Due to the way their brains are structured, some serial killers show early thrill-seeking behaviors — whether they're a psychopath or not. Take the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, for example. Suspected serial killer of homeless a 'thrill seeker,' Calif. Prosecutors say. By Crimesider Staff. 'He gets a thrill out of it,' Prosecutor Rackauckas said. 'This is a serious, vicious killer.
It's interesting to consider what makes a serial killer, and whether or not they show early warning signs as kids. In many cases, 'serial killers show traits of psychopathy, or what clinicians term Antisocial Personality, when young (before the age of 18),' Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic psychologist, tells Bustle. And there does seem to be a connection between sociopathy and serial killers. But that doesn't mean all serial killers have a mental health issue, or that all people with antisocial personalities will be serial killers.
There are, however, a few similarities between the characteristics of well-known serial killers. For instance, if someone grew up in a toxic home environment, it can all come together to push them over the edge as adults. 'Particularly, many serial killers come from abusive homes and have traumatic childhoods,' Dr. Ho says. 'And/or they are raised by parents or other adults who reward criminality, encourage it in their children, [and] don’t properly reprimand them when they do things to encroach on others and their property. It appears to be this biological plus environmental combination that leads to individuals who commit serial crimes.'
Here are some early habits — as well as a few personality traits — that many serial killers have in common when they're young, according to experts.
1. An Obsession With Starting Fires
Serial killers often show signs of psychopathy when they're young. And one habit that's common among young psychopaths is pyromania, or an obsession with setting things on fire.
Some signature signs include a lack of empathy, or a propensity to damage property, sometimes by setting fires, Dr. Ho says.
According to the Crime Museum in Tennessee, the 'Son of Sam' killer, David Berkowitz, was so infatuated with fires as a child that his friends nicknamed him 'Pyro.' After he was arrested, some sources say he admitted to setting up to 1,400 fires in New York.
2. Stealing & Fighting
Similarly, many psychopaths have intense behavioral problems as kids. As Dr. Ho says, 'Behavioral problems [such as] fighting, truancy, stealing, and other crimes with the progression from petty crimes to bigger ones,' can occur.
3. Thrill-Seeking Behaviors
Due to the way their brains are structured, some serial killers show early thrill-seeking behaviors — whether they're a psychopath or not.
'It appears that serial killers may have certain biological predispositions,' Dr. Ho says. 'For example, we find that many of them have very low brain reactivity, so that they are very difficult to stimulate, which may partially explain their thrill-seeking behavior in order just to feel a little something.'
But remember, just because someone is a thrill-seeker doesn't mean they'll grow up to be a serial killer.
4. Substance Abuse
As Dr. Ho says, psychopaths sometimes show early substance abuse, sometimes as a preteen. This goes along with other early behavioral problems often seen with antisocial personality disorder.
That doesn't, of course, mean that all kids who use substances go on to commit violent crimes. This habit is, however, more common among psychopaths when they're young.
Take the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, for example. According to the Crime Museum,he began drinking as a teenager and was an alcoholic by the time he graduated high school.
5. Excessive Lying & Trickery
Many kids try to get away with things by lying. So all on its own, this is definitely not a sign someone will grow up to be a serial killer. But when the lying is excessive, it can be a sign of psychopathy.
As Dr. Ho says, many psychopaths display 'excessive lying and delighting in tricking others (sometimes seemingly for no reason at all, just to see if they can get away with it).'
6. Lack Of Empathy Towards Animals
Many serial killers display a lack of remorse as kids when it comes to hurting animals. For example, Dahmer was known to dissect dead animals he found in the woods, and even dismembered his own dog. And he wasn't alone.
This is one habit that's common among many serial killers, and is due to a lack of empathy plus a desire for control. And, Dr. Cara Tucker, psychologist and forensics specialist, tells Bustle, it can spiral out of control from there. 'A thought like 'let me dismember an ant' starts small and may seem harmless, but for the development of a psychopath, depending on what raises their cortisol levels and adrenaline is different for each 'MO' of a killer,' she says.
It doesn't take much for a serial killer to go from killing bugs, to killing cats, to killing people. 'I have worked with a couple of serial killers and they are smart,' Dr. Tucker says. 'They can be charming and master manipulators and this is how they become good at what they do... And it's true they objectify their victims.'
7. Late Bed-Wetting
Many experts point to the MacDonald Triad as a set of guidelines often used by forensic practitioners to analyze the likelihood that someone may be a serial killer. While the jury is still out as to whether or not it's accurate, these threetraits of the Triad include fire setting, cruelty to animals, and late-in-life bed-wetting.
Just like lying, though, many kids wet the bed — and some do so well past the 'acceptable' age. 'However, this does not mean all kids who have late bedwetting turn into a psychopath,' Dr. Tucker says. 'Let's be very clear about that.'
Usually, late bed-wetting is due to a medical condition, or the result of emotional abuse. But there may be some connection between late bed-wetting and psychopathy. And, as mentioned above, the environment in which a child is raised can be a factor in how violent they become later in life.
There are so many factors that go into whether or not someone will become a serial killer[s]. Sociopathy may play a role, as well as environment. It's important not to label anyone, or assume the worst. But it is interesting to think about the various habits experts say some serial killers have had in common.
