Sexual passion and anthropology

This anthropological article, by Victoria K. Burbank, explores the roots of serial sex murderers and sexual passion. The implication of the power of culture on our lifestyles, and the understanding through anthropological technics are at hand. The article is based on a comparison made between the Western serial sex killer and the Arnhem Land sorcerer. Intercultural beliefs are studied and compared, human development is observed and sexual passion are defined. What is it that makes a serial sex killer become this violent human being? How can culture structures influence such a person? Certainly, facts can be analyzed to obtain a better understanding of where crime comes from and why does it act the way it does. For the complete article, go to:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/640650

Or find the book, Ethos, Vol. 28, No. 3  (Sep., 2000), pp. 410-444, in which the article, "The Lust to Kill" and the Arnhem Land Sorcerer: An Exercise in Integrative Anthropology, is found.

Written by Aimée Pocock

Women genocide

This article offers a different perspective on serial murderers. In comparison to other articles, this one discusses the sexual politics when it comes to murder. The question is asked wither women are the main target in homicides and why. The author writes about feminists who have claimed that murderous crimes are a type of genocide against the women because they are the majority of the victims. This article explores cases to form a base of data to know if in fact women are being overly targeted. The cases analyzed are the ones of Hedda Nussbaum, who was gravely beaten, and of Lisa Steinberg who was murdered, of serial killer Ted Bundy and finally of various murders of women. These were all recent cases at the time of the article and they all took place in the United States. To know more about Jane Caputi and her article visit: 

http://www.jstor.org/stable/189762

Or consult The Sexual Politics of Murder, found in Gender and Society, Vol. 3, No. 4, Special Issue: Violence against Women  (Dec., 1989), pp. 437-456.

Written by Aimée Pocock

Multiple homicides

This article discusses the matter of multiple homicides in the field of criminology. In fact, it describes serial killers and mass murderers, as well as what might be the reason for one becoming such a way. According to the authors, both serial killers and mass murderers share the same ‘motivational typology’, which could be power, revenge, loyalty, profit and terror. The authors also claim that these type of killers are often sociopaths that need to achieve some kind of goal, personal needs, by committing violent killings. The distinction between the two categories (serial vs. mass murderer), is made with a description of both and its relevance. Finally, the authors mention the negative influence that the media has on the delivery of this type of information, stating that they only produce more unnecessary fear and human destruction. For further details and more relevant data, read the full article Multiple Homicide: Patterns of Serial and Mass Murder, by James Alan Fox and Jack Levin, or consult the document at:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147545

Written by Aimée Pocock

Sadism and Loneliness

In this article, the author, Willhem Martens, makes links between loneliness and sadism in serial killers. To do so, he studies the famous case of Jeffrey Dahmer. He studies killing as a result of envy and shame/rage mechanisms. He also considers the development of self. Martens also makes links between fear felt by serial killers and the need to feel powerful and superior, going through their feeling or inferiority that comes from childhood. The concept of love is also a factor in serial killers' life according to him. In fact, the lack of love and acceptance in society can lead to deviance. Martens also studies the need to transfer tension on someone or something else, in relationship with the sadistic fantasies. He also studies parenting and distortion, linking these factors to criminal behaviour. After defining sadism and loneliness and linking his research to the DSM-IV, Martens examines the case of Jeffrey Dahmer by explaining it in details, going through his disorders, needs to kill and cannibalism. To read the full article, visit: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a5d8dccb-ccd3-4e49-82c9-c36d4f6aecfa%40sessionmgr4004&vid=19&hid=4206

Written by Laurie St-Pierre

A Sociological Perspective of Serial Killing

This paper is based upon the question "what are the main sociological causes for deviant criminal behaviour among serial killers?". The author, Daniel Larson, starts by establishing the definition of a serial killer, which is "the serial murderer is defined as someone, depending on the number of victims, period of time, and reason for homicide, who kills more than four people in a seventy-two-hour time frame". He then defines socialization as a factor to becoming a serial killer. He talks about disturbed childhood that leads to deviance. He explains that most of the serial killers we know have been victims of child abuse, lack of support from parents, substance abuse, and mainly sexual abuse. He also studies the psychological aspect of deviance. He explains some of the main psychological disorders often seen in serial killers and their impacts on their life. He also links these disorders to the up bringing of a person, which is an important factor in developing them. He also makes links between deviant behaviour and social control theory, neutralization theory and labelling theory. He explains the different causes that lead to crime and deviance through these theories. 

