Serial Killers and the Media: How the Media Affects the Investigation and Public Perception of Serial Killers
Serial killers are one of the most widely covered criminal types in the media, even though the majority of criminals do not fit this profile. Often the psychology and methods of serial killers are sensationalized in the media. Serial killers have also figured prominently as popular characters in film and cinema. This raises some problematic questions about the coverage of serial killers, however. First, is too much attention given to them, versus other, less cinematic crimes? Secondly, does the media attention fuel the desire within some potential perpetrators to commit crimes?

Of course, the idea that coverage of violent crimes can lead to the perpetuation of violence is not a new one: As noted by Conti (2015) “….what the scientific literature has found—almost universally—is that there is a very small but statistically significant correlation between consumption…...

Criminology researchers usually draw on multiple sociological theories for understanding crime and offenders. Certain elements of serial-killing research continue to be a subject of speculation and exploration, on account of the numerous preconceptions and myths surrounding the crime. The significance of establishing a theoretic basis to explain sociological factors proves crucial to distinguishing between fact and fiction (Hickey, 2013).
Social Structure Theory

This class of theories concentrates on the socioeconomic status of a person and suggests that the poor perpetrate more offenses owing to their struggle to achieve social or monetary success. They are, particularly owing to their subcultural, racial, or ethnic status, restricted in several ways from lawfully attaining the great “American Dream\". Thus, they resort to deviant techniques to succeed. Structural theories provide convincing justifications for numerous offenses, with the exception of serial killing. Normally, serial killers lack financial or social motivation, and aren’t members of any specific ethnic/racial minority.…...

Thus, the justice system must clearly distinguish between mental illness and insanity. Psychiatrists and other professionals can aid judge and jury in making the distinction. Reserving the insanity plea for clear instances of psychotic breaks and other reasonable diagnoses would help prosecutors effectively try their cases.
Even if not deemed legally insane, a serial killer is certainly morally and ethnically insane. For all reasonable, non-judicial purposes, a serial killer is as insane as a human being can be. If someone who kills indiscriminately, systematically, and often with pleasure is not insane then who is? The lack of compassion for other human beings and the lack of emotion that characterizes the sociopath is one of the most chilling phenomenon of criminology. In the courtroom, a serial killer will not meet the definition of insanity even if labeled psychopathic. Therefore the definition of insanity depends on the context....

Analysis of Psycho Alfred Hitchcock directed a movie called Psycho in 1960. The movie is a horror laced with lots of psychological suspense. The movie storyline is developed from Psycho, a novel written by Robert Block and published in 1959. The novel, on its part, drew inspiration from Ed Gein murders. Psycho has been widely regarded as the first-ever slasher film. Although it got mixed reviews at the onset, it is now considered one of the greatest films produced by Hitchcock, and indeed one of the greatest films of all time.
Indeed, Antony Perkins, the Ed Gein (Norman Bates), was rated the second-best movie villain of all time by the American Film Institute (Gorshin, 2014). According to common parlance, Norman Bates suffers from Disassociate Identity Disorder ( DID), which was earlier known as multiple personality disorder. This view is interesting in all its weight and breadth. It is also a compelling psychological…...

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References

Bergstrom, A. (2012). Playing the viewer like an organ: Norman Bates as the protagonist of Alfred Hitchcock\\\\'s Psycho. Retrieved from  

Dawar, Z. (2018). Diagnosis of Norman Bates: Bates motel and Psycho. Retrieved from  https://reelrundown.com/tv/Diagnosis-of-Norman-Bates-Bates-Motel-and-Psycho 

Dollar, S. (2018). Psycho\\\\'s shower scene: How Hitchcock upped the terror—and fooled the censors. Retrieved from  https://www.history.com/news/psycho-shower-scene-hitchcock-tricks-fooled-censors 

Freud, S. (1919). The Uncanny. Retrieved from http://wwwrohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html.

Gorshin, M. (2014). Analysis of Psycho. Retrieved from  https://mawrgorshin.com/2014/11/28/analysis-of-psycho/ 

Jong, L. (2016). Representation of the Serial Killer in United States Popular Culture: Evolution of the Hunter-Hero Narrative. [MA Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen]. Retrieved from https://theses.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/handle/

Kavka, M. (2002). The Gothic on Screen. In: HOGLE, J. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge University Press.

