The Etiology of Serial Killing

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Hypothetical treatment approaches and concerns associated with treatment/therapy

Most of the serial killers mentioned above have one common denominator and that is abnormal childhood background. These killers also had wrong impression and learning of sex. They’ve had abnormal sexual experience during childhood. Gein’s childhood experience made him acquire a split personality. His mother taught him to be religious and to hate sex.

Sex offenders can be treated with the birth-control pill Depoprovera. Robert Long could be treated with this birth-control pill because of his obsession with sex caused by a high testosterone level.

An important period in the treatment process is rehabilitation. While serial killers have to serve their sentence, they must be given the chance of rehabilitation for treatment and curative processes. Their needs as human beings should be met. This includes a place to work and interact with fellow inmates. However, the risk level of offenders who are under rehabilitation should also be considered. Studies found that some successes have been achieved in working with sex offenders through work rehabilitation (Marshall xiv)

Physical pain should also be addressed like migraines and the causes of headaches. It is possible that many of these serial killers have tumor or head injuries that have caused them to become aggressors and killers.

Donald Harvey

Harvey is the organized type, which is shown in the way he works. Harvey claimed to have murdered his victims to help them in their pain, a form of committing euthanasia. But experts said that Harvey received inner satisfaction in committing the murders; he was a sexual deviant with sadistic desires. On the other hand, Jack Kevorkia was a medical doctor who believed and asked his patients, especially those who were terminally ill, to submit to euthanasia in order to terminate their pain. These two could not be compared because they are opposite. One is a murderer while the other works through principles and philosophy of life. Kevorkia believed that what he was doing was easing the pain of his patients; the other one murdered for the pleasure of doing it. Kevorkia’s philosophy has been hailed by many people. Harvey was perceived a sexual deviant that triggered his killer instinct. This is known as the triumph of sex and evil desires over inner discipline. Testosterone level could be high making his desire for sex and to kill at the highest level.

Jeffrey Dahmer

Dahmer is the disorganized type – he just killed without planning his moves. Dahmer had had an unusual childhood when his parents divorced early and he was left on his own. During this time, he committed murder when his victim refused to have sex with him. He was a sexual deviant which was one of the reasons why he killed. He had a murder victim almost every week, most of the time he dismembered his victims, separating the head from the body for ‘souvenir’ purposes. He had fascination and enjoyment with corpses, and was believed to have committed necrophilia and cannibalism to his victims. One of the causes of necrophilia is rejection (Aggrawal 37). Dahmer was rejected as a child and even as an adult. These two causes are extreme and the main reason could be the early loss of a loved one. Cognitive approach treatment is one of the remedies.

Henry Lee Lucas

The serial killer Lucas had an abnormal family background; he had a prostitute mother who asked him to watch her having sex with partners. He was also dressed up like a girl even when he went to school. Lucas committed 350 murders; his mother was one of the victims. Lucas’s life, featured in books, told of the gruesome murders of Kate Rich and Frieda “Becky” Powell. Lucas himself provided evidence for these horrible incidents wherein he said he had sex with a dead body and dismembered them. He told a courtroom proceeding that he committed a hundred murders and had sex with them. Lucas’s psychological state could be attributed to his traumatic childhood years. Environment therefore is the primary reason for his killer and maniacal instincts. (Ramsland)

William Heirens

Heirens used lipstick to identify himself. He was said to have been born with a lump on his head. At first, he committed simple burglaries. During the course of these petty crimes, he killed several women including a six-year-old girl whom he confessed to have dismembered, and separated the head from the other parts of the body. (Moyer, Powell, Powell, and Pinn)

The investigation into the various murders lasted for years because of the appearance of questionable witnesses and the torture tactics committed by police. Again, the criminal nature of Heirens could be attributed to his questionable background when his mother taught him wrong impressions of sex and married couple. The lump in his head could also be one of the reasons for his criminal instinct since he had had this after his birth. He is the disorganized type and is not like other serial killers who killed for the satisfaction of doing it.

