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Post by Joanna on Feb 5, 2018 20:10:53 GMT -5
Common Traits of Serial KillersThe first recorded serial killers date back to the Roman Empire when a group of matrons were said to have poisoned men using a deadly ring. Today, thanks to modern technology, psychologists and criminologists have defined and identified what makes a person commit such cold-blooded murders again and again. Working with Dr. Elizabeth Yardley, Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, Real Crime magazine has highlighted five key characteristics of serial killers ....
Power Junkie. “Serial killers typically have a real affinity with power, even when they’ve been caught and know the game is up,” say the experts. “Intent on exerting some kind of control over the people around them, they often hold back bits of crucial information in a bid to maintain power over the situation, gain attention and assert a warped sense of authority.” Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer, who was convicted of killing five children with accomplice Myra Hindley between 1963 and 1965, withheld the location of victim Keith Bennett’s body, which many believe was to assert power and control.
Manipulator. “Apparent vulnerability and the need to please have been used effectively time and time again by serial killers as a way of hiding a sinister personality,” the experts allege. “Some of the world’s best known serial killers have a frightening ability to manipulate those around them, pressing the right buttons in order to present themselves in a false light. Serial killers are also often able to manipulate a situation in order to pass the blame for their actions, using hot-button issues of the day or medical psychological research to try to explain their actions.” Dr. Harold Shipman, for example, used his position as a medical expert to manipulate his patients into treatments that ultimately killed them, while posing as a caring member of society.
Egotistical Braggart. Elsewhere, Real Crime and Dr Yardley say: “Egoistical serial killers often can’t help but brag about the atrocities they’ve committed, whether it’s aimed at their accomplices, the next victim, law enforcement, or just themselves. Take Brady and Hindley for example. They revisited the burial sites on Saddleworth Moor often, taking ghoulish trophy shots of the desolate landscape as a memento of their horrendous crimes. Of course, these helped incriminate the pair and lead the police to the three bodies eventually found on the moor.” Convicted British serial killer Trevor Hardy, dubbed Beast of Manchester for his murders of teenage girls in the 1970s, bragged about one murder to his younger brother which led to his arrest.
Superficial Charmer. “Serial killers tend to have a very good grasp of other people’s emotions and are quick to pick up on any vulnerability or weakness in order to convince them into doing things they normally wouldn’t,” adds Yardley. “They’ll get others on side and take charge of a situation with a mix of compliments and common sense.” One example of such a “superficial charmer” is Ted Bundy (above). Shortly before his execution in 1989, he confessed to 30 murders in seven states between 1974 and 1978, although it is believed he killed many more. He raped and kidnaped women after winning their trust, either by feigning disability using fake slings or casts, or pretending to be a policeman or person of authority. He was often described as charming, charismatic and handsome.
An Average Joe. Meanwhile, Real Crime continues: “Possibly the scariest trait of all: many serial killers look like a pillar of the community on first sight. However it’s a way of gaining trust, only to abuse it in the most appalling ways. This tactic has enabled many to get away with a lot of deviant stuff behind closed doors.” Fred and Rose West, for example, appeared to be part of an everyday family. Between 1967 and 1987, the pair tortured and raped young women and girls, killing at least 12, including family members, and burying some in their garden. They lived in a residential street in Gloucester, in the UK. In the US, John Wayne Gacy, nicknamed “Killer Clown,” was politically active in his Chicago suburb and worked hard for the local community, even performing at parties and events as a “Pogo” the clown. In private, he raped and murdered teenage boys, burying their remains beneath his house.
Could Childhood Abuse Be a Factor? Previous studies have found a link between serial killers and childhood abuse, including physical, mental and sexual. The killers typically come from unstable families, showed signs of voyeurism and sadomasochism from an early age and more than 90 percent are male. Interviews with friends of Charles Manson, who ordered the killing of seven people over the course of two nights in August 1969, said he would encourage violence against other children, even at school. He was also reportedly abused and neglected as child. However, Ted Bundy, the Milwaukee Cannibal Jeff Dahmer and Dennis Rader – the Bind, Torture, Kill or BTK Killer – grew up in healthy households with supportive family members.
And contrary to popular belief, serial killers span all racial groups. Charles Ng, a native of Hong Kong, killed numerous victims in northern California, with Leonard Lake. Derrick Todd Lee, an African-American, killed several women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Coral Eugene Watts, another African-American, killed five victims in Michigan, fled the state to avoid detection, and murdered 12 more women in Texas before he was arrested. And there are female killers, too, Aileen Wuornos was a female serial killer who murdered seven men in Florida in 1989 and 90.
