Anna Halgren Hoover - Sociology One of the age old questions that plague this earth is the thought that things like murder, corruption, and deviance are coded into the human genome, and that when these genes meet in certain frequencies, coupled with environmental and social factors, it leads to the creation of outliers. Or, in Joel Rifkin’s case, among others, to the birth of a serial killer. Joel Rifkin was born in New York in January of 1959, the adopted son of Bernard and Jeanne Rifkin from a pair of unwed college students. Rifkin is known for the deaths of at least 17 women in the 1990’s, targeting prostitutes and drug addicts, acting upon inspiration from Hitchcock’s Frenzy, strangling his victims and using elaborate methods to hide the bodies.…
H.H Holmes was born May 16th, 1861, in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. His legal name was Herman Webster Mudgett. When he was young he was bullied. His peers discovered that he was afraid of doctors so they made him stand in front of a human skeleton at a doctors office. Holmes was afraid at first but soon intrigued by the experience.…
The ‘Grim Sleeper’ is a serial killer that was not caught for over two decades. The same suspect got linked to 11 different murders. Since he took a 14 year pause in his killings, the public named him the ‘Grim Sleeper’. Lonnie Franklin Jr. is the man blamed for all of the murders. During his trial, his attorney tried to tell the court that an expert hired by Lonnie’s defense connected DNA from two of the cases to a man named Chester Turner.…
H. H. Holmes was one of of the first accounted serial killers in America during 1893. Holmes was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire in 1861 with the name Herman Webster Mudgett. Holmes was referred to “The Beast Of Chicago” also. He killed many of the cities inhabitants in his specially constructed house which was ominously referred to as the “Murder Castle.” Once people found out about what Holmes had done they had fear they never knew existed.…
Victims, Cecilia Shephard age 22 and Bryan Hartnell age 20 were the Zodiac’s next center of attention. He approached them and claimed that he had killed a guard and stole a car because he was an escaped convict from the Montana prison. He explained that he then wanted their money and car to go to Mexico. Even though the couple agree to the plan Zodiac made Bartnell “hog tie” Shephard with precut pieces of clothes line he provided. He then tied Bartnell up too and said “I'm going to have to stab you people” (Campbell).…
The killing occurred on October 31 at 11:59 PM. 38 persons were at the event, one survived. The interview with the one remaining witness did not go as planned. I asked if she saw the killer and she gave me one of those no-you-imbecilic-bagel looks. I asked if she suspected anyone of being the killer.…
Serial Killer’s have been present in our society for centries. Furthermore, the term evil has no fluent meaning throughout humans history, today that changes. The definition of evil is not one that is easily defined nor readily available to us as a human species. However through the study of serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Albert Fish. and their treatment in the court system, one facet of a very large topic can be explored in an attempt to place a dialectic definition on such an arbitrary topic as evil.…
Elizabeth Williams Ms. Blair English 4 2 April 2015 What causes serial killers to become what they are: Nature or nurture? There are many speculations of what makes a person do and be the things they are but it is not only nature or nurture it’s a combination of both. For a long time people have wondered what makes people act the way they do. People especially wonder about the people of the outcast of the society, the killers. People are fascinated of how these people can do the things they do.…
Deviant behavior can mean different things to different people. Deviance can be an aggressive behavior or action. Deviant behavior can be any type of criminal act such as rape, murder, assault, or kidnap. Serial killers can be described as having deviant behavior. Deviance can also be a mental state of mind.…
People have continuously asked the question of whether serial killers are born or made. Researchers have done countless studies to provide the world with an answer. Truth be told, despite all of the research, there is still no definite answer (Allely, Minnis and Thompson). Of course, something is mentally wrong with a person if they desire killing other human beings, but the decision to act on this desire is based solely on other influences that caused the person to make that choice. People are obviously more comfortable with blaming the act of serial killing on some mental defect of the brain because it is frightening to think to think we as a society play a part in a person becoming a serial killer.…
A lot of people want to blame the parents of the offenders, asking “what did you turn your child into?” 36% of serial killers were physically abused, 26% were sexually abused, and 50% were psychologically abused (Mitchell and Aamodt 45). Many people have logically come to the conclusion that just because someone is abused, it does not mean that they will become a serial killer; or even a murderer; which is true. In the general population (people who have never committed murder) only 6% are physically abused, 3% are sexually abused, and 2% are psychologically abused (Mitchell and Aamodt 45). The dramatic difference of abuse frequency between people who are serial killers and people who are not seems evident enough to support that serial killers are created.…
They want to act out of their fantasies. The same fantasies they had had as children are the ones they want to still act out as adults. Once they have had their first kill, they want to continue so they find the kill that is as perfect as their fantasy. There is a lengthy list of some of the motivators as to why children abuse animals. Some of these motivators are the children want something to control or retaliate against, to express aggression through an animal.…
The police baton banged along steel bars sending a stabbing through to my awakening brain. Stale socks left from last millennium combined with urine and soured cheese and a hell against my sinuses, my throat coated in thick glue with a tongue slick with sand. “She’s awake…” If this was awake, shoot me now. I sat upright and felt the ceiling drop on my head.…
Homicide is the killing of a human being by another human being. In old common law, the only type of homicide recognized was murder. Today, U.S. law makes many distinctions between each type of homicide, classifying them as justifiable, excusable, or criminal, and gives varying degrees of seriousness to each type. Where criminal homicide is concerned, it can further be broken down into murder, manslaughter, and negligent homicide. Each subset of criminal homicide has several elements and characteristics that distinguish one from another.…
The stench was overwhelming, foul meat, maybe, but Joey didn 't give a damn, he 'd been staking out a nightclub and searching for the weapon responsible for the murder of a stripper. Undercover cops were used to diving in dumpsters, he wiped the spoiled food off the butcher’s knife and bagged it, just another day on the job for the stocky built Irishman, a fireplug, with a relentless pursuit of bad guys. His back-up pulled in the alleyway, with the disposition of a talk show host, before his morning coffee. He barked at Joey about some stupid shit, handed him a cup of brew, and sped down 4th Street, they were on their way to the rear entrance of the police station. "Park here Tony, the morning crew isn 't in yet.…