Have you ever stopped to think about what makes serial killers who they are? Do you ever wonder why they behave the way they do? Are they born or made that way? All of these questions frequently go unanswered due to the fact that there’s no logical scientific reasoning behind them. Numerous people around the world have their theories on serial killers but not all of those theories are true. A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people usually over a period that spans more than one month. I predict that in order to go along with these terrifying events, a serial killer must have been made rather than have been born that way. I believe that serial killers are made and not born due to the fact that most serial killers usually have bad childhood experiences which leads them to do irrational things. In my opinion, if it weren’t for these unfortunate childhood events that serial killers face, they wouldn't turn out the way they do. Infancy is a significant stage for human development and if any little thing goes wrong, the humans behavior in the future will most likely be affected. “Adults who had been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused as children were three times more likely than were non abused adults to act violently as adults” (“Serial Killers Born”). This statement proves that past violence in childhood events can trigger something bigger within a human in the future. These events cause permanent damage in the killers brain so therefore, they commit these crimes because of what happened to them in the past.
For starters, there have been studies done to prove that serial killers were in fact made and not born, some of which were successful and provided detailed evidence. The first study stated, “Part of the reason may be childhood abuse, which can create killers by causing physical damage to the brain. The pre-frontal cortex is especially vulnerable.” (“Are murders born or made?”). This indicates that due to previous violence, the brain becomes damaged and not as pure as it once was before. This childhood trauma can cause spoilage to the brain causing killers to think irrationally as well as commit unreasonable crimes. In order to find out who committed the murder, the investigators usually investigate the suspects past to see if they find any connections to the killers childhood and the recent killings. Most of the time they’ll find a connection which usually indicates that the suspect committed the killings because of past experiences. An example to that statement would be Aileen Wuornos. She was sexually abused by her grandfather who raised her after her parents abandoned her. Aileen killed men whom she believed were sexually assaulting her. This makes a pattern because if her parents wouldn’t have abandoned her then that sexual abuse would have never occurred. She wouldn’t have had any reason to kill those men if it weren’t for the traumatic past that her grandfather brought upon her. “By the age of 11, Wuornos began engaging in sexual activities in school in exchange for cigarettes, drugs, and food. She had also engaged in sexual activities with her brother. Wuornos claimed that her alcoholic grandfather had sexually assaulted and beaten her when she was a child.” (“Aileen Wuornos Wikipedia'). Not only was she sexually abused, but she went through other things as well. The more things she went through as a child, the more likely it was for her to commit these killings without remorse because she believed that she needed to stand up for herself against those men. If it weren’t for these past sexual experiences, she would have never killed those men because she wouldn’t have had a reason to kill them. She would have looked at men differently and she wouldn’t have acted on such a violent rage.
In addition, these murderers are usually classified as psychopaths. Psychopaths lack empathy and guilt which is why they don't feel remorse after they commit crimes. Some serial killers often follow a set of rules that they create to make themselves feel more in power and organized. They can appear normal to other people because they hide behind a mask and don't show their true selves. Serial killers were made and not born because if they had gone through joyful childhood events then they wouldn't have a need to kill. An example of this would be James Fallon who was a neuroscientist. He saw his own brain scan and it looked exactly like how a psychopaths would look like. It had low activity in self-control and empathy just like a killers. “He believes that he turned into a “pro-social psychopath” — someone who behaves within social norms but isn’t empathic — because his parents were devoted to him.” (“Are Killers Born or Made? Both”). This indicates that if his parents would have abused or neglected him in his childhood, his behavior would have turned out to be different than how he acts now. He states that he’s an aggressive competitive scientist but if his parents wouldn’t have been so loving with him then he would have turned into a killer because that’s just how his brain was set up. Fallon was close to becoming a killer but his experiences while growing up prevented that from happening due to the way his family raised him.
