kill, is someone they know. Other murderers tend to not feel these emotions after their actions. Because of the different motivations of killers, they feel that what they did was a necessary and they do not regret the murder. Another big reason that serial killers don’t feel guilt or remorse, is because they are not mentally stable or sane. Most serial killers are psychopaths or have some type of mental disorder that helps them block out guilt. Psychopaths tend to not feel any emotion that is related to guilt, even if they are completely guilty for a wrong doing. A sane person tends to look back on what they did and realize it was wrong psychopaths do not feel this way ever: “and later feel guilty…psychopaths feel no such remorse.”(Keysers). Some of the most famous serial killers do not feel remorse, even though some of them claim to have killed over 50 people. Psychologists will sometimes say that these killers only say that they kill so many people because they want to be famous. This could also be a cause of their lack of remorse, if they are lying about the murder then they will not feel bad about it, because they never truly committed the murder. One of the most famous killers, Ted Bundy, who was said to have killed and raped at least 12 women who he then decapitated, never felt anguish for what he did. Ted Bundy even admitted, ‘“I don’t feel guilty for anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt.”'(Bundy). Ted Bundy said that he felt bad for people who felt guilt, and did not feel it himself. Ted Bundy knew he was guilty for what he did and yet he did not feel bad about the fact that he took the lives of these ladies. Although there are many different reasons that can cause these killers to not feel remorse, the most common is lack of sanity. In the case were a serial killer is caught and is not mentally stable, instead of being incarcerated, or put into jail, they are put into a psychiatric ward. The reason for this, is they want the killer to become sane and mentally stable, before they put them in jail or prison. The government does not want the mentally unstable killer, to be surrounded by other people, because the killer might possibly hurt someone inside of the jail. Psychopathic killers that are caught and arrested are first put into a psychiatric ward, then they serve their time in jail once they’re determined to be mentally stable.

Works Cited

Bundy, Ted. “Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer.” Criminal Justice Degree Hub. WordPress, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

Keysers, Christian. “Inside the Mind of a Psychopath – Empathic, But Not Always.”Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 24 July 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

Yepez Mora, Alex Josue. “Inside the Head of a Serial Killer.” – Science in Our World: Certainty & Controversy. N.p., 21 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

What Role Does Childhood Play in the Forming of a Serial Killer?

People are not born with a gene for being a serial killer, it has to do with their personality. Everyone has different personalities and traits, this happens because of the environment and the way we are raised. Some people are very kind and caring, others are mean and arrogant, and some other people are serial killers. Serial killers don’t always do what they do because it is their personality, but sometimes they murder because they learned that it was acceptable to express their anger in a violent way. A lot of the time if a child does not receive the proper amount of affection or physical attention, then they can become killers or develop psychopathic tendencies. Children who are developing and showing an abundant amount of anger, show signs of violence: “The infant develops a sense of only itself.   This is indicated by the absence of a range of emotions such as sympathy, remorse, and affection (Leyton 1987)”. Children can show the early signs of becoming a serial killer by the age of 4 years old. According to multiple different studies by different organizations the children who become violent, because of lack of attention make up only a small percentage of the reason why children become killers. A lot of killers, were abused when they were younger, and now take out their violence out on people: “Researchers who study serial killers have noted that a large percentage have suffered childhood abuse”(Ressler). Sometimes if children were abused by their fathers, they will later find men that look like their fathers and abuse those men. These kind of killers tend to kill out of anger or sadness. It seems weird that they would be sad, but they are emotionally scared from the abuse that their parent caused them. Other issues that some serial killers had, as children, were so called mommy issues. If a mother does not give love to the child, they become very introverted and harsh: “This leads to isolation, where intense violent fantasies become the primary source of gratification”(Serial Killers).  They become this way because they do not want to be judged anymore by their loved ones. They also begin to develop low-self esteem and do not feel accepted by anybody. Mommy issues, although they seem small and unimportant, can cause a human enough pain to lead them to killing other people. If a serial killer has a very specific way of killing people, also known as an MO, this normally has a hidden meaning. If a man normally rapes a woman before killing her, or even after, this shows he may have sexual troubles. Some men feel that, because of their appearance, no woman would want to have relations with them. This causes these men to force woman into a sexual relationship with them. Most killers, who do this, might keep their victims alive for weeks on end, just so that they can have the sexual pleasure of a woman. Almost every serial killer has a motive for what they do, and many of them kill because of childhood problems, that caused them permanent harm.

Works Cited

Leyton. “The Psychology of a Serial Killer.” The Term. The Term, 1987. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

Ressler, Robert. “The Relationship Between Child Abuse and Serial Killers.”Crime Traveller. Fiona Guy, 24 July 2015. Web.

“Serial Killers and Mommy.” Tales from the Dark Side. WordPress, 10 June 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

What Are Different Motives of Serial Killers?

