Building on previous assignment

  

For this week’s assignment, begin by copying and pasting the introduction and problem statement from your previous assignment into a Word document. Using the review feature in Word, track change any APA errors you spot. Using the comment feature in Word (also under the review tab), comment on areas that you think you have successfully accomplished. Where you think a sentence or paragraph can be improved, use track changes to improve the writing and make your edits. Check your references and make the necessary amendments. Write a few sentences that outline what you think you learned from this exercise. If you think you did not learn anything, it is fine to state that, but support your response with a rationale and an example. This is a reflective task.

Length: 3-5 pages, not including title and reference pages

Please correct documented comments and put more emphasis on the problem statement. Specifically focusing on a 500, or almost that amount, of words for the problem statement. 

Due January 19, 2018 by 12pm EST

This paper will discuss serial killers and identify a research problem in regard to the topic. Generally, a serial killer can be defined as a person who has murdered three or more people within a time range of more than a month with some significant emotional cooling periods in between the events. Furthermore, this has to be in service of abnormal psychological gratification. However, over the years, various professionals such as mental health experts and law enforcement investigators have been trying to study serial killers in vain since they have never reached a consensus in regard to the issue in question. Therefore, the problem to be addressed by this study is that there is not enough information about the life of the serial killers before the killings started (Abe, 2017). Comment by EasyTiger: Try to form a concise problem statement that has it’s own paragraphs apart from the rest of the sections or in a section of its own. The problem statement should have a maximum of 500 words.

Understanding serial killers

Generally, from the studies, it is clear that the motivations for serial killers are quite complex and therefore, only an intensive psychological analysis on the individuals can help in providing some significant insight. This might include how and why the individuals in question became serial killers. Information from the analysis can then be used in preventing cases of serial killings in future. For example, since the various incidences of serial killing are known to have a number of similar features, these similarities can be used to identify a killer who is actively killing and, hence, prevent any other cases of homicide in the future. However, the problem is that many relevant authorities or rather bodies that are supposed to deal with cases of serial killing lack this vital information that might be instead used to curb any further homicidal incidents. However, in a bid to understand them, there are some areas that need to be discussed in detail that include: the motivations involved in serial killings, the psychological, and neurodevelopment disorders (Ioana, 2017).

Psychological Disorders

As much as the research into serial killers might still be in its infancy, current evidence indicates that psychological disorders play a significant role. This can be well understood by looking into the motivations of serial killers. Evidence shows that some of the motivations involved in serial killing include the need for perfection or power or the fear of rejection. As a result, a majority is usually much afraid of rejection and is usually also very insecure. They also avoid close or painful relationships. This is the reasons many of them are usually reported to having sex with their victims or even their corpses to reduce the chances of being rejected. Furthermore, they tend to prolong the suffering of their victims, especially when killing with the main aim of creating a sense of power over the victims. In addition, they also hold on a belief that the only power that matters is that of inflicting pain on others and therefore, it is only through killing that they can get such empowerment. In short, the main themes of serial killers are power and rejection. However, there are cases where the theme of a perfection of killing plays some role. This is the reason some serial killers tend to kill some groups of people in the society such as women and prostitutes who are believed to be unclean. By doing so, they believe that they are making the world a better part (Ioana, 2013). Comment by EasyTiger: You need a citation for any and all assertions of fact. However, you don’t have to cite every single sentence if the same source is being used as evidence for 2-3 sentences in a row. Comment by EasyTiger: Try to engage in scholarly writing and a professional tone. If you don’t know how, let me know. We can discuss.

There are also some disorders such as antisocial disorder that contribute to serial killing. This disorder is normally characterized by one’s inability to distinguish between what is right or wrong. Therefore, they tend to perceive situations and relations with others in a different way and are therefore fond of manipulating people and later on acting with indifference. Therefore, people in the society tend to remove them from the social norm. Other groups that suffer from the same fate include those with Autism Spectrum disorders, those who have experienced psychosocial stressor in the past, and those who have experienced head injuries. As a result of the place the society tends to put them in, they end up in some mental state that might influence them to commit certain heinous crimes such as serial killing. However, despite all this information, some researchers still argue that these disorders do not implicate in any way that one is a serial killer (Miller, 2014).

Neurodevelopmental Disorder

Neurodevelopmental problems include things such as ASD and head injury which when interplayed with other psychological factors might lead to very serious outcomes. However, evidence indicates that neurodevelopmental disorders alone are not to be blamed for serial killing (Allely, Minnis, Thompson, Wilson & Gillberg, 2014). This is because a significant number of the serial killers with the above mentioned neurodevelopmental disorders were found to have other significant stressors in their childhood. These environmental stressors might include things such as sexual abuse, a death of a close person, or even parental divorce. As a result, what is mainly found to result in an individual developing into a serial killer is majorly the complex interplay between both environmental and neurodevelopmental factors.

