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THE CRIME MAGAZINE
THEIDENTITY
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TOP10 OFTHE
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Writ t en by:
True Crim es St ories
Franccesca Acevedo A report made by the FBI in
2005, claims that serial
homicides select their victim
based on availability,
vulnerability and desirability
(Morton et al., 2005).
Over the past two decades of
the 20th century, the police of
England and Wales had
recorded an approximate of
90,000 offenses each year. The
crime rates have increased from
250 offenses per 100,000
people since 1901 (UK
Parliament, n.d). Unfortunately,
there is not an answer to why
these numbers have increased
so markedly over the past
century. Despite this, not only
the crimes rates have increased
over the past years, homicides
have also grown their numbers
as well over the years.
A study made by The Global Burden of Disease has shown
that over 405,000 people had died from homicides in 2017,
this is three times higher than the numbers of people killed in
armed conflict and terrorism combined (Roser and Ritchie,
2013)In some countries particularly Latin-American countries,
have shown that homicides are the largest killers, this numbers
had rapidly increased since 2017. Nevertheless, some of these
crimes had been committed by ?normal ? people, which by a
rage of madness they decided to commit a crime. To add on,
some of this killers or convict have a desire for murder, this
people is commonly called ?serial killers ?. This term define a
person that have murder or killed more than 2 persons, on
some occasion seeking for a sexual desire, financial gain or in
some cases for attention.

Robert Ressler and John E. Douglas
In case you have not heard
these names before, they
were two famous FBI agents
that used to work for the
Behaviour Science Unit.
Robert Ressler was a
criminologist and the director
of Forensic Behavioral
Services International, he was
also an expert in violent
criminal offenders, particularly
on serial and sexual homicide.
John E. Douglas was a former
United States Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) agents.
Also, one of the first criminal
profilers and criminal
psychology author. Douglas
became an expert on criminal
personality profiling and a
pioneer of modern criminal
investigate analysis. During
this time, John learned how
different criminal thinks and
what makes then do the things
they did and why.
Together Robert and John, started to interview different serial
offenders to find out their motivates and what makes then
different. On this journey, they interview multiples offenders like,
Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, Ted Bundy and Ed Kemper. By
1978, Ressler and Douglas created a team inside the
Behavioural Science Unit, to start applying the psychological
theory, victimology and crime scene analysis in numerous cases
in line to create a profile of the person who committed these
crimes. Along with Roy Hazelwood, they discover a new method
of catching criminals. With the help of the interviews, they
capture multiples convicts, this study also shown that 36 of this
killers had a similar childhood. All this is used nowadays to help
to understand the criminals and their motivation.

Mot ivat ion
In contrast to what many of
us believed, serial killers on
certain occasions have a
lack of meaning or
motivation at the moment of
the murder. The reality is that
there is a big diversity in
needs and desires that
makes then decided on
ending somebody live. A
specific aspect or belief that
most people maintain, is that
serial murderers gain great
satisfaction from killing.
However, the motivation of
this action is difficult to
determinate as each serial
killer may have multiples and
different motivations for
committing these crimes.
A report made by the FBI in 2005 (Morton et al., 2005), shows a
category of motivation, which is used as a guideline in the
investigations:
·Anger may be considered as a motivation, as the convict display
rage toward a certain group.
·Another one is Criminal Enterprise, which is when the offender
gets a benefit in status or monetary by committed murder.
·Ideology, is a different motivation as the offender takes the action
in order to follow the ideas of a specific group or individual.
·Power/thrill, is when the convict feels empowered or excited when
he kills his victim.
·Psychosis this occurs when the offender suffers from a severe
mental illness and it kills because of this.
·Sexually based, this motivation is only based on the killer sexual
needs or desires.

Childhood and t hings in Com m on
Law enforcement and
social scientists are often
trying to find out how to
assess serial killers that
have been caught, to
understand better their
reasons for such a violent
act. Since the start of this
investigation, they had
found common behaviours
on most of these
murderers, like animal
abuse, bedwetting and an
inclination for setting things
on fire. While these
similarities are not
associated with all serial
killers there is a tendency in
most of them.
Social science has also found that 90% of these convicts are
Caucasian males around the ages 25 to 35, nevertheless, there
are also female serial killers. Most of this individuals are very
smart and often struggle to secure a job (Salvatore n,d)
To add on, most of these offenders come from a dysfunctional
family or a member of their parents abandon them at a young
age. Psychological analysis has shown that this dysfunctional or
abandonment makes the individual commits these crimes.
On some occasions personal traumas may affect behavioural
choices, as an example, we have the serial killer Richard
Ramirez commonly called ?the night stalker ?, he was found
guilty of killing 13 people in San Francisco and Los Angeles,
Ramirez had a disturbed childhood receiving a brutal beating
from his father. Another example will be the killer duo Ottis Toole
and Henry Lee Lucas, it is believed that they murdered around a
hundred people, both individuals were victims of psychological
and physical abuse at a young age. However, not all abused
children will become convicts and not all serial killers had a
problematic childhood.

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