Exploring The Psychology Of Serial Killers
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Are serial killers born or do serial killers suffer so much in life they no longer understand that serial killing is bad?
Do all serial killers suffer early abuse?
How do notorious killers psychology impact the crime scene?
While I don't have criminal forensic expertise, I love doing research particularly about the psychology of serial killers, and I dug into the psychology journals, medical research, and listened to podcasts with a forensic psychologist. I've put all that together to help you understand the psychology of serial killers.
Let's start by reminding everyone the definition of a serial killer and how it's different from a mass murderer.
The Definition Of A Serial Killer Is...
Some one who commits two or more murders with an emotional cooling off-period between each act. While it may seem petty that law enforcement agencies and true crime differentiate between such horrific crimes, the cooling down period is the difference between a serial killer and mass murderer.
Let's dig into the psychology of serial killers.
Why Do People Become Serial Killers?
There are different reasons people commit murder. Part of it may be their nature, a horrible upbringing, and the choices they make. Louis Schlesinger, PhD is a forensic psychologist and he explains:
"What most people are interested in—and the serial sexual murderers that you refer to in the introduction, Jeffrey Dahmer and BTK."
Check out the APA interview with him.
He went on to explain that a serial sexual murder is similar to any type of abnormal sexual arousal pattern, but that the murders may provide the sexual gratification that others receive from orgasms. Like many fetishes, they normally won't talk about their sadistic fantasy.
He also breaks them into organized and disorganized sexual serial murderers. Lets look at the psychology of serial killers that feature each profile.
Psychology of disorganized sexual serial murderers
The disorganized sexual serial killers tend to have psychological disorders like schizophrenia or other actual mental illnesses. They tend to respond out of anger, create a horrific crime scene, and don't tend to have as many murders as other serial killers.
Jack the Ripper is an example of a disorganized serial sexual murderer according to Psychology Today. Disorganized killers tend to create such horrific crimes they are hard to look at.
Psychology of organized sexual serial murderers
Ted Bundy and Dennis Rader are both examples of organized killers. The tend to be psychopaths that are capable of planning the sexual homicide. There are virtually no female serial sexual murderers, with the exception of Aileen Wournos who was an escort that hated men and killed her johns.
These killers normally live normal lives, may be married, and plan the activities. They'll also learn about investigative techniques to help keep from leaving evidence. When they are caught, and become convicted killers they may lie about additional murders to gain notoriety.
They often target sex workers because they are easy to get to leave the vicinity and are less likely to be missed.
Keep reading to find out why the psychology of serial killers seems so similar to other people. Sometimes a singe incident can turn a normal person into one of the most notorious killers.
Triggers often start the killing sprees.
This is something I learned while researching this article. According to Louis Schlesinger, PhD, serial murder often starts after a major life change. Serial killers have admitted it their killing started after losing a job, losing a relationship, or even after finding out their wife was pregnant.
Sex acts with a victim means they have likely been convicted of sexual assault before.
One of the reasons its important to get forensic evidence is that it helps law enforcement officers narrow their suspect list even if they don't have the suspect's DNA in the system. Louis Schlesinger, PHD found that if serial offenders sexually penetrated even one victim there's an 80% chance that they have a criminal record for rape or sexual assault.
What are the 14 characteristics of a serial killer?
Part of the psychology of a serial killer may also be understood by understanding serial killer features. 14 common characteristics of a serial killer include:
Male serial killers
High IQs
Inconsistent performance
Unstable Families
Abandonment & Domination
Families With Criminal & Mental Health Issues
Hate Parents
Abused
Childhood Psych Lockup
Suicide
Fetish-prone
Bedwetting
Pyromania (fire starting).
Animal Abuse
Keep reading to learn about each of these on the impact of psychology of serial killers.
Male Serial Killers
90% of serial killers are men, but that percentage continues to go down as better profiles are built of female serial killers features and behaviors.