To read the full paper, visit: 
http://www.sociology.uiowa.edu/newsoc/awards/papers/larsond.htm

Written by Laurie St-Pierre

Women's Implication in Serial Killing

Women's implication in single homicide is quite rare and their implication in serial killing is very rare. The usual perpetrators of serial killings are white males, intelligent with sadistic tendencies. However, this article published in the Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health journal focuses on female serial killers. The goal of the researchers Andreas Frei, Birgit Vollm, Marc Graf and Volker Dittmann was to consider female serial killers and the relevant cases that occurred in the past. They studied the different patterns and motives of homicides. They noticed a certain repetition in female offences, which is the material gain. They also noticed that extrinsic gratification, hedonistic sadistic or sexual offender was extremely not represented by the female community. Their conclusion was that there is no common theory of female serial killings. The only thing that seems to come back in almost every case is a psychopathic personality traits and signs of abuse in childhood experiences. 
After conducting their research, Frei, Volm, Graf and Dittmann studied a case of female serial killing, which did not fit with the 'typical' female serial killer profile they had made. The patient they studied was called PK. This woman committed crimes against strangers using violent methods. She committed her crimes in geographic areas relatively far from her home. They chose to classify PK as at the 'hedonistic' or 'power seeker' type of killer. They also suggested that she could be diagnosed with dissocial, borderline, schizoid and narcissistic personality disorders. PK was stalking and threatening random women before killing them, usually by stabbing them to death. After several evaluations, PK was reported to hate weakness, especially in women. This problem transferred in self-hatred.  She had a problem expressing feelings and she was trying to appear strong and fearless in front of the authority. 

To read more on this research, visit:  
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a5d8dccb-ccd3-4e49-82c9-c36d4f6aecfa%40sessionmgr4004&vid=7&hid=4206

Written by Laurie St-Pierre

Dexter Morgan: a "Complex and Ambiguous Meditation on Morality"

             In the series Dexter, the main character is a "normal" guy working for the Miami Police Department as a blood splatter analysis. Because of his disturbed childhood, Dexter now lives a double life. He has the need to kill people, but with the help of his foster father, he learned to control this need by killing bad person who, according to him and his father, do not deserve to live. In fact, woking for the police department, Dexter has access to all the cases of crimes. In his spare time, he deters crimes that have not been solved and kill the assaillant. Since he knows the protocole about what police are looking for on a crime scene, he is never suspected.
             This series are watched by millions of people who developed a certain respect for the character, although he is a serial killer. It creates an ambiguous reflexion about who and how people deserve to live. Dexter offers the public a clear differentiation of "good" and "bad" and makes it acceptable to be a serial killer. It forces the auditory to think about what is "normal" and what is not. The usual popular series as CSI, Criminal Minds, Bones and so on, portrait situations in which law always wins over crime, which provides a sense of security to the audience. In Dexter, we are put in a situation where we do not where the line stands between what is right and what is wrong. It brings us to wonder how could a show like this, bringing a new perception of crime, impact some peoples life.

