research paper

Researching Serial Murderers: With a Closer Look into Gender Differences of Motivated Killers

Name Withheld SUNY Oswego SOC 280

Researching Serial Murderers

Researching Serial Murderers: With a Closer Look into Gender Differences of Motivated Killers

Murder is the intentional killing of a person by another person. This act is considered unlawful. Serial murder is the killing of 3 or more people over more than a month by the same person. (Kendall, 2010:178) Serial killers have a cooling off period in between each murder. This cooling off period can last anywhere from two days to weeks, months or possibly even years. A serial murderer can use this time to plan or just cool off between each murder. A serial killing is often confused with a mass killing, but it is clearly different from a mass murder. A mass murder is, according to Kendall (2010:178), the killing of four or more people at one time and in one place. A mass murder does not have a cooling off period or a pattern. A mass murderer will use a basic way to kill a number of people quickly. They might just use a bomb, gun, fire, or another way that will kill many at once. The number of serial murderers and serial murders is unknown. There may be serial murderers out there right now, who have not been caught, found or even suspected. As well as, the number of bodies that were killed and not found, or the amount of bodies that were not claimed to be killed by a serial murderer. Some serial killers are found to be intelligent. For example, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Wayne Williams, were all found to have an IQ in the range of 118-124. (Pokel, 2000:16) While these scores are not considered to be exceptional, they are certainly above average. Experts have found no serial killing gene in a person. So, they are not born to be a killer. Experts still haven’t found the main reason of why a person commit serial murders. There are some theories and thoughts of some things that some serial killers have in common with each other.

“Typologies are attempts to describe the patterns by which serial killers go about

Researching Serial Murderers

their business.” (Hinch, 1998:11) There are four basic types of serial murderers: visionaries, missionaries, hedonists, and power/control seekers. (Kendall, 2010:178) Visionaries are people who kill because they are told to by a voice or by a vision they have. They feel the need to kill because they are “told” to. Missionaries are people who kill to rid society or the world of the person who is undesirable. Hedonists are people who gain a personal or sexual gratification from the violent act or act they perform. A power/control seeker is a person who receives gratification from taking possession of the victim. (Kendall, 2010:178) Not every serial killer fits each type perfectly. These types are just general statements to get a simple, basic understanding of the way a serial killer operates. The types can be stereotypical, and a serial killer could possibly fall into a mix of two or more types. There is no such thing as a typical serial murderer because each case is different. According to Hinch (1998:11), “serial killing is psychogenic, the locus of motives is internal, and the reward for killing is psychological.”

In this paper, I would like to go beyond psychogenic, internal, and psychological explanations for serial killing. By analyzing gender differences on serial killing, I would like to escalate this seemingly psychological issue to something sociological.

What Are Some Kinds of Motives?

Each serial murderer has a motive for why they kill. Some motives might simply be for pleasure, money, hatred, emotional reasons, and the basic need or want to kill, or to feel powerful. A part of the reason why a serial killer cannot fully be defined or labeled is because of the different amount of motives there are. Some motives can be unknown or missed/left out or even misunderstood. When a serial killer is apprehended and

Researching Serial Murderers

questioned, there is a possibility that they will lie about their motive. They might not want people knowing the real reason for why they killed or they want to throw investigators off track by lying. Motives may change over time for each serial killer. There is a possibility that serial killers have a different motive for different victims. (Hinch, 1998:11) This is another reason why the term serial killer cannot be defined using one specific motive. Serial killers may use each killing as a way to relieve stress, anger or frustrations. There was a higher percentage according to Hinch (1998:3) that the most frequent motive for male serialists (46%) was “sex sometimes.” Bhimani (2003:288) mentioned that male serial killers almost always include a sexual assault. This may not be something peculiar as many crimes committed by men often include a sexual assault. The highest percentage (47%) for women was a “money sometimes” motive. This does not describe all serial killers but it helps in understanding some of the motives of serial murderers.