Serial Killers have many different reasons for what they do to people, these reasons are called motives. Motives are the things that cause people to act a certain way or do a certain thing. Different motives give serial killers the lust to kill; motives can be as simple as anger or as complex as the fear of rejection by a specific age group. The most common motives are, “visionary…Power/Control…Mission…Hedonistic”(Holmes). If we were to break down each of these categories into simpler terms: visionary would be hallucinations, power/control would be control over people, mission would be revenge or elimination, and hedonistic would be thrill. Almost all killers fit into one of these categories, as a reason for their actions of murder. According to a study done at Radford University and FGCU, about 1% of motives are visionary, about 40% kill because of Power/Control, about 12% kill because of a mission, and about 50% kill because they are hedonistic(Aamodt). If you look at these statistics it shows that most killers kill because of the thrill or lust. What this means is that the killer gets a natural high from the blood or the act of taking a life. The killer will become addicted to this high and so they will start to kill more. Most of the time, if this is their motive, they will find this high by starting at the bottom. They will start by killing small animals and when they realize how good it makes them feel they will start to kill bigger animals more often. This killing eventually escalates to the kill of people on a regular basis. One of the least mentioned motives is a gang or cult. Some murders happen just because of people that get involved in gangs and so they have to kill to prove they’re worth being in the gang. As for cults some people are raised in an area or family that has a very strong prejudice towards a race. This sometimes leads them to join a cult which is a type of group or gang that dislikes or has a hatred towards a certain type of person. These cults can become very violent to the point of killing this type of person.One example of a cult is the KKK, also known as the Ku Klux Klan. This cult has a hatred towards African american people, on their personal website they refer to African Americans as: “to destroy these things.”. Many cults like this become vicious and end up murdering the people they hate. Those are the broad categories of motives for killers, a simpler motivation can be emotion. Some of the serial killers in the world will kill from pure emotion without a true motive that fits into one of those categories. When certain people experience an emotion stronger than they’ve ever felt they do not know how to express it so they end up murdering someone. These kinds of serial killers tend to regret their kill more than a usual killer, because they did not expect to be a murderer. Serial killers have too many reasons to kill, but the motivations tend to be similar between them.

Works Cited

Holmes, R., and J. DeBurger. “The Serial Killer.” The Mind of a Serial Killer. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.

Aamodt, M. G. (2014, September 6). Serial killer statistics. Retrieved 11 November, 2015 from http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/serial killer information center/project description.htm

Robb, Thomas. “America, Our Nation Is Under Judgement from God!” Welcome to the Ku Klux Klan. Rachel Pendergraft, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.

Are There More Male or Female Serial Killers? Why?

There are some myths on this topic, saying that there are only male serial killers and this is not the case. Although there are female serial killers, there is a very large difference between the number of male serial killers and the number of female serial killers. Some studies say that there is so much difference simply because of the hormones inside of females versus the hormones in males. According to studies done by Radford University and FGCU, from 1900 to 2013 there were 3,514 male serial killers and 356 female serial killers (Aamodt). These statistic represent serial killers inside the U.S. and International serial killers. Many different websites have a different number of the total amount of female serial killers but they are all in close proximity. The book Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters, Author Peter Vronsky says: “between 1800 and 1995….females — a total of 62 killers.”(Vronsky). It is clear that men take up the larger amount of serial killers, but why is this? Not many websites or books can explain exactly why this is the case, but one website had an explanation. The explanation stated that, “which can have markedly different effects on men and women – gender construction.”.(Hughes) Gender construction is the minor things we are taught as children. The fact that we give boys toy guns and girls flower dresses actually has an effect on how they act. According to many sources women are not born more caring than men but instead women get to use the emotion of compassion more often were as men use the emotion of anger and violence. So yes, it is the way people teach their children that cause more violence in men. Most likely there will always be more violence in men than women but we may never know.

Works Cited

Hughes, Ian. “Why Are Men More Likely to Be Violent than Women?”TheJournalie. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.Vronsky, Peter. “Female Serial Killers: How Many?” Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. New York: Berkley, 2007. N. pag. Print.
Aamodt, M. G. (2014, September 6). Serial killer statistics. Retrieved (insert date of retrieval) from http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/serial killer information center/project description.htm

What is a Serial Killer?

Many people believe that a serial killer is just someone who commits more than one killing. In truth a serial killer is someone who commits over 3 murders in a period of time that spans for over one month. One thing about serial killers that is not in the official definition, but tends to be true, is that they commit the murders for a psychological benefit. Most all true serial killers have a motive for their killings; serial killers are people who are motivated by some emotion, to kill. The emotion is not necessarily hatred or anger, the emotion might be sadness. Some killers are sad for a specific reason and they express it by killing. On the official F.B.I website, fbi.gov “they differ on specific requirements, such as…the types of motivation”(serial). Think of it in a specific situation such as, a young man was in love with a girl with short, dark brown hair and blue eyes, with a smile that was white and bright, but she did not love him back. When the man who was in love with her asked her to Prom-with his heart in his hands- and she rejected him in front of everyone at the school, he would be heartbroken. Now because of this he became the saddest man on earth, or so he thought, then he might lash out by killing. This type of serial killer would probably kill women who reminded him of that woman who crushed him. This specific case was real and so are many others that you couldn’t believe. I found some interesting stories on biography.com about serial killers, such as the Boston Strangler. According to biography.com he “murdered at least 11 and as many as 13 women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964.”(boston). There are many more interesting facts like that on a lot of different killers. Serial killers can have a numerous amount of motives, but the outcome is all the same, death. Although serial killers can have different motives they all want one thing, and that is, to express their feelings through murder. The worst part about serial killers is the death that they cause and it can only be worse if they aren’t caught and accordingly punished. According to listverse.com there are many unsolved murders like The February 9th Killer. This killer was a man/woman who would kill a woman on February 9th for an unknown reason. Some murders cannot be solved meaning that some murderers cannot be caught; listverse.com says: “he may never be caught.”(10). Going back to the main question of this post, “What is a Serial Killer?” to sum it up a serial killer is a man or woman who has some strong emotion-whether it is anger, sadness, or fear- and they believe that they can express that emotion by killing multiple people. Most victims of serial killers have some kind of connection that causes the serial killer to want them dead. Sometimes when a serial killer acts purely out of anger the victims might be random.

New Blog

Hey guys and gals, this is my blog; this blog will contain information about the mind of a serial killer. You will learn why serial killers do what they do, the types of serial killers, and much more. Come back soon for my first informative post about the brain of the insane.