Kennedy, M. (2020). Psycho\\\\'s sequels made Norman Bates the hero (& it worked). Retrieved from  https://screenrant.com/psycho-movie-sequels-norman-bates-hero-good-worked/https://3brothersfilm.com/ 

Dennis ader, BTK Killer
There are few things in society today that horrify or fascinate us as much as serial killers. Murderers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer fill us with fear while also inspiring us to study them and use them as subjects of fiction. Indeed, fictional serial killer Dexter Morgan has millions of fans across the world. When examining the lives an actions of these killers, it is always interesting and shocking to see how easily they blended into their social contexts before their actions were know. A common reaction to the exposure and capture of such a serial killer is often one of disbelief, accompanied by cries to the effect that "he was such a quiet, nice person." This was also the case with Dennis Lynn ader, a serial killer who committed his first murder in 1974, but was only caught, convicted, and incarcerated in 2005.

ader was born…...

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References

Blanco, J.I. (n.d.) Dennis Rader -- BTK Killer -- A Biography. Retrieved from:  http://dennisraderbtk.blogspot.com/ 

Bryant, M. (2005, May 30). The Murderer Next Door. The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from:  http://www.utexas.edu/features/2005/murder/ 

CI Network (2013). Dennis Rader: The BTK Killer. Retrieved from:  http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/dennis-rader-the-btk-killer/biography.html 

Mann, D. (2013). Portrait of a Psychopath. WebMD. Retrieved from:  http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/portrait-of-psychopath

Green iver Killer
In 1982, the remains of a number of young women started to show up in the area surrounding Seattle. These women were all relatively young and shared a lifestyle, prostitution and street life, that made them easy targets for a killer. Before the slayings officially ended in 1998, a total of 42 women would be thought to be potential victims of the Green iver Killer with the potential for many more being added to the list. Some believe that as many as 90 women may have been murdered by Gary idgeway. idgeway eluded police for almost two decades, even though he was a suspect in several of the disappearances, and was finally caught as a result of DNA evidence garnered from some of his earliest victims. This paper looks at the early life of Gary idgeway as it applies to the case, the murders themselves, how forensic evidence…...

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References

Douglas, J. (2007). Interviewing murderers and suspects: Learn about the crime and the killer. The Forensic Examiner, 16(2), 44-51.

Guillen, T., & Smith, C. (2003, Nov 6). What went wrong? Police at first failed to notice a pattern. The Seattle Times. Retrieved from  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/greenriver/1987/part1.html 

Lackey, B., Jones, C., & Johnson, J. (2005). Gary Leon Ridgeway: Green River Killer. Retrieved %20-%202005.pdfhttp://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Ridgway,%20Gary

Lewis, J.A., & Cuppari, M. (2009). The polygraph: The truth lies within. Journal of Psychiatry & Law, 37(1), 85-92.

The perpetrator may even have a documented prior criminal history involving physical or sexual assaults of victims with some of the same characteristics as the current series of victims. More likely than not, the perpetrator is a product of a home in which children witnessed physical abuse of their mother and/or experienced physical abuse themselves.

The fact that all but one victim shows evidence that the force used in the murder far exceeded that necessary to achieve death by strangulation suggests that the perpetrator possesses a significant amount of anger, even rage, at someone represented by his victims. The fact that all but one of the victims suffered a broken neck suggests that the perpetrator is more likely under the age of 50 than older, and more likely either a large or physically robust individual or both. uggested Investigatory Focus:

Based on preliminary analysis of the behavioral evidence, it is suggested that…...

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Sources Consulted

Gerrig, R., Zimbardo, P. (2005) Psychology and Life 17th Edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Innes, B. (2007) Serial Killers: The Stories of History's Most Evil Murderers. London: Quercas.

Schmalleger, F. (2001) Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century. Hoboken, NJ: Prentice Hall

Media's Role in the BTK Killer Case
There have been several serial murder cases which feature killers who play with the attention of the public through their manipulation of the media for various reasons. However, with the actual publication of messages supposedly from mass murderers, the ethical role of the media is put to the test. Many believe that publishing these messages increases the chances of catching the murderer in question; but in the case of the BTK Killer in ichita Kansas, the publication of such messages by a local newspaper The Eagle provided little information to law enforcement officials and an arrest was made decades after the onslaught of the murders. Examples such as these show how publishing such communications may in fact be too much information for the public to handle and at the same time just continues to encourage the killer to commit more and more violent…...

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Works Cited

Maher, Kelly J. "Media Ethics: Media's Role in BTK Case Questioned." University of Minnesota. Study of Media Ethics and Law. www.silha.umn.edu.5. May. 2008.  http://www.silha.umn.edu/Winter%202005%20Bulletin/Media%20Ethics%20Role%20in%20BTK%20Case.pdf 

Merritt, Davis, Mccombs, Maxwell. The Two W's of Journalism: The What and Why of Public Affairs Reporting. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2004.

