Are Serial Killers Victims of the Society?

It is difficult to believe and understand how there exist human beings who kill their fellows just for pleasure. However, behind all this criminals minds there is a black precedent which makes these people behave in such violent way. To have a better understanding about serial killers’ behaviour and the most common patterns that they present, it is necessary to know which type of killer is known as serial.
According to the legal definition, a serial killer is the person who commits a number of murders of over a long period.
[Available on internet: http://www.definitions.uslegal.com/s/serial-killer/]

To specify, it is considered a serial killer the person who kills three or more people whose victims are usually unknown for him. Serial killers present a similar background which is the most important factor that triggers serial murders commit from petty crimes to unbelievable murders. It is said that a serial killer presents an antisocial personality disorder, which is developed by circumstances that affected their self-esteem since they are little kids.

Antisocial Personality Disorder is a condition characterized by persistent disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. Deceit and manipulation are central features of this disorder
[Available on internet : http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis/p20-pe04.html]

Serial killers attack their victims because of a variety of psychological urges, and the typical one is the lack of power. Richard Trenton, for example, was considered one of the worst serial killers in the United States. Trenton claimed to suffered sexual abuse by his own mother when he was a little kid. Eventually, he started to develop other disorders as bedwetting and pyromania just in his childhood. In his adulthood, he developed alcoholism and hypochondria. He claimed his heart would stop beating time after time. It was not enough when he began to kill animals and mix its raw organs in a blender with coke to get a milkshake. That was the reason why he was well- known as The Vampire of Sacramento. Moreover, he had killed women to have sex with the corpses and mutilate them. When he was arrested, he decided to kill himself rather than finding his death in the gas chamber.

On the other hand, Andrei Chikatilo did not leave behind the fact of intending to force women to have sex with him, and then mutilating their bodies using a knife or just his teeth. This person was called The Butcher of Rostov who continued causing murders and pain towards many women. However, behind this person was a tragic childhood. When he was a child, Ukraine was in the midst of famine and he was a chronic bed wetter. Because of this, he was berated by his mother. Also, when the Soviet Union entered World War II he and his mother were force to watch how their hut was burnt.

Then again, another rapist who belongs to the category of serial killer is Albert Fish. Fish was a cannibal and a child rapist. In this case, he had a precedent of mental illnesses like religious mania. He, as the other people mentioned, had a difficult childhood, which triggered to commit more than 400 children murders. When he was a child he was sent to an orphanage where he was often hit, whose pain caused him erections. Furthermore, he used to send obscene letters to women. When he was in prison, he did not even know why he was there.

Those are just some examples of many people whose lives are really miserable, because their behaviour is, as they were fed up with the enviroment they are, as they were frustated because of all kind of atrocities they had to face when they were just little and innocent children. People as they change their behaviour because they want to fill a hole about the lack of power, and when they watch people sorrow they experience a feel of power and satisfaction, the same that they never had before. However, if they had experienced another lifestyle I am really sure everything would have been really different in the lives of all those criminals. So then, we as a society, as human beings have the responsibility in our hands of having a better world. In other words, we can give a good childhood to our sons, or keeping harmony between our families. With this, we contribute in certain aspects to have a better relationship between our fellows.

By Azucena García Gutiérrez