Belle Gunness
Serial murder is a thankfully rare occurrence, but not rare enough. Per the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) organization and categorization standards, in order to be classified as a serial killer, a person must have committed at least three homicides over a period of time. There are many different types of serial killers; those that kill for profit and those that kill for sexual gratification. Among the rarest of serial killers is the female serial murderer. Only three percent of all serial killers are female and those that choose to commit these crimes do so most often have financial gain as a motive. One of the most notorious female serial killers of all time was Belle Gunness who murdered not only a large number of affluent male suitors, but very likely also killed her own children and an unknown woman in order to fake her own death and escape…...

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Works Cited:

Gibson, Dirk Cameron (2010). "Belle Gunness." Serial Killing for Profit: Multiple Murder for Money. Greenwood: Santa Barbara, CA. 35-51

idgeway is known to have specifically targeted prostitutes, with whom he had a love-hate attitude towards, and runaways, whose disappearances would not raise too many concerns. idgeway was convicted of killing 48 women, but confessed to killing 71 in the Washington state region. idgeway would strangle his victims from behind, transitioning from manual to ligature strangulation after he became worried that defensive wounds from his victims would raise suspicion. His victims were killed at his home, in his truck, or in a secluded area. idgeway is known to have contaminated his crime scenes in order to deter police and many times transported his victims across state lines. Though the exact dates of idgeway's criminal activities are unknown, he actively killed during the 1980s and 1990s, with most of his crimes occurring between 1982 and 1984 (Bell, 2011). Though idgeway was initially a suspect in the Green iver killings in…...

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Reference List:

Arrigo, B. 2006. Criminal Behavior: A Systems Approach. Upper Saddle Creek: Pearson

Education.

Bell, R. 2011. "Green River Killer: River of Death." TruTV. Retrieved from

Douglas, J. & Mark Olshaker. 1999. The Anatomy of Motive. New York: A Lisa Drew

Sociology and Violent Behavior
The sociological theories of violent behavior focus in assessing the interaction of and individual their with social environment to yield violent behaviors. The key aspects considered in the theories are personality, the learning process, information processing, intelligence and subsequent behavior (aggressive acts). This paper presents a discussion of the theories associated with violent behaviors and serial murder.

Theories of Violent Behavior

The labeling theory argues that the society plays a significant role in influencing an individual's conceptualization of deviance. Once the society labels and individual as deviant and reinforces the deviant label on a person by way of shunning them out of society, the individual accept the label. Since the society has already labeled the acts and the individual as deviant, the individual will have no reason to disprove the view of many. The labeling influences the individual's self-concept and subsequently drives them deeper into more deviant behaviors and…...

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References

Fonagy, P. (2003). Towards a developmental understanding of violence. The British Journal of Psychiatry. The Journal of Mental Science, 183, 190-192.

Myers, W. C., Bukhanovskiy, A., Justen, E., Morton, R. J., Tilley, J., Adams, K., . . . Hazelwood, R. R. (2008). The relationship between serial sexual murder and autoerotic asphyxiation. Forensic Science International, 176(3), 187-195.

Investigating serial murders requires both a proactive and a reactive approach. Proactive methods are generally designed to prevent future crimes from occurring by taking action now on known variables. Reactive approaches include tactics and techniques used when police respond to crimes that have already occurred. Both proactive and reactive approaches are needed when addressing the problem of serial murder. Proactive methods used for serial murder are similar to tactics used for broader crime prevention, such as increased police visibility and presence throughout the neighborhood. Big data helps police improve the efficacy of proactive methods, by helping law enforcement identify patterns of the serial murderer’s behavior or patterns of victimization. When specific geographic areas of concern have been identified, patrols can then target those areas, helping the police department allocate resources wisely while also preventing crime using data-driven methods. To be as effective as possible in preventing future crimes, the police patrols…...

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References

Department of Justice (2015). Police discretion with young offenders.