That victim survived. A month later, Bundy broke into Lynda Ann Healy's room, beat her unconscious, dressed her, kidnapped her, and then took her to a location where he killed her and sexually assaulted her. Several other young women fell victim to Bundy while he was in Washington. Sometimes he faked an injury, specifically a broken arm or a broken leg, to get the women close enough to him to kidnap. When Bundy moved to Utah for law school in 1974, the disappearances in Washington stopped and a string of kidnappings, rapes and murders began in Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. While he used a variety of means to kill the women, most of them were bludgeoned to death.
In August 1975, Bundy was arrested when a police officer noticed several disturbing items during a routine traffic stop. They could not get sufficient evidence to charge him, but began building a…...

On one hand he was portrayed by the Cornwell was the killer of the prostitutes while on the other Sickert was a staunch defender of the sanctity of marriage and reportedly even fired one of his most important dealers for dumping his wife of 25 years for a younger woman. Sickert's wife even gave evidence that the last thee killings by the ipper were committed in London in a time when Walter had gone to France while Cornwell did not agree. Alibis have important place in criminal investigation cases. Similarly, eye witnesses also have their importance. The eye witnesses in case of Jack the ipper gave a different description of the killer as compared to the appearance of Sickert while Cornwell dismissed such accounts with the point-of-view that he must have created a different appearance using different materials like dark grease paint, hair dye etc.
In most criminal investigations the…...

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References

Jack the Ripper, the Dialectic of Enlightenment and the Search for Spiritual Deliverance in White Chappell Scarlet Tracings. Contributors: Alex Murray - author. Journal Title: Critical Survey. Volume: 16. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 2004. Page Number: 52+.

Nickell, J. (March-April, 2003). The strange case of Pat the Ripper - Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell - book review. Available at  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_2_27/ai_98252936/pg_1

He was arrested the next day, Steinhauer continues.
Meanwhile, when police were investigating Franklin's residence and his garage in back of his house, they discovered "about 1,000 photographs and hundreds of hours of video footage of women," Blankstein reported. Some of the images were just "innocent snapshots" but others showed women in "various states of undress and in sexual poses," Blankstein wrote. Because detectives feared that some of the women in those photos may have been killed too, they reviewed and researched records of unsolved murders. hen they were not able to link many of the photos (except two) to killings, the LAPD decided to release the photos to the Los Angeles Times.

In January, 2011, the Los Angeles Times printed the photos (only using the faces) of 160 women on the front page of the newspaper. The LAPD posted the photos on their ebsite. In a few days 200 tips…...

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Works Cited

Blankstein, Andrew, and Winton, Richard (2011). Grim Sleeper didn't 'sleep,' LAPD says.

The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 12, 2011, from  http://www.latimes.com .

Blankstein, Andrew, and Winton, Richard. (2011). LAPD officials doubt there was gap in 'Grim Sleeper' serial killings. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from

American Psycho
In his seminal work American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis uses the character of the yuppie serial killer Patrick Bateman in order to criticize American consumer culture while simultaneously challenging the reader to confront his or her own responses to that culture, responses that Ellis seems to suggest are only removed from the sociopathic actions of Bateman in a manner of degree, rather than kind. To see how Ellis uses the character of Patrick Bateman to explore the dual role of the serial killer as liberated individual and microcosmic representation of society, one may compare Bateman to the real life serial killer John ayne Gacy, who managed to keep his multiple murders a secret for the better part of the 1970s. Examining Bateman's characterization alongside the history of Gacy's murders and seemingly normal civilian life will help to demonstrate how the fascination with the two-faced killer ultimately stems from a…...

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Works Cited

Campbell, John W. "Professional Wrestling: Why the Bad Guy Wins." The Journal of American

Culture 19.2 (1996): 127-32.

Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

Hantke, Steffen. "the Kingdom of the Unimaginable": The Construction of Social Space and the Fantasy of Privacy in Serial Killer Narratives." Literature/Film Quarterly 26.3 (1998):

theory discussed attempt explain a real criminal crimes. Gary Ridgeway America's notorious serial killers. Your assignment analyze Ridgeway's criminal life Hans Eysenck's theory Personality.
hen considering Gary Leon Ridgway's (The Green River Killer) criminal case in the context of Hans J. Eysenck's theory on personality and crime, one is likely to observe a series of parallels between the murderer's personality and behavior and a series of events that occurred throughout his life up to the moment when he became a serial killer. Eyseneck considered that genetics plays an important role in shaping one's personality and this thus points toward the belief that Ridgway was probably influenced by biological factors when he put across criminal thinking. According to Eyseneck, individuals like Ridgway have a neurophysiologic structure that influences them to express certain attitudes when they come across particular circumstances.

hile someone might be inclined to think otherwise consequent to consulting the theory,…...

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Works cited:

Hadden, B, & Luce, H.R. (2002). Time, Volume 159.

Putwain, D., & Sammons, A. (2013). Psychology and Crime. Routledge.