Could Brain Scans Reveal a Serial Killer? Other researchers theorize that damage to the frontal lobe, the hypothalamus and the limbic system can cause extreme aggression, loss of control and poor judgment. Henry Lee Lucas, a serial killer convicted of 11 murders, was found to have extreme brain damage in these regions. The brain study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, also noted a drop in connectivity between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). These regions process negative stimuli into negative emotions and responses. When connectivity is low, people have lower levels of empathy and aren’t easily shamed by their actions.
Psychopathy vs. Psychosis. Some serial killers have been diagnosed by psychologists as psychopaths, suffering from an antisocial personality disorder (APD). This makes them unlikely to conform to social norms, irritable and aggressive and lack remorse for their actions. Brain scans of rapist and serial killer Brian Dugan showed a lack of activity in the regions associated with empathy and remorse, and Bundy once described himself as ‘the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet.”
Others have been diagnosed as psychotic. According to the FBI, “Psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs.” By comparison, psychosis is when a person loses sense of reality. The conditions share certain traits, but typically psychopaths are manipulative and know right from wrong, while psychotics suffer delusions. Bodysnatcher Ed Gein believed he needed the parts of the woman he killed in order to become a woman himself. And Nicholas Salvador, 25, beheaded a woman he believed was “Hitler back from the dead.” He was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time. Although not a serial killer, this highlights the differences in the type killers.
However, all these findings fail to reveal why other people with similar brain abnormalities or personality traits aren’t serial killers. Furthermore, the cause of this brain damage is also not known or confirmed. As the FBI concludes: “The relationship between psychopathy and serial killers is particularly interesting. All psychopaths do not become serial murderers. Rather, serial murderers may possess some or many of the traits consistent with psychopathy. Psychopaths who commit serial murder do not value human life and are extremely callous in their interactions with their victims. This is particularly evident in sexually-motivated serial killers who repeatedly target, stalk, assault and kill without a sense of remorse. However, psychopathy alone does not explain the motivations of a serial killer.” Source: Victoria Woollaston, The Daily Mail, July 21, 2015.
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Post by pat on Feb 6, 2018 1:41:29 GMT -5
When there's a horrible murder, people always speculate about who's doing it and it never turns out to be the one people suspect. Charlie Brandt here in Florida probably killed dozens of women, yet nobody, but his wife, ever suspected him of anything. He seemed so normal that I don't think that he was ever even questioned by the police. If you don't know about Charlie Brandt, here's a link:
whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/3953/key-west-ripper
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2018 21:19:42 GMT -5
At little bit retro don't you think? Especially the part about psychopathology as a disorder. I read this article in 2001 about psychopaths in the newspaper Saturday magazine and knew it to be true from experience. It explained a lot. Psychopaths Among Us www.hare.org/links/saturday.html"A lot of white-collar criminals are psychopaths," says Bob Hare. "But they flourish because the characteristics that define the disorder are actually valued. When they get caught, what happens? A slap on the wrist, a six-month ban from trading, and don't give us the $100 million back. I've always looked at white-collar crime as being as bad or worse than some of the physically violent crimes that are committed." This is the only movement I've noticed since Hazelwood and Ressler and Douglas and the 70s except on online forums and of course at the movies and alternative TV.
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Post by steve on Feb 6, 2018 21:30:00 GMT -5
At little bit retro don't you think? Especially the part about psychopathology as a disorder. I wouldn't call something from 2015 "retro".
The definition of "psychopathy" is a mental illness or disorder.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2018 22:29:30 GMT -5
The ideas are not new. I'm pretty sure I saw Roy Hazelwood on Phil Donahue in the 70s. That was the very beginning with the guy who worked with Robert Ressler who invented the term. It was all new then.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2018 22:36:45 GMT -5
At little bit retro don't you think? Especially the part about psychopathology as a disorder. I wouldn't call something from 2015 "retro".
The definition of "psychopathy" is a mental illness or disorder.
Disorder is a standard short dictionary definition for Psychopathy. That would be like a "traditional" definition. Not exactly up to date, fully accurate or complete. www.healthyplace.com/personality-disorders/psychopath/psychopathy-definition-symptoms-signs-and-causes/This is a page on Personality Disorders and it doesn't use that as a definition.
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Post by steve on Feb 7, 2018 0:12:26 GMT -5
Yeah, but a little further down in that link you provided, it says:
Is Psychopathy a Mental Illness?
Psychopathy is also sometimes known as psychopathic personality disorder and is considered a mental illness. As with mental illness in general, there is no known cure for psychopathy and treatment of adult psychopaths has been shown ineffective. However, treatment of children with psychopathic traits has shown some promise.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2018 1:36:41 GMT -5
"Sometimes known as" and "considered" are not strong endorsements.
