Forums → WEPR → Serial Killers

Various psychoses or a failure in proper socialisation of morals and the value of life are among some potential reasons I've heard for why people are Serial Killers.

If you look up most serial killers, I think you'll find they've all been subjected to some sort of violence themselves. Child abuse, prison rape, etc. This would probably be the reason. Whether this constant exposure to violence and pain desensitized them to the point that they thought it was okay, whether it actually just drove them off the edge, or whether they just have a mental condition, I think we can all agree that no serial killer in history has ever been mentally sound and there is usually a reason we can trace back to.

what avorne said and when i was young it made me afraid to eat cereal cause i thought they killed people who ate cereal D:

I think Criminal Minds answers this a lot, in every season. Enjoyable to watch, and most likely with a hint of truth, if not more.
I think the most noticeable comment on it is "When they start, they can't stop", which basically goes for "If you are willing, able or otherwise have the mentality it takes to commit a murder out of random, you will continue to be sucked in."
And, well, I wouldn't say they defy logic, it is just not our logic as a society they follow.
I remember a topic in the tavern on evil, and this is like it. People say that someone is evil if they kill other people for fun, or even because of some emotional or instinctual response, but to them, it is not breaking any moral code. It isn't strange.
There is no why, only reaction, satisfaction, repetition.

I think we can all agree that no serial killer in history has ever been mentally sound and there is usually a reason we can trace back to.

no. hate drives serial killing, prejudice does

In Phoenix Wright, they used a serial murder case where a man ran over another man, but on accident. However, there was a witness to a crime, in which the criminal killed him to keep him quiet. A woman witnessed THAT crime, and he silenced her. A child saw him burying the bodies, so he killed him too.

It is part of this psychological aspect that makes me believe Cenere's post where serial murderers cannot stop what they are doing, especially if there are witnesses abound. Any guy can figure out that an accidental homicide is much less of a crime than successive murders. There can be many reasons as to the mental circumstance of the criminal, such as paranoia.

hate drives serial killing, prejudice does

@Noobyman: The sentence is the same for all three, but the circumstances or the modus operandi of those crimes may affect whether capital punishment is evoked. Mentally insane people, when proven so by the court, will not evoke the death penalty; they will just sign them up for an asylum.

I once saw the trial of BTK and it scared me. Not the killer himself but the offhand manner in which he described his kills. His tone was like he was reading items off of a grocery list, only his words were along the lines of, "I drugged him, I, uh, tied him up, and then i stabbed him repeatedly even after he was dead". Their apathy scares me as much as their deeds.

fixed link is here, just heiping out

fixed link is here, just heiping out

On the topic of hate fuelling killers: Hate is in general a strong, fiery emotion, that burns out rather quickly. A bit like jealousy, and for that matter, love.
For it to work properly in the setting I am assuming we are going for, it would need to be a hate that is refuelled each time the killer goes to kill another. For example, by finding victims that look a lot like the person they hate, that does the same thing or in other ways have a similarity to someone that invokes a strong hate in the killer.
This could be either a person that is still alive, but the killer is unable to get rid of, because they are too afraid to actually kill this person (perhaps being mentally dominated, or otherwise having a mental blockage on this) or that the killer relives the moments of joy when the hated person was killed. The first would be the most keen on finding a specific kind of victim, while the latter could easily evolve into not only a more specialized way of killing people, but also more cold blooded and planned out murders, where the victim can be stalked for weeks prior to the murder, while the killer patiently awaits the glory.

and then you kill them...serial killers don't know their victims.

not necessarily, you can target entire families or specifically neighbors, coworkers and the like...