To read the full research paper on the subject, visit:
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=a5d8dccb-ccd3-4e49-82c9-c36d4f6aecfa%40sessionmgr4004&vid=5&hid=4206&bdata=JmxvZ2luLmFzcCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmU%3d#db=a9h&AN=71885534

Written by Laurie St-Pierre

Asperger's and Schizoid personality disorder

This article is a very unique study on the of the link between personality disorders that cause in some cases serial killers to emerge. This study compares Aspergers syndrome to schizoid personality disorder. They are very similar and can really only be differentiated by a trained professional. This study then discusses in depth the psychological analysis of Jeffrey Dahmer, to try and evaluate the link between AD and schizoid personality disorder. The study concludes that Jeffrey Dahmer could have had either or. Both disorders generate some symptoms that if not controlled can lead to severe violence. The link between the two disorders is controversial and is have only recently been linked together. The researchers believe that Asperger's should be reviewed more in depth considering the fact that schizoid personality disorder is extremely similar. It is question quite offend what makes a person commit such terrible crimes. Many personality disorders have been linked to serial killing, however there has been not concrete link to only one disorder. This research paper is trying to grasp at similarity between the murders to try and see if society could prevent some of the killings by diagnosing earlier and treatment options to control symptoms. To read the full article visit   http://www.murderpedia.org/male.D/images/dahmer-jeffrey/docs/jeffrey-dahmer-silva-et-al.pdf
Written by Courtney Milonja

Fame and Fortune on serial killers

This article researched the possible link between culture of celebrity and modernity is possibly linked to becoming a serial killer. This seems to be a little far fetched, but the research has to do with the nurturing argument of becoming a serial killer. The researcher studied many cases were a person comes into a sum of money or gains noticeable status in the community to see if serial killer trains in personality and in action start to develop. They studied many age groups as well as diverse cases such as Hitler and Hollywood celebrities. They concluded that modernity is just a context and does not dictate whether someone becomes a serial killer. Also, that celebrity culture, power and money are not valid indicators to becoming a serial killer. The researcher was led to believe that more "nature" arguments support the idea of becoming or being a serial killer. This research paper was interesting because it is the first time that I have read about these kind of factors influencing someones life path in such a negative way that they become killers. At first I was a little hesitant about how these factors were relevant, but I really enjoyed reading about it. The researchers hypothesis made a lot of sense and it was a very interesting paper. To read it, visit: http://cmc.sagepub.com/content/5/2/168.full.pdf+html

Written by Courtney Milonja

Personality Disorders

This scholarly article looks at how people with psychological disorders such as antisocial, schizoid, paranoid, emotionally unstable and histrionic personality disorders are all more likely to be serial killers if not properly nurtured as a young child. People who do in fact suffer from these disorders and are serial killers are very difficult for forensic psychologists to analyze. They tend to be deceptive and either have incredible illusions or are completely disconnected with social norms. This article suggests the treatment that the serial could follow to improve his or her condition and try to make them acknowledge that their actions are completely immoral and irrational. People with personality disorders who seek treatment require an enormous amount of time and patients. The first step in treatment is usually to get the persons trusts and start working at issues such as ethnocentrism and their usually disconnected view of the world. This paper also tested drugs such as Lithium and other anti psychotic medications to view their affects. According to one of the main researchers,  "the principles of the treatment are the same as in any chronic condition. In other words, the basic conditions cannot be changed, but there is an attempt to relieve the symptomatology" (Morana, Stone, Abdalla-Filho, 2006, pp. 74). The article conclude by saying that the best treatment option for serial killers is to keep them in custody for the length of the treatment so that they can be under surveillance. Most treatment is seen as ineffective because of the high rate of recidivism. It was proven in this paper with the rates of recidivism decreased if the patient stayed in the treatment facility. To read the full article visit:  http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbp/v28s2/en_04.pdf