Hall, E. (n.d.). Criminology and Justice. http://criminologyjust.blogspot.ca/2011/05/investigation-into-serial-murder.html#.WqAnrJPwYWo

Morton, R.J. (n.d.). Serial murder. https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder

“Proactive Policing,” (2015). Regina Police. http://reginapolice.ca/2015/05/proactive-policing/

http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/yj-jj/discre/org/styles.html

Criminology researchers usually draw on multiple sociological theories for understanding crime and offenders. Certain elements of serial-killing research continue to be a subject of speculation and exploration, on account of the numerous preconceptions and myths surrounding the crime. The significance of establishing a theoretic basis to explain sociological factors proves crucial to distinguishing between fact and fiction (Hickey, 2013).
Social Structure Theory

This class of theories concentrates on the socioeconomic status of a person and suggests that the poor perpetrate more offenses owing to their struggle to achieve social or monetary success. They are, particularly owing to their subcultural, racial, or ethnic status, restricted in several ways from lawfully attaining the great “American Dream\". Thus, they resort to deviant techniques to succeed. Structural theories provide convincing justifications for numerous offenses, with the exception of serial killing. Normally, serial killers lack financial or social motivation, and aren’t members of any specific ethnic/racial minority.…...

Serial Killers and the Media: How the Media Affects the Investigation and Public Perception of Serial Killers
Serial killers are one of the most widely covered criminal types in the media, even though the majority of criminals do not fit this profile. Often the psychology and methods of serial killers are sensationalized in the media. Serial killers have also figured prominently as popular characters in film and cinema. This raises some problematic questions about the coverage of serial killers, however. First, is too much attention given to them, versus other, less cinematic crimes? Secondly, does the media attention fuel the desire within some potential perpetrators to commit crimes?

Of course, the idea that coverage of violent crimes can lead to the perpetuation of violence is not a new one: As noted by Conti (2015) “….what the scientific literature has found—almost universally—is that there is a very small but statistically significant correlation between consumption…...

Analysis of Psycho Alfred Hitchcock directed a movie called Psycho in 1960. The movie is a horror laced with lots of psychological suspense. The movie storyline is developed from Psycho, a novel written by Robert Block and published in 1959. The novel, on its part, drew inspiration from Ed Gein murders. Psycho has been widely regarded as the first-ever slasher film. Although it got mixed reviews at the onset, it is now considered one of the greatest films produced by Hitchcock, and indeed one of the greatest films of all time.
Indeed, Antony Perkins, the Ed Gein (Norman Bates), was rated the second-best movie villain of all time by the American Film Institute (Gorshin, 2014). According to common parlance, Norman Bates suffers from Disassociate Identity Disorder ( DID), which was earlier known as multiple personality disorder. This view is interesting in all its weight and breadth. It is also a compelling psychological…...

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References

Bergstrom, A. (2012). Playing the viewer like an organ: Norman Bates as the protagonist of Alfred Hitchcock\\\\'s Psycho. Retrieved from  

Dawar, Z. (2018). Diagnosis of Norman Bates: Bates motel and Psycho. Retrieved from  https://reelrundown.com/tv/Diagnosis-of-Norman-Bates-Bates-Motel-and-Psycho 

Dollar, S. (2018). Psycho\\\\'s shower scene: How Hitchcock upped the terror—and fooled the censors. Retrieved from  https://www.history.com/news/psycho-shower-scene-hitchcock-tricks-fooled-censors 

Freud, S. (1919). The Uncanny. Retrieved from http://wwwrohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html.

Gorshin, M. (2014). Analysis of Psycho. Retrieved from  https://mawrgorshin.com/2014/11/28/analysis-of-psycho/ 

Jong, L. (2016). Representation of the Serial Killer in United States Popular Culture: Evolution of the Hunter-Hero Narrative. [MA Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen]. Retrieved from https://theses.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/handle/

Kavka, M. (2002). The Gothic on Screen. In: HOGLE, J. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge University Press.

Kennedy, M. (2020). Psycho\\\\'s sequels made Norman Bates the hero (& it worked). Retrieved from  https://screenrant.com/psycho-movie-sequels-norman-bates-hero-good-worked/https://3brothersfilm.com/ 

The perpetrator may even have a documented prior criminal history involving physical or sexual assaults of victims with some of the same characteristics as the current series of victims. More likely than not, the perpetrator is a product of a home in which children witnessed physical abuse of their mother and/or experienced physical abuse themselves.

The fact that all but one victim shows evidence that the force used in the murder far exceeded that necessary to achieve death by strangulation suggests that the perpetrator possesses a significant amount of anger, even rage, at someone represented by his victims. The fact that all but one of the victims suffered a broken neck suggests that the perpetrator is more likely under the age of 50 than older, and more likely either a large or physically robust individual or both. uggested Investigatory Focus:

Based on preliminary analysis of the behavioral evidence, it is suggested that…...

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Sources Consulted

Gerrig, R., Zimbardo, P. (2005) Psychology and Life 17th Edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Innes, B. (2007) Serial Killers: The Stories of History's Most Evil Murderers. London: Quercas.