A serial killer is usually defined as an individual that has murdered three or more peopleover a time period of more than a month, with a process known as a 'cooling off period' between the different murders. Their main motivation for killing is typically based on psychological gratification. Some sources disregard the 'three or more' criteria, and define the term as 'a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone' or, including the vital characteristics, a minimum of at least two murders.Often, a sexual element is involved in the killings, but the FBI states that motives for serial murder include 'anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking.' The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common, for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group.Serial killers are not the same as mass murderers , nor are they spree killers, who commit murders in two or more locations with virtually no break in between.
The racial demographics regarding serial killers are often subject of debate. In the United States, the majority of reported and investigated serial killers are white males, from a lower-to-middle-class background, usually in their late twenties to early thirties.However, there are African American, Asian, and Hispanic (of any race) serial killers as well, and, according to the FBI, based on percentages of the U.S. population, whites are not more likely than other races to be serial killers. Criminal profiler Pat Brown says 'serial killers are usually reported as white because the media typically focuses on 'All-American' white and pretty female victims who were the targets of white male offenders, that crimes among minority offenders in urban communities, where crime rates are higher, are under-investigated, and that minority serial killers likely exist at the same ratios as white serial killers for the population.' She believes that the 'serial killers are always white' myth might have become 'truth' in some research fields due to the over-reporting of white serial killers in the media.
Other typical characteristics of serial killers include:
- Low-average intelligence. A sample of 174 IQs of serial killers had a median IQ of 93. Only serial killers who use bombs have IQs significantly above the population mean.
- Often, they have trouble staying employed and tend to work in menial jobs.The FBI, however, states, 'Serial murderers often seem normal; have families and/or a steady job.'Other sources state they often come from unstable families.
- As children, they are often abandoned by their fathers and raised by domineering mothers.
- Their families often have criminal, psychiatric and/or alcoholic histories.
- They were often abused — emotionally, physically and/or sexually — by a family member.
- They may have high rates of suicide attempts.
- From an early age, many are intensely interested in voyeurism, fetishism, and sadomasochistic pornography. Fetishism, partialism, and necrophilia, are paraphilias which involve a strong tendency to experience the object of erotic interest almost as if it were a physical representation of the symbolized body. Individuals engage in paraphilias which are organized along a continuum; participating in varying levels of fantasy perhaps by focusing on body parts (partialism), symbolic objects which serve as physical extensions of the body (fetishism), or the anatomical physicality of the human body; specifically regarding its inner parts and sexual organs (one example being necrophilia).
- A disproportionate number exhibit one, two, or all three of the MacDonald triad of predictors of psychopathy:
- Many are fascinated with fire setting
- They are involved in sadistic activity; especially in children who have not reached sexual maturity, this activity may take the form of torturing animals
- More than 60 percent wet their beds beyond the age of 12. However, recent authorities question or deny the statistical significance of this figure.
Motives
The motives of serial killers are generally placed into four categories: visionary, mission-oriented, hedonistic and power or control; however, the motives of any given killer may display considerable overlap among these categories
Visionary
Visionary serial killers suffer from psychotic breaks with reality, sometimes believing they are another person or are compelled to murder by entities such as the Devil or God. The two most common subgroups are 'demon mandated' and 'God mandated.'
Mission-oriented
Mission-oriented killers typically justify their acts as 'ridding the world' of a certain type of person perceived as undesirable, such as homosexuals, prostitutes, or people of different ethnicity or religion; however, they are generally not psychotic.Some see themselves as attempting to change society, often to cure a societal ill.
Hedonistic
This type of serial killer seeks thrills and derives pleasure from killing, seeing people as expendable means to this goal. Forensic psychologists have identified three subtypes of the hedonistic killer: 'lust', 'thrill' and 'comfort'.
Lust
Sex is the primary motive of lust killers, whether or not the victims are dead, and fantasy plays a large role in their killings. Their sexual gratification depends on the amount of torture and mutilation they perform on their victims. They usually use weapons that require close contact with the victims, such as knives or hands. As lust killers continue with their murders, the time between killings decreases or the required level of stimulation increases, sometimes both.
Thrill
The primary motive of a thrill killer is to induce pain or terror in their victims, which provides stimulation and excitement for the killer. They seek the adrenaline rush provided by hunting and killing victims. Thrill killers murder only for the kill; usually the attack is not prolonged, and there is no sexual aspect. Usually the victims are strangers, although the killer may have followed them for a period of time. Thrill killers can abstain from killing for long periods of time and become more successful at killing as they refine their murder methods. Many attempt to commit the perfect crime and believe they will not be caught.
Comfort (profit)
Thrill Seeking Behavior
Material gain and a comfortable lifestyle are the primary motives of comfort killers. Usually, the victims are family members and close acquaintances. After a murder, a comfort killer will usually wait for a period of time before killing again to allow any suspicions by family or authorities to subside. They often use poison, most notably arsenic to kill their victims. Female serial killers are often comfort killers, although not all comfort killers are female.
Power/control
List Of Thrill Killers
The main objective for this type of serial killer is to gain and exert power over their victim. Such killers are sometimes abused as children, leaving them with feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy as adults. Many power- or control-motivated killers sexually abusetheir victims, but they differ from hedonistic killers in that rape is not motivated by lust but as simply another form of dominating the victim.