Various people tend to believe that serial killers were born that way and not made because they think that the month in which you were born in affects your life experience in the future. Some believe that most murderers were born in November due to the fact that many serial killers were born on that month. “Surprisingly, yes. Whether it’s the alignment of the stars or mere coincidence, November seems to have the right conditions for fostering serial killers.” (Smith). Adding onto that statement, there are other people who disagree because they analyzed that being a serial killer has to do with the month in which someone was born in. There are plenty of non-serial killers who were born in November it’s just a coincidence because the time you were born in can’t impact your life. Two people can be born on the same day and time but yet be completely different from one another. Childhood experiences are what makes up your future, not the month in which you were born in. Another theory that people conclude is that psychopaths lack empathy and compassion in their brain. “Psychopaths displayed significantly less activity in key areas of the brain including the amygdala.” (Mcdermott). They identified psychopaths to display less activity but what they didn’t notice was that the scientist I mentioned earlier, James Fallon, also found himself to have the same brain activity as a psychopath but yet he isn’t a murderer. This was due to the fact that he had a stable childhood and nothing triggered this brain activity to intensify. Overall, these theories don’t give actual evidence on how a serial killer could have been born rather than made. Lack of empathy doesn’t trigger serial killers to commit these crimes, it’s past childhood events that trigger something in their brain that makes them believe that what they’re doing should be done.
Moreover, another serial killer who committed crimes due to past events was Albert DeSalvo. He killed 13 women and later on confessed to what he had done. “DeSalvo had a tough upbringing. He was brought up with four siblings and his father was a wife-beating alcoholic.” (“Albert DeSalvo Biography”). This article expresses on how DeSalvo’s childhood must have had an impact to the crimes that he committed because since his childhood wasn't well balanced, then his adulthood wasn’t either. The article also states how he became a delinquent and stayed in and out of prison due to violence which was all an uprising to what he then did in his adulthood. DeSalvo had a complex childhood and he experienced traumatic things at a very young age which is what triggered his violence and need to kill.
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Another killer that proves that serial killers were created and not born that way was Andre Crawford. Crawford would only murder women and this was no coincidence because some believed that the reason why he murdered 11 women was because he didn’t have a good childhood relationship with his mom and hated her, so therefore, he would take his past anger towards his mom out on other women by killing them. “Fabian, a clinical psychologist hired by the defense to try to persuade jurors to spare Crawford the death penalty, said the defendant was neglected from a young age. He said Crawford told him he was sexually and physically abused in a foster home.” (Wallberg). Therefore, his problem was not only his mother neglecting him, but it was also sexual and physical contributions that were conflicting with his childhood and not letting him have the stable childhood that he needed in order for these killings to not have occurred.
On the other hand, several people think that serial killers were born the way they are because of DNA and biological connections. “Theories that base their understanding of human behavior on ‘nature,’ focus on characteristics that we are born with, like our genetic make-up, stable personality traits, and physical predispositions.” (Salvatore). This points out that DNA is what determines whether or not someone becomes a serial killer. Others may say otherwise because there have been studies done in order to prove that we aren’t born with specific characteristics, we develop our personality and characteristics with the experiences that we go through growing up as well as with how our parents raise us. Every single human would have turned out with a different personality than with what they have now if they were to be raised in a different way. It all depends on human experiences and what people face daily in their lives.
Experiences are what shapes people into becoming who they are and if they have traumatic past experiences then it’s more likely that they’ll do irrational things such as kill people. Some may argue and say that low self esteem causes these killings to occur but that has yet to be proven because anyone can have low self esteem; having low self esteem doesn't necessarily mean you’re a killer. Many people try to perform scientific experiments to prove that killers were born that way but many of those experiences fail because there’s no proof that can indicate this to be true. There’s no real logic behind it which puts their theories on killers being born rather than being made below others. In reality, there will never be a specific fact as to why killers commit the crimes that they do because they all commit crimes for different reasons and many of them may not even have a reason at all for doing so besides the fact that they recall gruesome past memories.