Written by Courtney Milonja

Not criminally responsible versus guilty, but mentally ill

In this research paper, the authors George B. Palmero and Richard D. Knudten explore the insanity plea in court and study the particular case of Jeffrey Dahmer. They researched and questioned the plea of not criminally responsible in court to study the frequency and success of court battles on serial killers in American courts. Their research found that families and victims much prefer the title guilty but mental ill than not criminally responsible. This is because the sentence acknowledges the fact that the person is guilty, whereas when declared not criminally responsible for your actions, the sentence tends to be a little less severe. In their research paper they had many questions that could not be answer such as the nature vs nurture debate on killers and serial offenders, the legitimacy of the pleas in court related to mental illness and if in the generations to come pleading not criminally responsible will be abolished. Their research paper was complete on certain levels, but too ambitious concerning many of their research questions. It was interesting to read about the differences between the their definitions of not criminally responsible versus guilty but mentally ill. I was hoping for a more complete conclusion on their part, but it was still a very interesting paper they produced in the end. To read the full research paper visit :http://ijo.sagepub.com/content/38/1/3.full.pdf+html

Written by Courtney Milonja

Green River Killer

 Convicted of 49 murders and confessed to nearly twice that number, Gary Leon Ridgway may be one of the deadliest serial killer the United States have known. His victims were women and girls, mostly prostitutes from Washington State. He committed all of his crimes between the 1980s and 1990s. The press gave him the nickname of the "Green River Killer" after five of his victims were found in the Green River, and his identity was not know yet. To kill his victims, he would strangle them, usually with his arms, but sometimes using some kind of cord like rope, shoe laces or wires. He would then drop his victims' bodies randomly throughout forests and wild areas in King County. Ridgway would often return to his victims' dead bodies to have sexual contacts with them. 

Some of his victims

Gary Leon Ridgway was arrested for the murders of four women on November 30, 2001, as he was leaving his job in Washington. The cases of the dead women were linked to him through DNA evidence. As a result of a plea bargain with the court where he released information on the still-missing women. He then received a sentence of life imprisonment without parole and the death penalty. 

"I'm not a rapist, I'm a serial killer"                                    -Gary Leon Ridgway

To learn more on the Green River Killer, visit http://criminalminds.wikia.com/wiki/Gary_Ridgway

Written by Laurie St-Pierre 

Angel of death

Britain has seen all sorts of killers, but this serial killer must be on of, if not, the worse. Amelia Dyer, later named the ‘’Angel Maker’’, made desperate mothers believe that she was owner of a foster house for their children. She would take the mothers’ money promising them to find a good home for their child, but instead she would strangle the babies and dump their bodies in the River Thames. In the late 1860s, for as long as 30 years, she was able to commit the crimes of around 400 babies without being suspected. People would even ask her to suffocate their child at birth so that doctors would not make the difference between that and still-birth, making the crimes ‘unchallenged’. After she was discovered for her true colours, the Victorian society was so shocked that songs were written about her and adoption and child protection laws were straitened. When the police finally became suspicious and met with her, she told them that they would recognize the bodies that were ‘’hers’’ in the river by the tape around their neck. The disturbing woman was hanged at the age of 58, in 1896, at Newgate Gaol. Her case has been reopen since her death to be categorised as the worse Britain had ever lived, and she will forever be part of the world horrors.  

For more, read the article bellow:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283302/Britains-worst-serial-killer-The-Victorian-angel-death-murdered-400-babies.html

Written by Aimée Pocock

A Mutual Admiration Society

Serial killers become famous over night. The media gives them nick names and everybody becomes obsessed about the cases. The media makes real life horror stories into cinematic dramas most of the time. Our society feed off of bad news and cases like these. Morgan Summerfield, the author of the article  "Serial Killer vs Media: A Symbiotic Relationship?", brings up a great point while studying the relationship between media and serial killers. She says that media emphasize and create the stories about serial killers to compete with other media networks. Not only do the killers sometimes gain sympathy from the public, they become obsessed about how they are portrayed. Some killers who suffer from grandeur delusion or any other narcissistic personality disorder are almost encouraged by the time spend talking about them. this can become extremely dangerous and provoke killing sprees. Humans are curious by nature and get engrossed by the phenomena that is created. Not only the stories, but the emphasis of murder, horrific stories and extreme killers have become a complete fascination in our society. Numerous television shows and movies have created an ideal image of crime solving. Kids and teenagers have become fascinated and more and more and starting to want to pursue careers in this domain. The only problem is, media has glorified it. So much is not shown.  Summerfield concludes her analysis by saying that the relationship between serial killers is very close knit. She even calls the relationship "mutual admiration society" which is very accurate. Who knows, maybe if cases were not made public, we would have less crimes by copycat killers. We might even prevent some killers to take action. If serial killers knew nobody was watching and they were not getting any attention for their actions, would they still commit the crime? It would  be interesting to find out.
To read Summerfileds full article visit: http://voices.yahoo.com/serial-killer-vs-media-symbiotic-relationship-12879.html

