Serial Killers

Today, my interest is turned towards serial killers and the whys of what they did.

Many psychologists and psychiatrists will blame childhood trauma, abuse, neglect and usually sexual abuse. While I agree that a child's development can be arrested or altered, I also believe that not ALL killers had poor lives as children, nor can we blame the parents. Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, themselves, say not to blame their parents, who were fairly normal. Bundy claims to have had it the closest to Leave it to Beaver as is possible. Both killers take FULL responsibility for their actions. Bundy even warns not to blame pornography for his actions, it simply molded the WAY he went about acting upon his urges. He hid and tried to control his proclivities, and felt horror and remorse after committing the crimes, when the urge was sated. This points to obsessive and compulsive behavior. He later claims that porn DID lead him to act upon feelings he otherwise might not have. He is trying to explain to HIMSELF his own behaviors, which even HE does not understand. We all seek to understand ourselves.

Dahmer takes FULL responsibility for his actions and claims to have had a pretty average childhood. He claims that his lack of religion led to his behavior. But Bundy had a Christian upbringing and still hurt people. Dahmer claims knowledge now of Jesus and God make him realize how wrong what he did was.


Manson didn't get convicted of actually killing anyone. He was a charismatic leader of some weak personalities whom he convinced to kill for him. He also killed in an attempt to spark off a race war due to his own superiority complex. After being caught, he failed to express remorse, enforcing the idea of a narcissistic personality disorder.


Ultimately, it's hard to say if any ONE thing MAKES a serial killer. Violence is a part of nature. We hold ourselves ABOVE the natural world due to our intellectual ability to analyze, consider the future and manipulate the environment. There has been violence against fellow man going back though ALL of history, so to blame porn and violent media or video games is ridiculous. Desensitization CAN occur, especially in growing children and even adults. However, given the VARIED experiences and behaviors of the many serial killers, these are not normal people in any way. Either in experience or mental defect of some sort, these people are the exception, not the norm. Severe violence and violent killers have existed in ALL of history, from Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler, to Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson. Blaming porn, violent movies, music, video games or a lack of religion is just plain crazy. Science does not back this idea, because violence occurs even when these factors are absent. I do NOT doubt that these things can cause an already disturbed individual to focus their obsession or compulsion towards one of these influences. But just because a crazy person's messed up brain believes that the flesh of their victim should be well oiled with butter before being cooked and eaten, doesn't mean we should ban butter. Butter is not the cause, simply the focus of some part of their messed up mind.