In elaboration, there have been children with no signs of being a killer until a specific event happens and then all of the sudden they start to show those traits. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer had a normal childhood and showed no signs of a genetic abusive behavior until his family moved around multiple times and Dahmer was later found torturing animals which was just the start to what then turned into killings. “It appears that the breakdown of his parents' marriage and their acrimonious divorce a few years later may have been the catalyst for turning these thoughts into actions.” (“Jeffrey Dahmer Biography”). If Dahmer wouldn’t have faced those specific events then he wouldn’t have became a serial killer. Those events triggered something within him that made him the way he is. Just like him, there are many other killers out there who face the same thing. This is why childhood contributes to a big part of your life, because if your childhood doesn't work out smoothly, then chances are your future will have some bumpy roads or worse. Not everyone who has had a bad childhood turns into a serial killer because some get motivated to turn that bad childhood into something positive and look for a better future while others can’t handle what has happened to them so they then turn that angerinto violence. Another example on a serial killer who was made would be Ted Bundy. Bundy was fascinated by knives and peeking through other people’s windows at a young age but he didn't act upon it so no one suspected anything. What triggered his killings was when his girlfriend broke up with him. She had everything he wanted which was money and class. Right after their break up, he began his killings due to the fact that he was devastated and heart broken. This event caused a wire to go off in his brain and trigger something that hadn’t been triggered before in his childhood but it was ready to come out since he did show little signs of being a psychopath. He would kill young women who looked like his ex girlfriend because he was trying to take his anger out and he believed that the best way of doing so was to murder women who looked like his ex.
In conclusion, serial killers are disguised as everyday human beings which frighten and terrify the world. I infer that serial killers were made and not born because there’s no real reasoning as to how they could have been born that way. There has to be some type of experience that they went through which caused them to become the way they are. I believe that people can be made into murderers by having disturbing experiences which causes them to act up and not behave like how a normal human would. Although they do seem like normal people because they tend to charm others, their thoughts and brain react differently than others. Most serial killers have gone through sexual abuse, physical abuse, parental neglect, parental alcohol problems, and much more which indicates that being exposed to this at such a young age can cause a child to grow up into being a murderer. Serial killers won’t think that what they’re doing is wrong because in their mind, they don’t comprehend from what is right or wrong. Since they grew up facing bad childhood experiences, they don’t find the acts that they’re doing wrong due to the fact that they don’t know the difference since they’ve always been exposed to erroneous things rather than to ethical experiences. Serial killers can’t be born that way because if a killer were to be born the way they are, then doctors would be able to help them sort out their issues and prevent them from killing. Murderers were created so therefore, no one can help them stop their killings because they have no empathy due to what happened to them in the past. The only way to stop a killer from killing would be to make sure they have a stable childhood without any interruptions. Although people find the topic on serial killers interesting, they often undertook the fact on why killers actually commit crimes the way they do. Overall, I conclude that serial killers must have been made because of their past experiences. How a person acts and thinks is based on personal experience and if people don’t have a good past background then chances are, they’ll most likely turn into a serial killer- they just need a little push to get their brain triggered into not knowing from what is right or wrong.
Works Cited
- “Aileen Wuornos Wikipedia.” wikipedia.org. Web. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aileen_Wuornos
- “Albert DeSalvo Biography.” biography.com. 19 January 2016. Web. http://www.biography.com/people/albert-de-salvo-17169632
- “Are murders born or made?” bbc.com. 9 March 2015. Web. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31714853
- Ehrenfeld, Temma. “Are Killers Born Or Made? Both.” psychologytoday.com. 29 April 2015. Web. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/open-gently/201504/are-killers-born-or-made-both
- “Jeffrey Dahmer Biography.” biography.com. web. http://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-dahmer-9264755
- Mcdermott, Kerry. “Is this proof serial killers are born not made?” dailymail.co.uk. 24 April 2013. Web. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2314130/The-proof-evil-killers-born-
- Psychopaths-brains-lack-basic-wiring-triggers-empathy-compassion.html Salvatore, Tayler. “The creation of a serial killer: nature vs. nurture.” ugtimes.com. 20 April 2015. Web. http://ugtimes.com/2015/04/science/the-creation-of-a-serial-killer-nature-vs-nurture/
- Smith, Andrea. “Serial Killers Born in November.” swordandscale.com. 4 April 2016. Web. “http://swordandscale.com/serial-killers-born-in-november/
- Wallberg, Matthew. “Andre Crawford case: Serial killer developed a hatred of woman, jurors told.” articles.chicagotribune.com. 17 December 2009. Web. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-12-17/news/0912160902_1_serial-killer-jurors-hatred
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