written by Courtney Milonja

''Satan in a Skirt''

 Women serial killers tend to be much less common than men and even more importantly much less violent. However, in this particular case, things are different. The police said that they had never seen a woman commit such terrible and cruel acts. Therefore, they believed at first that they were actually looking for a man not a woman. However, Irina Gaidamachuk, who was later diagnosed to be mentally sane, was a woman and some. She would pretend to be a social worker and would then smash the skulls of her victims with a hammer or an axe for their money. Although she claimed that she wanted the money for vodka, the investigators discovered that, most of the time, the amount of money she would take from her victims was irrelevant compared to the crimes that she would commit. The alcoholic woman claimed that her husband would not give her the money for vodka so she had to find her own way of getting it. Irina murdered 17 pensioners before being found in 2010. During the search, police arrested and questioned more than 3000 people, and even wrongly arrested another woman, Irina Valeyeva. The town of Krasnoufimsk, where all of this happened, lived in great fear during Irina Gaidamachuk reign and even her relatives were choked when they learned than she was given a lesser sentence because she was a mother. Her entourage had never suspected anything and if she had not been seen at the moment of her last crime, she would have probably committed more without being caught. This case is proof that anybody could be a serial killer; mother, father, child, no matter how this idea seems illogical.

Here follows a picture of what the police expected Irina to look like ( a woman dressed like a man) , versus a real picture of her. For further reading here is the link to the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154900/Russias-worst-woman-serial-killer-dubbed-Satan-Skirt-murdering-17-pensioners-year-reign-terror.html

Written by Aimée Pocock

The Zodiac Killer

In the late 1960's to the 1970's mysterious murders were taking place in California. There was a total of five murders that occurred and nobody was charged. The case got stranger when police started receiving taunting messages, hidden messages and pictures. In 2004, the case was closed because no further evidence was every found. However, in 2007 the case was reopened when famous actor, singer and comedian Dick Van Dyke finally confessed. He claimed that he had killed over 37 people for them to become slaves to him in his after life. He claimed that he loved haunting people.In the media, this story turned into a circus. People were fascinated and yet so discussed that a popular Hollywood star, that appear nice and charming would ever commit such acts. He also could not understand how his views and costars did not receive the clues that he gave them to reveal his secret identity. When he finally called a press conference to admit his true identity he finish his statement with: " Even now, though, I’ll occasionally take a part in a movie, and I plan to keep killing people as long as I can,” he said. “The truth is, I’m really good at it. I killed three people yesterday. And I hope to kill more today."
This was his claim to fame. Had he never admitted his crimes it is very questionable whether the police would have figured it out. His lack of remorse and pride in what he did is a true definition of what a serial killer really is.
For more details on Dick Van Dykes "coming out" to the police visit: http://www.theonion.com/articles/dick-van-dyke-finally-confesses-to-zodiac-killings,33318/?ref=auto

Written by: Courtney Milonja

The come back

A man known as Thomas Quick is living in a psychiatric hospital in Sweden since he has been convicted of eight unspeakable crimes, 23 years from now. All along the multiple trials he had, Quick would talk about all the brutal crimes he did, going from stabbings to cannibalism, passing by stranglings, rapes, incests and way more. He would tell his stories to whoever would be willing to hear them. After he was convicted for his eighth and last crime, he became silent for about 10 years. Lately, Quick has been thinking about all the things he has done and said, and became comfortable talking about his past.

