The Psychology Behind the Serial Killer Essay -- Psychological Essays

The Psychology shtup the Serial Killer Creeping around the shadowy house, the predator tack its prey waking to strange sounds. The victim lay facedown, with a perspiration forehead pressed fearfully into the pillow, silently praying the noises would just go away. abruptly the victim found himself straddled and pinned to the bed. He was unable to scream for help receivable to the pressure of the handle of a pick-axe against his throat, preventing any breath from escaping, much less(prenominal) any sound. The victim struggled beneath the weight of the assailant. The scant light from the sodium-arc highway light outside cast a peculiar silhouette on the walls of the darkened room, projecting an image that looked oddly same(p) that of a rodeo rider saddled upon a bucking bull at a rodeo. Struggling to dismount the attacker, the victim felt the piercing blows of the sharp point of the pickaxe, succumbing to death all after receiving eleven stab wounds to the chest and throat. The thrill of the kill was affect enough that, when interviewed later, the murderer reported popping a nut, that is, becoming so sexually aroused by the event, to the point of having an orgasm (Pearson, 1998).Does this sound like the heinous acts of Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack The Ripper, or Ted Bundy? How about the petite, pretty, fawnlike, Texas teen named Karla Faye Tucker? A woman? A killer? A sexual predator? never before had such a thing been heard of, until Miss Tucker.Typically, when ane thinks of serial killers, such images as Son of Sam, John Wayne Gacy, or the capital of Massachusetts Strangler, come to mind. Though these men do indeed fit the description, on that point are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the definition of serial killer, first and initiative that serial ... ...1998). Essential criminology. Boulder, CO Westview Press.Monahan, J. & Steadman, H. (1984). umbrage and mental disorder research in brief. Washington, DC National Institut e of Justice.Pearson, P. (1998). When she was bad How and why women startle away with murder. New York Penguin Putnam, Inc.Redl, F. & Toch, H. (1979). The psychological approach to crime, in Toch, H. (Ed.). Psychology of Crime and Criminal Justice. New York Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Redl, F. & Wineman, D. (1951). Children who hate. New York Free Press.Ressler, R. K. & Shachtman, T. (1997). I have lived in the monster. New York St. Martins Press.Severence, L., Goodman, J., & Loftus, E. (1992). Inferring the criminal mind Toward a bridge amid legal doctrine and psychological understanding. Journal Of Criminal Justice, 20. 107-120.