Marsh, I. (2006). Theories of Crime. Routledge.

Morehead, P. (2012). The Green River Serial Killer. eBookIt.com.

She notified police and the parking ticket (because Berkowitz had parked too close to a fire hydrant) was traced to Berkowitz. But the police were just thinking that Berkowitz might be a witness; however, when the Yonkers police searched that Galaxie belonging to Berkowitz, they found a rifle and a .44 caliber Bulldog pistol -- along with detailed maps of the crime scenes that Berkowitz had created with his lust for killing women.
"hat took you so long?" Berkowitz is reported to have asked as the officers arrested him. In time during questioning, Berkowitz either played like he was mentally unbalanced -- which he of course was -- or was just rambling because he claimed that the dog he had killed was possessed by some kind of demon, and that the dog was demanding that Berkowitz go and do the killing. Other claims by Berkowitz included that he was a…...

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Works Cited

Breslin, Jimmy. (1993). 25th Anniversary. New York Magazine, 26(16), 153-154.

Brogaard, Berit. (2012). The Making of a Serial Killer / the Superhuman Mind. Psychology Today. Retrieved March 15, 2013, from  http://www.psychologytoday.com .

Caputi, Jane. (1987). The Age of Sex Crime. Madison, WI: Popular Press.

Crossman, Ashley. (2013). Labeling Theory. About.com. Retrieved March 15, 2013, from  http://sociology.about.com .

Dahmer Forensic Analysis
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer

Crime Scene and Discovery

Never before has egregious police incompetence hindered the apprehension of a serial killer as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer. When police were called to investigate an alleged domestic disturbance between Konerak Sinthasomophone and Jeffrey Dahmer on May 27, 1991. Although two women came to the aide of Sinthasomophone and urged police to look further into the alleged dispute, the police ignored their pleas and Dahmer was able to convince them that Sinthasomophone was his 19-year-old lover; if police had bothered to check Sinthasomophone's identification they would have seen that he was in fact only 14 years old (ardsley, n.d.). Having convinced the police that Sinthasomophone and he were in the midst of a lovers' quarrel, Sinthasomophone was released into Dahmer's custody and by the end of the night, Sinthasomophone would become Dahmer's 13th victim (ardsley, n.d.). Dahmer would proceed to murder four…...

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Bibliography

Bardsley, M. (n.d.). Jeffrey Dahmer. Retrieved June 25, 2012, from TruTV:  http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.html 

Benedict, J. (2004). No Bone Unturned: Inside the World of a Top Forensic Scientist and His Work on America's Most Notorious Crimes and Disasters. New York: Harper Collins .

Copeland, L. (2002, May 31). Skeleton Keys: Smithsonian Anthropologists Unlock Secrets in Bones of Ancestors and Crime Victims. Retrieved June 25, 2012, from Washington Post:  http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/planes/evidence/washingtonpost_skeletonkeys.html 

Crime and Investigation Network. (n.d.). Jeffrey Dahmer. Retrieved June 25, 2012, from  http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/jeffrey-dahmer/crime.html

While psychology refers to the study of the mind, clinical psychology specifically refers to that branch of the discipline that focuses on using psychology to create positive change, whether in individual lives or in the community as a whole.  There is a wide variety of topics you could approach in your thesis, depending on what topic interests you the most.  

Topic Ideas

1. The diagnosis of mental disorders in children: how young is too young to diagnose and does a diagnosis turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy for young children?
2. Diagnosing the non-patient: with many in the mental health fields....

Serial killers are a topic that has fascinated people, beginning before the term was even coined.  They have been romanticized in pop culture, but their crimes seem to be rooted in a personality disorder that keeps them from empathizing with others.  They kill in a variety of ways and, when left unchecked, the number of people that they can kill can get into the 100s. 

Some subtopics to consider when writing about serial killers for your essay topic are:

1. The role of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) in serial murders.
2. Psychopath or sociopath?  Where on the spectrum of personality....

Criminal investigation is a broad field of study that covers any and all of the elements that go into solving a crime and building a legal case against the suspects.  Considered one of the applied sciences, there are actually several career paths for the criminal investigator.  Likewise, people from different disciplines may find themselves doing criminal investigative work.  For example, as science has evolved, the role of geneticists and genetic genealogists in criminal investigation and forensic science has really explored. 

When writing your paper, you have two distinct approaches you can take.  You can write a....

Given the popularity of online dating and dating apps, writing an argumentative essay against online dating is a good choice.  It is always more interesting to write a position paper that may be unusual, because it is unlikely to recycle the same arguments that your professor will see in other papers.  There is actually a myriad of reasons that online dating may not be as successful (or as safe) as traditional in-person dating, and any of these reasons could serve as the basis for an argumentative essay.  They include but are not limited to potential....