SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 1

Serial Killers: Nature vs Nurture

Melanie M. Osorio Burgos

University of Puerto Rico at Bayamon

INGL3104-LH1

Professor: Maybell Rivera

April 17, 2017

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Abstract

Nature nurture debate is the most essential phenomenon in psychology. For serial killers, it is

much more important. Not only nature side of the serial killer but also nurture side is important.

Hormones, genetic background and chemical properties may affect people in order to violence

and crime. But also, nurture is important with parental attitudes and abilities. Parents determine

their children's future in good or bad ways. It means children's personalities are formed by their

parents. So, it can't be said that guilty person is the only serial killer themselves. When a baby is

born they first see their family. They act like them. Then they add some other specialties to their

personality but the core will always be the same. If a person can kill more than three victims we

can't say that the guilty is only his himself. Over 97% of serial killers had an awful family. These

all nature and nurture explanations of being serial killers must be mentioned.

Keywords: Serial killers, nature, nurture, psychology, family.

SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 3

You feel the last bit of breath leaving

their body. Youre looking into their eyes.

A person in that situation is God!

-Ted Bundy

Introduction

Crime is an issue of popular interest and focus for people. We can see a lot of news, movies,

books and researches about this topic. There are many debates and discussions that have been done

about causes of crime. Psychologists, criminologists and scientists have conducted a lot of

researches to find a question of answer that What causes a person to commit a murder/crime?

Some of people say that criminal behavior is related with a persons upbringing and life

experience: It is called nurture. Others say that criminal behavior is more complicated than it had

been thought and they say that a persons genetic makeup creates criminal behavior: It is called

nature. In this paper, I will research this question: Which increases tendency to crime of serial

killers? Faye Snyder says: Killers are Made, Not Born Meaning of this sentence: The increase

of serial killers is related to nurture. When serial killers life is examined, it will be seen more

clearly. Parental attitudes, upbringing style, social relations, social-economic problems are the

most important signals of creating a serial killer. Of course, genetic and physiological tendency
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 4

should not have been ignored. However, family backgrounds have absolutely basic and significant

role. Because we know that serial killers come from unstable families therefore they have unstable

childhood. It also will be wrong to only take the part of effect parental styles and early childhood

histories. There are many researches and experiments about genetic tendency to crime and violence.

Serial Killers tend to have influences from both sided, our genetics made us natural-born killers

and our environment just triggers it.

What is a Serial Killer?

Researching serial killers are getting more and more comprehensive. Even if there are

many researches and investigations about serial killer, there is not much enough scientific

information about them. Before the new laws in United States, murdering more than two victims

could be accepted as serial. Then, serial murdering is distinguished from different murdering in

order to its ideology, motivation and etc. In that way, a soldier in a war cannot accepted as a

serial killer. In 1998, a new law is accepted in US. This (Title 18, United States Code, Chapter

51, and Section 1111) includes The term serial killings means a series of three or more

killings, not less than one of which was committed within the United States, having common

characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by

the same actor or actors.

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The definition of a serial homicide is three or more separate events in three or more

separate locations with an emotional cooling off period in between homicide. They are three

factors that are essential for being serial killer. These are:

1. Three or more victims killed during multiple and discrete events.

2. Causing death to the victim, at the time of the killing, was considered to be

pleasurable, stress relieving, or otherwise consistent with the perpetrators internal

set of values. The attacks themselves did not fulfill only functional purposes.

3. The murders did not occur under the discretion or blessing of any political or

criminal organization.

In one of the studies read examined the psychological roots of the behavior of sexually

motivated male serial killers, and why they do what they do. The context of serial murder is

presented, with a refined definition of sexually motivated serial murder. The development of

narcissism is described as this form the basis for understanding such behavior. In conclusion

(Knight, 2006, p. 1189) states that: there is evidence for a predisposition to violence as well as

an interplay between environment, biological factors and personality traits as the basis for

criminal behavior. Serial killers, as pathological and destructive narcissists, vent their rage at and

envy of a hateful and rejecting world by attacking and brutalizing others Within the context of

narcissistic dynamics, one aspect of human behavior may be described as nonpathological and

the basis for healthy ambitions and ideals, while another may be identified as pathological and
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destructive so that individuals behave in grandiose and murderous ways. Some of these

individuals are sadistic serial killers who enjoy the sexual thrill of murdering and who are both

pathological and destructive narcissists.

