Serial Killers

September 7, 2003

Wrote this for something:

SERIAL KILLERS


Serial killers have been a source of both fear and intrigue since the first of their kind: Jack the Ripper. Although, he has only five murders to his name, he is considered to have fathered a new breed of criminals that is remains clouded in urban legend and painful reality.

Serial killers might well be termed an American phenomenon. With only five percent of the world's population, America gives rise to seventy-five percent of its serial killers and the FBI expects that, at this time, at least five hundred serial killers are loose on the streets of America (DeWitt 3B). This might be largely due to Hollywood’s glamorization of them. A classic example would be that of Charles Manson whose murderous spree included Sharon Tate, wife of Polish director Roman Polanski. Manson, who believed himself to be the mouthpiece of God, became glorified as a cult-hero and has the dubious distinction of receiving the most mails for a US prisoner. However, serial killing is not limited to the United States alone. Javed Iqbal Mughal was a Pakistani man who sodomized and killed boys of ages 13-19. After strangling them he would dissolve the bodied in a vat of hydrochloric acid whilst keeping a meticulous record of his victims. Javed Iqbal surrendered himself to the authorities after killing a100 boys, claiming that he was exposing in indifferent Pakistani social system, where the disappearance of 100 boys failed to create a stir.

Various social factors such as, parental abuse, neglected childhood, injury to the brain – specially the frontal lobes, and drug abuse are attributed as the cause for the debauchery that serial killing is. The desensitization of the masses through gory videos, at an early age, predisposes them to violence. In such cases, Manson like cult-figures provide the needed impetus for the emphatic youth to take up the part of destruction.

Certain serial killers have been diagnosed with a psychological ailment “Multiple Personality Order” or “Dissociate Identity Disorder”, defined as

"Dissociation is an act of disconnecting, locking the memory or pain in a 'suitcase' and storing the 'suitcase' in the back of the brain. Dissociation Identity Disorder is the phenomena of completely disconnecting oneself from a memory (or memories) and the emotions around the memory(ies), creating a separate identity to hold memories and emotions."
Therapists believe that such a condition occurs due to severe childhood abuse, and the child’s inability to absorb the trauma in its entirety forces him to create another identity. If abuse continues, more identities are created. Identities differ from one another, and a violent identity can take control of the body randomly, and commit brutalities without letting the person be aware of his actions. One serial killer who pleaded not guilty on this account was Kenneth Bianchi, the notorious Hillside strangler. He even pulled a show in court talking as another person, but the jury dismissed him as an actor, and he was duly sentenced.

Due to the uncertain nature of serial killers and lack of research in this area, there exists little in predicting ‘serial killer inclinations. What can be done is to root out the evils that have spread their tentacles through the base of our society, like drug and sex abuse amongst adolescents and teenagers, and teenage violence, and stop portraying serial killers as harbingers of revolutions, thus eliminating the curse that develops into a greater evil. Prevention, as with most social evils, is the only tangible cure.