The Differences between Male and Female Serial Murderers

Gender plays an interesting role when researching serial murderers. Not every serial killer have the exact same similarities and they do not all have just differences. They have both. Male and female serial killers have been researched to try to gain an understanding on the similarities and differences to help point in a direction towards the reason for the serial killings. According to Hinch, (1998:3) “gender roles are important in terms of understanding how and why serialists kill.” There are more differences than similarities in nine areas. These areas include victim damage, victim torture, weapon/method, stalking versus luring behavior, crime scene organization, reasons for

Researching Serial Murderers

the murders, substance abuse history, psychiatric diagnosis and household composition. There are similarities in five areas. These areas are broken homes, childhood abuse, race, educational level and occupation. Each serial killer has a spot in each of these 14 areas. But not everyone shares the same part in each area. For example, one serial killer might have had a substance abuse and another serial killer may not have had one. This shows a difference between the two serial killers. (Heide and Keeney, 1994:383) “Serial murder was an almost exclusively male behavior.” (Heide 1994:383) There are more known male serial killer than female serial killers, which is why finding more similarities between both genders has more of a grey area because of the lack in number of female serial killers that can be researched. Male serial killers according to Kendall (2010:178) states that, “they are more likely to be males, problem drinkers, and collectors of fire arms and other weapons, which they hide.” Female murderers more commonly kill family members than males do. 23% of cases of spouse-killing there was a women perpetrator and they had suffered long periods of abuse by their partner. (Dittmann, 2006:168) By being in an abusive relationship, the woman might feel inferior, weak, and emotionally upset causing her to kill. Women tended to kill at home with the use of guns or knives and many times poison. Men tended to kill outside of their home and kill acquaintances or unknown victims. Males create more damage to the victim and engage in torture. They might be more prone to using blunt objects or their hands when killing, creating a hands on approach. They followed some stalking tendencies and were more than likely to be of the white race. (Heide 1994:385) Some women serial killers had a motive of monetary gain. This in turn could be more of a reason as to why they chose to kill their spouse. Growing up in a broken home could possibly be a root of why a serial killer becomes a

Researching Serial Murderers

serial killer. This is not a fact but it can be viewed as a theory. Many serial killers have been known to have grown up in a broken home.

Not all serial killers have the same exact tendencies. They also do not have the same motives as one another. These two things are what can aid in understanding serial killers to be more difficult. There are types to classify serial killers but these types can blend together and even conflict with each type. Serial killers may fall into one general category, but have some aspects of another type or category. A serial killer can also just simply be cut and dry and have one type and one motivation. Other serials murderers might have a few motivations. This is what makes drawing the line between each serial killer hard because there are many different aspects of serial killers. Gender can be used to separate the serial killers into groups in hopes of trying to further understand serial murderers. Not all serial killers are defined as crazy or insane. “A serial killer can be legally insane yet not be ‘insane’ from a psychological standpoint.” (Pokel, 2000:44)

Researching Serial Murderers

References

Bhimani, Zhara., Cherry, Stacey., Ferguson, Christopher J., Lorenz, Marta., White, Diana E. 2003. “Defining and Classifying Serial Murder in the Context of Perpetrator

Motivation.” Journal of Criminal Justice 31:287-292.

Dittmann, Volker., Frei, Andreas., Grat, Marc., Vollm, Brigit. 2006. “Female Serial Killing: Review and Case Report.” Criminal Behavior and Mental Health 16:167-176.

Heide Kathleen M., and Keeney, Belea T. 1994. “Gender Differences in Serial Murderers: A Preliminary Analysis.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 9(3):383-398.

Hinch, Ronald. 1998. Researching Serial Murder: Methodological and Definitional Problems.” Electric Journal of Sociology 3(2):1-16. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on July 1, 2013.

Kendall, Diana. 2010. “Crime and Criminal Justice.” Pp. 174-201 in Social Problems in a Diverse Society. Vol. 5. Boston, NY: Pearson.

Pokel, Cindy A. 2000. “A Critical Analysis of Research Related to the Criminal Mind of Serial Killers.” Retrieved from www.Scribd.com