Schmalleger, F. (2001) Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century. Hoboken, NJ: Prentice Hall

The Gambino crime family began to fall apart after the head of its founder died. It had split into two factions. This book centers on the more ruthless Brooklyn faction. Away from the scrutiny of the Manhattan police, for many years it could do what it wished. Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci spare no details in detailing the cruel jokes these men told to one another while they engaged in their killing spree, nor the callousness of their attitudes towards their victims. The reason that these criminals were so effective at getting rid of bodies was because they were willing to do the unthinkable -- maim the corpses, and bury them piecemeal to avoid discovery. Some of the maiming they engaged in was gruesome without even a practical point to the violence. One of Roy's cousins was called Dracula, because he specialized in training the blood from the bodies.
The…...

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Works Cited

Mustain, Gene & Jerry Capeci. Murder Machine. New York: Onyx, 1993.

That victim survived. A month later, Bundy broke into Lynda Ann Healy's room, beat her unconscious, dressed her, kidnapped her, and then took her to a location where he killed her and sexually assaulted her. Several other young women fell victim to Bundy while he was in Washington. Sometimes he faked an injury, specifically a broken arm or a broken leg, to get the women close enough to him to kidnap. When Bundy moved to Utah for law school in 1974, the disappearances in Washington stopped and a string of kidnappings, rapes and murders began in Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. While he used a variety of means to kill the women, most of them were bludgeoned to death.
In August 1975, Bundy was arrested when a police officer noticed several disturbing items during a routine traffic stop. They could not get sufficient evidence to charge him, but began building a…...

Environmental determinism relies on the importance of the physical environment around the individual in relation to that individual's behavior. Applying the ideas of environmental determinism to serial murder means that one would believe the physical environment of a murderer would be the most influential factor which determines them to kill. However; this more generalized theory does not fully account for why a murderer would commit mass or multiple murders. ather, like many other generalized theories attempting to explain seemingly senseless violence, it just poses a theory for why individuals would be driven to kill in the first place.
The trauma-control model, formulated by Hickey, gives a more in depth look at why individuals would turn from murderers to serial murderers. According to this model, individuals can harbor intense feelings of depression and rejection. As these feelings are amplified throughout life, that individual's tendency to engage in abnormal behaviors would increase.…...

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References

Egger, Steven. Serial Murder: An Illusive Phenomenon. Praeger Publishers. 1990.

Purcell, Catherine E., Arrigo, Bruce a. The Psychology of Lust Murder: Paraphernalia,

Sexual Killing, and Serial Homicide. 1st ed. Academic Press. 2006.

Dennis ader (BTK Killer)
Dennis ader who is commonly as the BTK killer was born in Kansas in 1945 and was the first born of four siblings born to William and Dorothea ader. He is renowned as an American serial killer who carried out the murder of 10 individuals in Sedgwick County between 1974 and 1991 around Wichita, Kansas. Dennis ader's nickname as BTK killer or BTK strangler is derived from the method he used in killing his victims. In essence, ader used bind, torture and kill to execute his serial murders, which resulted in his nickname as BTK killer. Dennis ader derived great joy and pleasure from killing to an extent that he wanted his nickname on the list of the worst serial killers across the globe. Similar to most depraved serial killers, the BTK killer or BTK strangler covered his demon behind an ordinary human's facade.

Dennis ader's Early Life

Dennis…...

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References

Anderson, P. (2014, October 7). Dennis Rader -- aka the 'BTK Killer' -- Wanted His Nickname

on the List of the World's Worst Serial Killers. Herald Sun. Retrieved December 5, 2014, from  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/dennis-rader-aka-the-btk-killer-wanted-his-nickname-on-the-list-of-the-worlds-worst-serial-killers/story-fni0ffnk-1227082442236?nk=3951385106e690efb9c641a717d17e8a 

Blanco, J.I. (n.d.). Dennis Lynn Rader. Retrieved December 5, 2014, from  http://murderpedia.org/male.R/r/rader-dennis.htm 

"Dennis Rader Biography." (n.d.). Biography. Retrieved December 5, 2014, from  http://www.biography.com/people/dennis-rader-241487#synopsis

Facts about the Cheshire Murders
The Cheshire murders were the Connecticut home invasion that occurred on July 23, 2007. Jennifer Hawke-Petit, wife of Dr. William Petit and her two daughters were brutally killed. Her daughter was raped and killed while Dr. William managed to escape, although, he was injured during the home invasion. (Daily Mail). Typically, the case was the most widely publicized case in the history of Connecticut because of the nature of the killings. The two daughters of the couple were Hayes aged 17 and Michael 11, were tied to the bed, suffocated and the house was set on fire. The Haye's confession proved that the two criminals had planned to rob the house in the dark. However, the police were able to arrest the penetrator named Steven J. Hayes and Joshua A. Komisarjevsky.