They're just covering all the angles of perception.
The Daily Mail article says "some" SKs are psychopaths - not just psycho but "suffering from antisocial personality disorder" too.
I don't really like the term Anti-social being used as a Personality Disorder. Anti-social is commonly used "incorrectly" to mean asocial or unsocial. So intelligent "loners" like Tesla might be lumped in.
But okay the article is more up to date than I thought. Not retrograde.
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Post by steve on Feb 7, 2018 19:48:50 GMT -5
"Sometimes known as" and "considered" are not strong endorsements.
They're just covering all the angles of perception. What difference does it make? Even the shrinks can't agree. What the article said was: "Some serial killers have been diagnosed by psychologists as psychopaths, suffering from an antisocial personality disorder (APD)." I don't see that as meaning that APD is always a bad thing. Some people just don't like being around other people. But the serial killers that I've read about, like Ted Bundy, don't seem to have been antisocial.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2018 20:36:19 GMT -5
The public uses the term Anti-Social for Asocial or Unsocial. The psychiatric community uses it for Sociopathic behavior and Britain and Australia have even criminalized the term and can bring you in for being Anti-Social.
But shrinks use the term APD for both Psychopathic behavior and Sociopathy but Psychopathy has a broader definition and is less negatively associated with criminality.
I agree with your definitions. That is common usage. I accept all public definitions and their usage rather than university definitions.
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Post by steve on Feb 8, 2018 17:50:13 GMT -5
The public uses the term Anti-Social for Asocial or Unsocial. The psychiatric community uses it for Sociopathic behavior and Britain and Australia have even criminalized the term and can bring you in for being Anti-Social. So how do the police in Britain and Australia decide if a person is anti-social?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2018 18:57:36 GMT -5
In Britain, it's behavior like intimidation, drunkenness, and violence by individuals and families. More offences including dog-fouling, litter, graffiti, and night-time noise. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-social_behaviour_orderBritain and Australia have basically the same definitions. Treating it as a bylaw offence or civil infraction instead of criminal is okay. I just don't agree with their terminology. It should be something like Nuisance. Not Anti-Social. It's like giving more of a bad rap to the guy in the basement. There is a time to change the verbiage. This would be one. Anti-social is normal in my book. I'm all for calling all Psychopaths as mentally ill. Especially the ones I know. Ha ha.
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Post by Sam on Feb 8, 2018 21:32:11 GMT -5
In Britain, it's behavior like intimidation, drunkenness, and violence by individuals and families. More offences including dog-fouling, litter, graffiti, and night-time noise. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-social_behaviour_orderBritain and Australia have basically the same definitions. Treating it as a bylaw offence or civil infraction instead of criminal is okay. I just don't agree with their terminology. It should be something like Nuisance. Not Anti-Social. It's like giving more of a bad rap to the guy in the basement. There is a time to change the verbiage. This would be one. Anti-social is normal in my book. I'm all for calling all Psychopaths as mentally ill. Especially the ones I know. Ha ha. Things like disregard for community safety, graffiti, misuse of public space, etc. are offenses themselves, so why add antisocial behavior to it? When I read about some of the laws and rules in other countries, it makes me glad that I'm American.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2018 20:38:09 GMT -5
Yeah, Sam. You don't mind the odd Boo Radley. Some people are just born buzz-kills.
The professional psychology community tends to backtrack on definitions. I think people started to realize that some of their fellow pillars were natural psychopaths so they had to change Psychopathy from a disorder into a trait. Then they threw anti-social in there and it went from a trait to a disorder.
Do you think you can understand heinous criminals like serial killers without being clinical? Maybe even admire them?
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Post by Sam on Feb 10, 2018 21:59:42 GMT -5
Yeah, Sam. You don't mind the odd Boo Radley. Some people are just born buzz-kills. The professional psychology community tends to backtrack on definitions. I think people started to realize that some of their fellow pillars were natural psychopaths so they had to change Psychopathy from a disorder into a trait. Then they threw anti-social in there and it went from a trait to a disorder. Do you think you can understand heinous criminals like serial killers without being clinical? Maybe even admire them? I wouldn't be a good profiler because I would have a hard time separating the man from their crimes.
I don't admire criminals like serial killers, but I can see where some folks might admire them and I think that we have some folks in this group that kind of admire Ted Bundy, not the murders, but other things about him, like how he went so long without getting caught and how he escaped twice from jail. I admit that even I admire John Dillinger because of his daring escapes, but he wasn't really a bad guy, just a bank robber. Have you read the story about Dillinger "July 22, 1934: The Biograph Shooting?" whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/2078/update-july-1934-biograph-shooting
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