In another journal article, it illustrates the basics characteristics of several specific

personality disorders, focusing mainly in antisocial personality disorder. The differences between

antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy are highlighted. Serial killers and its

psychopathic aspects are also discussed. A bibliographic review was completed in order to

outline convergences and divergences among different authors about this controversial issue,

especially those concerning the possibility of treatment. In conclusion, while anti-social

personality disorder is a medical diagnosis, the term "psychopathy" (which belongs to the sphere

of forensic psychiatry) may be understood as a "legal diagnosis". It is not still possible to identify

an effective treatment for serial killers. In conclusion, (Morana et al., 2006 p.574) found that

personality disorders, especially of the antisocial type, still represent a formidable challenge to

forensic psychiatry today. Questions as yet unanswered include the best and most humane place

for patients with this condition and the nature of a standardized treatment recommendation

For shortly, there are many different definitions about serial killers but all these are

similar for basic elements. Ideology, motivations and behaviors (e.g. sexual and torturing) can be

shown itself a serial murdering. In that way, general profile and characteristics of serial killer

must be explained. Next section will include these kinds of details.

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General Profile

All general profile and properties of serial killers are similar. Books and literature include

many serial killers history, family background and other qualities. They have special abilities,

above-standard lives and different skills. Many of them have marriage also but their marriages are

not last long.

All serial killers have three aspects in their childhood. These characteristics are similar for

all of them and these behaviors are called as McDonald triad. First one is enuresis. It is chronic

bedwetting and related with physically, psychologically and emotionally abuse. Even after 12, it

can be still seen for serial killers. There are always dramatic histories behind this behavior. Another

general behavior is chronic fire setting. It includes feeling so much impulsivity about starting fire

and inability to control to stop it. Many negative emotions like anger, hatred and etc. can be related

with this behavior. For lastly, torturing animal come at issue. This behavior can be described as

feeling impulsivity and motivation for torturing animals. Enjoying to waste time with dead animals

can be also mentioned.

Family is another issue about general profiles of serial killers. Almost every serial killer

has terrible families with poor parental abilities, bad attitudes and physical abuse. Abusing children

are the common characteristics of serial killers families. Not only physical, emotional and

psychological abuses are also common. In FBI data, it is mentioned that 42% of serial killers are

awfully physical abused, %43 of them were sexually abused. Approximately % 74 of them were
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psychologically abused for most of the time in their childhood. In one of the journal articles

investigated it found that the current knowledge on the similarities and differences between

successful and unsuccessful psychopaths derived from five population sources: community

samples, individuals from employment agencies, college students, industrial psychopaths, and

serial killers. In their findings, they found that many people do have psychotic tendencies and just

take them as normal and others lean on those tendencies until they become violent. (Yu and Raine,

2010, p. 208) state the following: successful psychopaths have intact or enhanced neurobiological

functioning that underlies their normal or even superior cognitive functioning, which in turn helps

them to achieve their goals using more covert and nonviolent methods. In contrast, in unsuccessful,

caught psychopaths, brain structural and functional impairments together with autonomic nervous

system dysfunction are hypothesized to underlie cognitive and emotional deficits and more overt

violent offending

In another journal made by Henson & Olson they found that male serial killers rejected their

stigmatized identity by indicating a lack of control over their non-normal behavior or by justifying

their actions. They also indicated that societal influences, such as previous traumatic experiences

and communal discourse surrounding serial killing, influenced their identity management.
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Perspective about Serial Killers

The debate of nature versus nurture is an interminable one in the psychological

professional community. All serial killers are murderers, but not all murderers are serial killers

(Salvatore, 2015) Sociologists have been dealing with this issue for years, especially in the

analysis of serial killers. The proponents of the nature side of the debate argue that we are born

with all our traits decided. It takes into consideration DNA and biological connections. Theories

that base their understanding of human behavior on nature, focus on characteristics that we are

born with. Nurture is the opposite. The way a child is raised can completely who the will

become. The dangerous combination of genes and a traumatic upbringing can have catastrophic

results on what a person becomes. In the article the author examines different popular cases of

famous serial killers and comes to the point of there is no conclusive answer to this debate. There

is no way to truly tell what causes these human beings to become the monsters that they are.