Sentence Defendants Receive

During the trial, the jury deliberated on the evidence against them. The deliberation was…...

Nonetheless, Bill never hurts other people simply because he thinks that it is irrational to hurt others. He thinks that any rational person would be like him and not hurt other people. Does Bill really understand that hurting others is morally wrong? (Nichols, 2002, p. 285)."
This presents some interesting directions of thought. However, it is time to go into the relationship between serial murderers and forensic psychology as it applies to the crime scene. Ted Bundy seemed very much aware that he was committing crimes against society, certainly crimes against his victims. Berkowitz, it was argued, was more psychotic, and for that reason perhaps less aware of his actions as crimes against society or individuals. Berkowitz was known to have started more than a thousand fires, and had a history of cruelty to animals; both manifestations of deeper emotional problems (Schlesinger, 2004, p. 328). This does not make any…...

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References

 http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107452894 

Horley, J. (2003). Personal Construct Perspectives on Forensic Psychology. Hove, England: Brunner-Routledge. Retrieved December 10, 2007, from Questia database:    http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5020572304 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107452916 

Inside the Mind of the Mind Hunter: An Interview with Legendary FBI Agent John Douglas Criminal Profiler John Douglas Will Share His Understanding of the Criminal Mind at September's APA Conference. (2007). Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 10(1), 8+. Retrieved December 10, 2007, from Questia database:    http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002475027 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5020572304 

Nichols, S. (2002). How Psychopaths Threaten Moral Rationalism: Is it Irrational to Be Amoral *?. The Monist, 85(2), 285+. Retrieved December 10, 2007, from Questia database:    http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99956702http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002475027 

summer of 1976 to the end of summer 1977, a reign of murderous terror gripped New York City - it was the year of the Son of Sam. David Berkowitz would eventually be arrested, tried, and convicted for the series of gun-attacks that left six people dead, seven wounded, and an entire city in fear. When caught, while there existed a potential for his being determined to be insane, Berkowitz pled guilty to the six murders and, under the sentencing rules of the time, was given twenty-five years to life. David Berkowitz comes up for parole next year.
The Son of Sam, while in jail, turned his crimes into profit by writing and authorizing books to be written about him.

Outrage against this led to the "Son of Sam Law" which now disallows criminals in jail from profiting from their crimes while behind bars.

Berkowitz has become an icon in the study…...

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Referenced

Chesler, A. & Robb. A. (1996). Criminal Quotes. New York: Visible Ink Press.

Glaeser, E.L., Sacerdote, B. & Scheinkman, J.A. (May, 1996). Crime and Social Interactions. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111. n2. p507(42).

Hollin, C.R. (Winter, 1994). Multiple Murder: A Review. British Journal of Criminology, 34. n1. p1(14).

2002). Michael J. Codd, New York City police commissioner Announces arrest of Son of Sam suspect. www.HistoryChannel.com.Online. Internet. Avail: www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_341.html. Info Acc: Nov 26, 2002. n pag.

Serial killers are a topic that has fascinated people, beginning before the term was even coined.  They have been romanticized in pop culture, but their crimes seem to be rooted in a personality disorder that keeps them from empathizing with others.  They kill in a variety of ways and, when left unchecked, the number of people that they can kill can get into the 100s. 

Some subtopics to consider when writing about serial killers for your essay topic are:

1. The role of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) in serial murders.
2. Psychopath or sociopath?  Where on the spectrum of personality....

Captivating Titles for a Global John Wayne Gacy Exposé

Chilling Explorations

Behind the Mask of a Clown: The Horrific Crimes of John Wayne Gacy
Unveiling the Dark Depths: John Wayne Gacy's Sinister Legacy
The Gacy Tapes: A Spine-Tingling Descent into Evil
Into the Abyss: The Twisted World of John Wayne Gacy
Playground of Horror: Exposing the True Nature of John Wayne Gacy

Intriguing Inquiries

The Gacy Enigma: Unraveling the Mind of a Serial Killer
Gacy's Victims: A Lost Tapestry of Lives
The Gacy Investigation: A Quest for Justice Amidst Tragedy
The Gacy Effect: How One Man Cast a Shadow Over Society
Lessons....