Kenneth Bianchi

Bianchi is an organized criminal. His childhood years with a prostitute mother contributed to his maniacal character. He used his victims as sexual objects then strangled them, earning the notorious name “hillside stranglers” along with another maniacal partner. Bianchi was an above-average child but he was compulsive and was later diagnosed with some form of disorder which contributed to his psychosocial nature as an adult. (Bardsley)

Childhood experience is the main reason for his psychosocial personality. He did not receive childhood care and advice from his prostitute mother. This personality disorderr can still be treated with cognitive approach. Bad childhood experiences can be treated with hypnosis, which is allowing the patient to remember those bad memories at the same time providing inner healing.

Gerald Gallego Jr.

Gallego Jr. is a disorganized serial killer. Along with his wife Charlene, they abducted, raped and killed their victims. Gerald was having the most part of the crime and his wife witnessed against him in the trial. Gerald’s father was sentenced to death. It could be that Gerald used his father as a model for his criminal instincts. Moreover, as a child he was the subject of sexual abuse and maltreatment. This explains his psychosocial character. His wife Charlene was himself of questionable background and so they became partners in crime – raping and killing. (Christensen, Cobb, Critz, and Miles)

Robert Joseph Long

Long’s sexual desires were extremely different from people like us. His maniacal character could be attributed to his environment, having a mother who slept with him even when he was married and had a sexual a partner. A motorcycle accident gave him migraines. It was believed that the accident triggered his obsession for sex – doing it several times a day to his wife and to his mother. His wrong impression of sex triggered his criminal instincts.

Ed Gein

Gein’s behavior resembles the split personality type. He was organized: he befriended his purported victims and killed them. His mother had great influence on him, and so he believed his mother was still living and lived inside him. In the movie ‘Psycho’, Norman Bates killed his mother and when he would kill women, he believed it was his mother who killed his victims although he was the one doing it. From among the serial killers mentioned in this paper, it was only Gein’s personality disorder and reason of insanity that provided reason for his acquittal as granted and accepted by the judge or jury. All the rest were convicted of their crimes as it was ruled that they were sane when they committed the serial killings.

Joseph Kallinger

Kallinger’s childhood background is the reason why he became a killer when he reached adulthood. Due to severe beatings by his foster parents when he was a child, he acquired hernia. He was sick with epileptic which could be one of the reasons for his criminal instinct. This childhood abuse forced him to possess an abnormal personality. As a child, he learned how to go against his teacher and parents. Childhood behavior, a paranoid personality, continued up until adulthood until he became a criminal. Unlike Ed Gein, his plea of not guilty due to insanity was not granted by the court which believed that he committed them with a sane mind. In prison, Kallinger has become suicidal, for which he had been kept under watch. Treatment should first be on his epilepsy but also on cognitive approach.

Pee Wee Gaskins

Gaskins is the disorganized type. He killed men and women for the pleasure of doing it and some for personal reasons, such as vendetta. He is a serial killer because he was believed to have murdered about a hundred although this was not proven. Childhood background is another reason for this man to become a serial killer. His mother had many lovers who would beat and humiliate him. His bad experiences were further aggravated when he was repeatedly raped by fellow inmates. (Montaldo)

Works Cited

Aggrawal, Anil. Necrophilia: Forensic and Medico-Legal Aspects. United States of America: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, 2011. Print.

Bardsley, Marilyn. The hillside stranglers: the rampage begins. 2011. Web.

Christensen, Jordan, Cobb, Crystal, Critz, Nina and Miles, Christine. Gerald Armand Gallego. 2011. Web.

Marshall, William. Sexual Offender Treatment: Controversial Issues. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2006. Print.

Montaldo, Charles. Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins. About.com. 2011. Web.

Moyer, Ashley, Powell, Brandy, Powell, Christina, and Pinn. Mike. William Heirenz, “The Lipstick Killer”. 2011. Web.

Ramsland, Katherine. Henry Lee Lucas. 2011. Web.

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