Naturally, every person is born with different genetic make-ups, and many argue that differences

in genetic code do not create a psycho killer. However, observations on the lives of serial killers

and their experiences clearly shows that nurture takes the dominant role in the creation of a serial

killer. But this is only an example that the dilemma is very controversy and it hasnt still been

verified what causes what.

Both nature and nurture perspectives about serial killers was detailed with theories and

approaches in the literature. These all perspectives will be summarized for next two sections.
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 10

Parental attitudes, upbringing, socio economic status and social relations will be discussed in

nurture side. For nature, biological factors and possible reasons about physiology will be given

details.

Nurture

Its known that, there are terrible histories and childhood memories of serial killers.

There are many films and books about these lives in popular culture. Serial killers come from

markedly unstable families. A majority of serial killers have a history of sexually, physically and

psychologically abuse during childhood. In half of the serial killers families, the biological

father had left before the child was 12 years old. In the cases where the father didn't leave, he

was domineering and abusive. Apparently, their families often have criminal psychiatric and

alcoholic histories. Delinquent acts such as pyromania, theft, and cruelty to animals were present

in the childhoods of most serial killers. They often have feelings of inadequacy and

worthlessness, sometimes owing to humiliation and abuse in childhood or the pressures of

poverty and low socioeconomic status in adulthood, and their crimes compensate for this and

provide a sense of potency and often social revenge, by giving them a feeling of power, both at

the time of the actual killing and also afterwards for power-control killers. There is a close

correlation between their childhood abuse and their crimes. Their main objective for killing is to

gain and exert power over their victim. When they inflict harm on their victims they can do
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 11

whatever they want so they feel themselves like God. And this is the most important reason why

they keep on killing.

For instance, subjected to untold horrors by his insanely abusive mother, Henry Lee

Lucas began indulging in sadistic depravity while still a child. He had eight brothers and sisters.

Henry was often forced to go to school barefoot and wearing a dress and curlers. Not

surprisingly, he dropped out by fifth grade and remained semi-literate for the rest of his life. By

thirteen, he was engaging in sex with his older half-brother, who also introduced Henry to the

joys of bestiality and animal torture. One of their favorite activities was slitting the throats of

small animals. He described his mother, Viola Lucas, as a violent prostitute and his father,

Anderson Lucas, an alcoholic and former railroad employee who had lost his legs in a train

accident, and who suffered from Viola's wrath as often as his son. Lucas reports that Viola

regularly beat him and his half-brother, often for no reason. He once spent three days in a coma

when his mother hit his head with a plank of wood. Lucas described an incident when he was

given a pony as a gift by his father's friends, only to see his mother shoot and kill it. Henry sliced

open his eye while playing with a knife with his brother. Then when he was twenty-four he got

into a drunken argument with his seventy-four-year-old mother and stabbed her to death. He

killed at least 123 people (Santtila et al., 2008, p. 263).

Another killer created due to environmental conditions was one of the most infamous

killers of all time, Ted Bundy. Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell in 1946 in Burlington,
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 12

Vermont to an unmarried mother of 22. At the time, the fact that his mother had him out of

wedlock was scandalous. To cover this up, Bundy was made to believe by his grandparents that

he was their son and that his mother was his sister. After his mother married, his stepfather,

known to him as his uncle, attempted to form a relationship with Bundy; however, the boy

continued to be detached and distant. In his youth, Ted had an exceedingly low self-esteem and

was socially awkward. Bundy was often teased and made the butt of pranks by bullies in middle

school and, when analyzed, Teds behavior was declared to be not like other children.

Despite all of this, Bundy was a good student who was fascinated by politics and enjoyed

skiing. As he grew up by all aspects he appeared to be a normal young man and, like most young

people, he was devastated when his first love left him. However, Bundy didnt deal with the grief

as most people do. At the same time that his heart was broken, he also discovered his true

parentage. The late discovery had a serious impact on him. He became very nasty to his

stepfather, as well as distant. After these life-changing events seemed to make his life

increasingly better, but truthfully, this is when he started his killing spree. Bundy claimed that his

addiction to pornography led him to do what he did. This addiction, along with the trauma that

took place in his life, most likely played a major contribution to his violent behavior and mental

deterioration.