Women were less likely to be caught during the earlier days of criminology because there are so many things you can do to kill someone besides commit bloody horrifying messes that make the news.
High IQs
Serial killers tend to be about 13.6% smarter than the average American based on IQ tests. Other sources use a 125 figure but note that tests change over time so I think it's better for you to assume they are quite a bit smarter than most people during the time they are alive.
Like all traits there are notorious killers who do not meet the IQ thresholds.
Inconsistent Performance
Serial killers often don't do well in school and have difficulty keeping a job. That often means they take jobs in construction or other physical tasks. It should be noted that medical serial killers appear to be an exception to the poor school performance and their job hopping is likely to help avoid detection.
Unstable Families
I don't think this characteristic applies as much today because most families are unstable today. Whether you have two parents working, have divorced parents, live in an abusive household, or only have one parent, there are a lot of people whose homes are unstable so they might need to reconsider this.
During the golden age of serial killers (the 70s to 2000), the number of divorces and absentee parents was growing, while since the pandemic there has been a substantial increase of stay-at-home parents. Assuming parents are at home more and not a complete mess, this could be good for society.
Abandonment & Domination
Many serial killers dad left or died while the mother is more domineering. In the research I've done, I hear about plenty of missing fathers, but the domineering mother could be a nod to Ed Gein, who barely counts as a serial killer even though he's one of the most horrific crimes of all time.
Families With Criminal & Mental Health Issues
Families with a history of violence, addiction, or mental illnesses are hard to deal with. They tend to take things out on people improperly, have poor coping mechanisms, may be intoxicated (or coming down, and could also have passed it on to their kids.
Hate Parents
We're not talking about the hormone-fueled "I hate you" and slam the door behavior that every teen will show at some point when they get told no. We're talking wanting to kill their parents (some even do). If someone starts talking about how they want to kill their parents in graphic detail, they might be on their way to being a serial killer.
Abused
A study about serial killers abuse as children found that most serial killers experience a combination of psychological, physical, or sexual abuse as children.
Psychological and physical abuse was the most common (37.77%), followed by psychological, physical and sexual (19.74%). The desires and behaviors are mapped out which appear to imply that anger and lust are primary factors in the largest category of serial killers.
The study breaks out many of the other categories more clearly, but does not provide an isolated path for the largest group so you have to make a bit of an educated guess that the majority of the psychological and philosophical abuse followed a path that looked like this:
Approximately equal rape/lust or anger
Approximately equal chance of torturing or killing quickly
Almost definitely goes overkill
Committed necrophilia or mutilated the body.
Disposed of the body somewhere else (unless they were caught).
Childhood Psych Lockup
A study of 100 people who killed found that 77% had a previous psychiatric hospital visit. The records in the past were not nearly as well kept as they are on servers with backups today so the exact numbers for serial killers can be hard to evaluate because many people travelled across state lines.
Suicide
6.2% of male serial killers and .5% of female serial murderers kill themselves. Most of the time a first suicide attempt happens during the teenage years. Exact number of childhood suicide attempts are unknown.
Fetish-prone
Many serial killers admit to having fetishes for voyeurism, BDSM, and other sexual explorations as children. This is likely due to traumas experienced at home or discovering their parents pornography. While it's ok to have these fetishes be weary of anyone who watches you without your permission or who does not respect safewords.
Bedwetting
This one is kind of sad. While many kids wet the bed most learn to wake themselves up by the age of 12. Those who cannot are more likely to become a serial killer. You can't assume just even one or multiple of these traits lead to the psychology of a serial killer.
Like everything there's an element of nature vs. nurture and choice.
Pyromania (fire starting).
Pyromania is another indication that they may develop a criminal career committing violent crimes. But it's also a perfectly normal interest to have. People spin fire poi, swallow fire, and heat their homes with it. When someone engages in repetitive fire setting with damage to property or people, it might make sense to worry.
