Serial killer, mass murderer, and psychopath are three words that should send people running in the other direction. Simply saying these words, people are immediately linking viscous acts with an ultimately evil person committing these crimes. In the 1970s there were seventeen new cases that involved multiple murders. The four decades previous to 1970 produced only one or two new cases per decade. Through the years the public has become desensitized to these once unthinkable acts.
The first four years of the 1980s produced twenty-five new cases, bringing America a new killer every 1.8 months. With startling statistics such as these it is not surprising that people have become intrigued, sometimes infatuated, with true crimes such as these. A psychologists purpose is to explain our mental processes and our behaviors. To explain how someone is able take another life without remorse. Psychologists do not all agree as to why or how people are able to commit these inhuman acts.
We will examine some of the different theories of the serial killers psyche. Is he responsible for his actions? Is there another entity within himself forcing him to commit these crimes? Public fascination with criminals who cannot control their dark impulses is at an all time high. Is it because we dont know why these people are committing these unthinkable acts? Is it possibly that we ourselves are not that much different from the people who are able to act in such a cruel manner.
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