Why Do Serial Killers Affect Human Behavior?

The term serial killer is “The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender in separate events” according to the F.B.I. It is clear that there is something not right about a person who can kill, and continue to do so. With serial killers there is no real reasoning behind their murders, they do not just snap one day, nor do they do it out of greed or even jealousy. There is time between the murders, and most of the time these people are active members of a community. While there are many studies about why these people murder, there have been no actual breakthroughs. So the question that still remains is what type of psychological disorder could cause this kind of behavior? Robert Ressler, the former director of the F.B.I.'s …show more content…
Depending on how the crime scene looks depends on if they are organized or disorganized; furthermore, a serial killer can be classified as nonsocial or asocial depending on if they separate themselves from society, or if society separates them. While most serial killers are organized and nonsocial, there are still some that are unlike the rest. Over eighty percent of serial killers are Caucasian males between the ages of twenty and thirty, they are normally very intelligent and the typical victims are Caucasian women. These people do not stick out in appearance and are in fact, usually largely involved with society. As children they usually have three behaviors known as the MacDonald triad: these include bed-wetting, arson, and animal …show more content…
How can a person commit such horrible acts? Certainly there is something that sets serial killers apart from the rest of the world, and an easy way to answer that question is the reason of insanity. According to the U.S. Code, a plead of insanity means “at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offence , the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts. Mental disease or defect does not otherwise constitute a defense.” A serial killer using this defense must prove to the jury that at the time of the murders he did not understand right from wrong, but it is very difficult to prove that he did not know that he was killing the victims. In addition, there have only been two serial killers successfully use the insanity plea. The head of the F.B.I.’s Investigative Support Unit, John Douglass, believes "don't have a problem understanding what death means, and that they have the power to