Animal Abuse
Animal abuse may be an indication that the person will later start the unlawful killing of people. There's a difference between animal cruelty like kicking a dog and chopping off it's head.
I tend to think before we start labeling people evil geniuses they should have to meet the pattern rule. first time is an isolated incident, second time might not be, and third is a pattern. Funny that's also the number of times you have to kill someone to be considered a serial killer.
What are the 4 types of serial killers?
The four main types of serial killers are classified by their motivations which fall into four categories, visionary, mission-oriented, hedonistic, or power/control-oriented. Keep reading to learn more about each type.
1. Visionary Killers
A visionary killer will normally be driven by a psychosis.
Motivation:Â Delusional beliefs or hallucinations, often driven by psychosis.
Examples:Â Killers who claim to act on orders from divine or demonic forces.
Case in Point:Â David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") believed he was commanded by a demon-possessed dog to kill.
2. Mission-Oriented Killers
A mission-oriented killer is normally driven by a desire to eliminate a group of people.
Motivation:Â A desire to "cleanse" society of certain groups or individuals they deem undesirable.
Examples:Â Killers who target specific groups, such as prostitutes or minorities.
Case in Point:Â Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist, targeted individuals based on racial prejudice.
3. Hedonistic Killers
Motivation:Â Pleasure or gratification, often sexual in nature. This category includes:
Lust killers:Â Driven by sexual fantasies involving domination or violence.
Thrill killers:Â Kill for the adrenaline and excitement of the act.
Material gain killers:Â Commit murder for financial or material benefit.
Case in Point:Â Jeffrey Dahmer, a lust killer, derived gratification from controlling his victims even after death.
4. Power/Control Killers
Motivation:Â A need to dominate and exert power over their victims.
Examples:Â Killers who often relive their crimes to savor the feeling of control.
Case in Point: Dennis Rader, the "BTK Killer," enjoyed taunting law enforcement and victims’ families to assert his dominance.
Check out our blog about the types of serial killers to learn more.
Psychology of Serial Killers FAQ
What is the most common motivation for serial killers?
It is often difficult to establish the most common motivation for serial killers because they often have a combination of motives for why they killed, but it's commonly a mix of anger and a thrill that often culminates in sexual gratification and overkill.
This is more consistent with statements made by investigators that the serial killers often describe numerous and evolving motives during each murder and sometimes during the progress of the killing spree.
Do all serial killers find sexual gratification from their crimes?
No. All serial killers do not find sexual gratification. There are other types of serial killers like contract killers and medical serial killers that kill for other reasons. Let's look at some of them.
Psychology of medical serial killers
Most people who go into healthcare claim to want to help people while making a great living, which is a noble cause. Some notorious killers decide to go into healthcare to take advantage of the fact many people believe this.
Some health care serial killers have acute mental illnesses, but many do not. They often claim they kill for noble reasons which is why they are sometimes called an Angel of Death.
These serial killers tend to be more narcissistic and enjoy the thrill of playing God. Killers like Harold Shipman were also using the murders for profit, which leads us to other types of violent offenders.
Psychology of contract killers
Contract killers, hitmen, murders for hire. All of these are terms for people who kill for financial gain. They might have a dissociative disorder or be a psychopath, but they are probably great at compartmentalizing, planning, and highly aware of criminal justice.
Or they are complete idiots that will do anything for a dollar, but hey that's what separates a good hitman from a bad one right?
When people pay for this violent behavior it is likely because they are angry.
Are All Serial Killers Psychopaths?
No. Not all psychopaths are serial killers and not all serial killers are psychopaths. Some may suffer fro antisocial personality disorder, server mental illness, or be a sociopath. some might just be opportunistic killers like Bonnie and Clyde.
Closing
We've discussed the definition of a serial killer, why people become serial killers including the psychology of serial killers, what trigger mass killings, 14 characteristics you should be aware of in people who commit such horrific crimes, and the four types of serial killers.
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