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Inside a Serial Killer’s Psyche
A deep dive into how these killers develop and how they behave.
We all have dark sides to our personalities, but some people have really destructive sides that lead them to commit crimes, sometimes horrific crimes. Why? What is it that makes some people commit terrible acts? We don’t have clear cut answers. We do have, however, knowledge about human behavior that can give us some insight into what drives deviant actions.
Probably the darkest form of behavior is serial killing. The FBI defines a serial killer as someone who kills at least two people with a cooling-off period in between. Homicide represents an escalation of a fantasy or delusion. Serial murderers are secretive, predatory and feel compelled to kill. This compulsion comes from some deep, primal source in their minds. They are not motivated by external elements such as money, revenge, or jealousy. Their motive exists in their heads.
They are often confused with mass murderers, who kill multiple people in one location, or closely related locations, in a single incident, school shooters, for example. Spree killer is another oft confused term. Although no longer used by the FBI, this term refers to murders of at least three people with a shorter cooling off period in between. The murders take place in different locations but usually close in distance and can be traced to a key…