A reporter named Chris Heath succeeded to get an interview with him. Quick described to Heath all of the eight murders for which he was convicted. He also explained where his need to kill comes from. He talked about his childhood, how his parents treated him, how his dad abused him and how his mother tried to kill him several times. He talked about his dead brother which is the starting point of his killing. He explained how he tried to find his brother's remains hidden by his dad during all his life in order to eat them, and how he killed people so he could find a body to identify with. All of this figures in a book Quick wrote and published. Heath went to Sweden's psychiatric hospital several times to visit the serial killer, and talked a lot with him, trying to understand him. Thomas Quick is certainly one of the most talkative serial killer in history, yet he is still impossible to understand. Heath wrote this article in which he reports all his conversations and researches on Thomas Quick. 

Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201308/thomas-quick-serial-killer-august-2013#ixzz2g7tuMimj

Written by Laurie St-Pierre

Frozen Heart

How can we explain the cold-hearted actions of a human being? The judge in Rodney Alcala's case seems to be eluded by this question. The 69 years old man was sentenced to 25 years to life for the horrible crimes of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover. Furthermore, he was found guilty for more crimes and he was sentenced to the death penalty. The serial killer seemed to attack women and we could assume a pattern of attacking similar victims. Not only did Alcala committed the crime of murdering innocents, he took pleasure in raping and hurting them as much as possible before ending their life. The family members of the victims who were still under great shock were relieved to see that the judge was really emotional about the cases and that Rodney Alcala got what he deserved. We will never know how to explain such actions, but hopefully, such people as serial killer Rodney Alcala are found and punished for what they have done. To read the article, check out: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/nyregion/judge-cries-during-sentencing-of-serial-killer-rodney-alcala.html?ref=serialmurders

Written by Laurie St-Pierre

"Canadians don't count"

The serial killer Israel Keyes committed suicide in a canadian prison in Alaska. The FBI conducted a study on him without completely recovering all his victims. The serial killer made a few short trips pass the canadian border before he was found and arrested in Vancouver, on his way to Alaska. Although we know he killed multiple random people, he did not seem to attack canadian citizens, except the Alaskan barista he killed before being caught. The FBI found evidence that he seemed to be concentrating his killings in the U.S. However, the FBI does not exclude the possibility of him taking other canadian victims they just have not found evidence of it. Keyes was not open about giving information on his crimes and even threatened that if public information was released he would simply stop cooperating. The serial killer had planned everything out admitting in interviews the hidings of weapons in various locations that also gave insight on where some of the bodies were buried. To read the full article, check out:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/alaska-serial-killer-travelled-to-b-c-twice-fbi-says-1.1314240
Written by Aimée Pocock 

Is it like in the movies?

In an article posted in the British journal The Independent, a serious issue about how serial killers miss portrayal in television series and movies has been seriously misconceiving and inaccurate. In this very interesting article, the FBI reports that people's perceptions of serial killers are totally wrong. The media has portrayed serial killers to be deviant individuals who do not fit in with the society, which is not always the case. Social outcasts and extremely intelligent "monsters" are not exactly realistic perceptions. Serial killers do not all fit into the same box. The wide range possibilities of characteristics that one could have are incredibly numerous. The main purpose of the article is to try and unravel the myths and common beliefs around serial killers to make society more aware and educated about spotting criminal behavior. This article demonstrates that we must be very careful with the media's portrayal and be aware that our view of "typical" serial killers is almost completely molded by unreliable sources. Not everything in the media is reliable and we need to develop critical judgment to sift through the imagines we are presented. It is critical to form a general objective image of real serial killers, especially when it is a potential dangers to society. To read this article check out: 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/serial-killers-likely-to-be-family-men-not-freaks-says-fbi-863930.html

Written by Courtney Milonja