Serial Killers, The Minds, The Methods, The Madness
The murders are senseless. The killers are viscous. They could invoke a ritual of terror including rape, torture and eventually death. Death by strangulation, knifing and use of firearms. The usual prey includes women and boys, but everyone is vulnerable. The human culture has long been fascinated with the macabre, what is monstrous, aberrant and criminal. Whether or not the number of people who kill or are killed has risen recently, it is the concept of the serial killer that is becoming increasingly consequential to the way we perceive our world.
In history, several words have been used to describe what we now call serial killers. These words have included monsters, demons and ...
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existed. The terminology used to describe this most heinous of crimes, however has changed over centuries. Four hundred years ago, killers in the European countryside were referred to as lyncanthropes, a Greek word meaning wolf-man. An Italian physician named Cesare Lombroso came up with a similar term for these serial killers. Lombroso believed that criminals were “atavistic," meaning they were savage Stone Age men from the prehistoric past. Lombroso deducted that these criminals could be identified by their physical characteristics. These included thick skulls, high cheekbones, jutting brows, long arms, etc. Eventually, Lombroso’s theory was discredited, but society's notion of serial killers being more animal than man has remained.
One important step in defining serial murder is to distinguish it from mass murder. According to some experts, a serial killer is any murderer who commits more than one random slaying with a break between crimes. Popular conception says that ...
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gutting a woman, then fashioning her like a deer in his farmhouse. Edward Gein has also served as an inspiration for such movies as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. Although some of the serial killers may fit this profile, the majority do not. The majority of serial killers as unnerving as it is, look just like the boy next door. The majority of serial killers can not be classified together, but the types of killers can.
Most murders are not the same, the killers are not always the same and the victims may differ in more ways than one. How then can serial killers be defined in four categories? The categories are very wide in definition. The ...
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"Serial Killers, The Minds, The Methods, The Madness." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 7 Aug. 2006. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Serial-Killers-The-Minds-Methods-Madness/50379>
"Serial Killers, The Minds, The Methods, The Madness." Essayworld.com. August 7, 2006. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Serial-Killers-The-Minds-Methods-Madness/50379.
"Serial Killers, The Minds, The Methods, The Madness." Essayworld.com. August 7, 2006. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Serial-Killers-The-Minds-Methods-Madness/50379.
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