A good example of where the complex interplays between neurodevelopmental and psychological factors lead to adverse outcomes is in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer who was a notorious killer. He killed seven men and boys and on many occasions, he displayed symptoms of Asperger Syndrome. This is because, during his childhood, he was unattached and rarely made bonds with anyone. He also lacked the reciprocal social interaction the reason he was unable to make close friends with his peers. He was also always shy, unhappy as well as rigid. This is not to mention that he had some issues with his nonverbal communication, in that his unusual gaze and facial expression were very much inconsistent with the nonverbal social deficits of people with ASD. This is not to mention that his father was absent and inattentive throughout his childhood while his mother suffered from depression. At the age of four, he underwent a major brain surgery to repair a double hernia. Therefore, this clearly suggests that as much as autism plays some role in the serial murder, the media should void falsely overemphasizing its link to serial killing (Coyle, Ross, Barnard, Peacock, Linch & Prahlow, 2015).

Lack of enough information

Different studies indicate that there is a major problem when it comes to the provision of information about serial killers and hence making it hard for the law enforcement departments to look for effective ways to curb serial murders. The information provided about serial murderers is very shallow and at times misinforming and hence making it hard for the relevant authorities to come up with effective measures to curb the menace. For example, by clearly understanding the various features or characteristics that serial killers have in common, the law enforcement investigators can easily identify those serial killers who are actively killing and stop them before much damage is done (Dolan, 2018).

There is also evidence that there is lack of enough information about the serial killers. For example, a recent study on the availability of rigorous research on mass and serial killers proved that there are only twenty-two peer-reviewed articles related to the subject and they are all single case reports. Furthermore, there are only a hundred and eighteen web articles, one public report, four book chapters, and 20 books providing an analysis in relation to this topic. This is a clear show that there is not enough information about serial killers (Dolan, 2018).

Who is influenced by the problem?

The society is more likely to suffer from the problem of lack of information. This is because, with the lack of proper analysis into the menace of serial killers, fear will continue gripping the members of the society not knowing who might be the next victim. However, with proper information, the society can easily help in identifying members of the society who are likely to turn into serial killers if their problem is not addressed. As a result, they can help them overcome the issue by providing them with the love, and take them to hospitals where need be. They can also help the relevant the authorities in identifying active serial killers and hence reducing cases of homicide.

What needs to be known that is currently unknown is that neurodevelopmental disorders alone do not make serial killers. Otherwise, there are other factors such as environmental and other psychological factors that interact with these disorders whose end result is adverse results. Therefore, not all people who suffer from neurodevelopmental disorders are serial killers.

If this problem fails to be addressed, the cases of homicide as a result of serial killers will continue being an issue in the society and the dream of curbing it will be more of farfetched. Furthermore, the society might continue suspecting and segregating the wrong people such as ASD victims who have nothing to do with serial killing.

Conclusion

From the study, it is clear that the lack of enough information about serial killers before they started killing is a major problem that might hinder the efforts to curbing serial killers. Therefore, various research agencies together with the government should start putting more efforts and resources into this form of information. By obtaining the information it can possibly give a more detailed and accurate picture of the killer as well as potential future killers.

References

Abe, K. (2017). What is a serial killer? What is a mass murderer? How do they

differ?. European Journal of Academic Essays, 4(4), 187-198.

Allely, C. S., Minnis, H., Thompson, L., Wilson, P., & Gillberg, C. (2014).

Neurodevelopmental and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers. Aggression And Violent Behavior, 19288-301. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2014.04.004

Coyle, J., Ross, K. F., Barnard, J. J., Peacock, E., Linch, C. A., & Prahlow, J. A. (2015).

The eyeball killer: serial killings with postmortem globe enucleation. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 60(3), 642-647. doi:10.1111/1556-4029.12714

Dolan, E. W. (2018). Serial killers and mass murderers:Study examines the role of

neurodevelopmental disorders. Retrieved from http://www.psypost.org/2014/11/serial-killers-mass-murderers-study-examines-role-neurodevelopmental-disorders-29528

Ioana, I. M. (2013). No One is Born a Serial Killer!. Procedia – Social And Behavioral

Sciences, 81(World Congress on Administrative and Political Sciences), 324-328. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.436

Miller, L. (2014). Serial killers: II. Development, dynamics, and forensics. Aggression

And Violent Behavior, 1912-22. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2013.11.003