Even if these stories do not prove that nurture plays a dominant role in the creation of a

serial killer, then research and data show how prevalent childhood trauma is in the lives of most
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serial killers. A three-year study was conducted with a sample of fifty serial killers. These killers

were asked about their childhoods, along with their mental health, their criminal histories, any

sexual abnormalities, and their drug abuse histories. In addition to this, the criminals were also

asked about the history of any abuse they had received, their prior injuries, any past diseases, and

sexually traumatic events in their lives. The data of this study showed that sixty eight percent of

the fifty killers experienced some sort of childhood trauma. Thirty two percent of these killers

suffered from no abuse, and fifty percent of the killers suffered from psychiatric issues. In the

general population, thirty percent of people have been abused. Clearly, abuse is much more

prevalent among serial killers, suggesting that it is a factor in making them who they are.

In another study conducted by the FBI over the course of three years, thirty-six sexually

motivated killers were asked about their childhoods, alcohol abuse, psychiatric problems,

criminal histories, sexual problems, and drug abuse. It found that most had experienced a lot of

familial dysfunction along with other traumatic events. These traumas included physical,

psychological, and sexual abuse, medical histories of sexual injuries or diseases, and undisclosed

sexually stressful events. The study results found that the common ground for these killers was

that most of them had experienced trauma of either physical or sexual origin, resulting in a

failure in their social and mental development. When this is combined with a caretakers failure

to function as a positive role model, leaving them with no way to deal with the trauma, it causes

them to act out in violent destructive ways.

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In another journal article regarding youth it talks about the children involved with crimes

at an early stage and how we influence in those things. The study analysis different case studies

and make their own conclusions of it. One of the findings was most violence begins in homes

where children and adults do not form respectful relationships. That disrespect usually bleeds

over into peer groups, school, and other social circles (Mitchell et al, 2008), When raised in

environments of disrespect, children are deprived of the values for respecting and connecting

with others. A culture of ridicule, racism, and other acts of superiority and dehumanization in

schools is highly destructive to students.

Nature

Nature side includes biological aspects and heredity. Well-known researches about nature

sides of serial killers include XYY syndrome. This syndrome is about more Y chromosome. It is

known that Y chromosome is about maleness so being more aggressive, violent and

impulsivity. People who have this syndrome can be more sadistic and has homicide motivation.

There are researches about serial killers who have more testosterone level and thyroid goiter.

These kinds of physiological tendencies are important for being serial killer. These genetic

aspects may lead to behave more impatient and sadistic. For nature, there are also information

about brain trauma (head injury) in childhood, maternal trauma, malnutrition during pregnancy,

mother alcoholism and substance addiction during pregnancy can be accepted as risks for serial

murdering.
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On one of the journal articles used to find more information, it analyses many articles and

studies that report on results that include the biological or predestined genes of a serial killer

by revealing the genetic components along with characteristics numerous of serial killers have in

common. In addition, this article also explores the life and crimes of the serial killers in order to

show the environmental influence the life of the serial killer had. Both of these components come

together in this article in order to prove that serial killers are driven by both genetic factors as

well as environmental factor to commit these horrendous crimes. The method they used to

examine were documentaries, interviews, and books on serial killers that show the relationship

between both environmental factors and genetic factors in serial killers. In conclusion, Lopez

(2015) stated that: Both the biological and environmental factors of serial killers play a role in

the sentencing and also in the understanding of why such horrendous crimes are committed.

One serial killer that is commonly referred to as being primarily created through nature

was David Berkowitz, better known as the Son of Sam. As a child and young man, all who knew

him described Berkowitz as quiet and polite. His adoptive parents Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz

raised David in a loving, supportive environment. The couple gave Berkowitz everything he

needed and treated him with the love any real parent would give. David grew up in an

environment that was conducive to good mental health and overall happiness.

Since Berkowitz lived in such a healthy environment without trauma, he is an excellent

example of a killer created by nature. Nature deals with genetics, and according to the evidence,
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 16

it appears that nature was the predominant cause of Berkowitzs killing spree. The nurturing that

Berkowitz received was, by all appearances, an appropriate and stable environment to grow up

in. His upbringing was of standard, if not superb, quality; therefore, the nature of his inner self

must be examined. Although there is no record of Davids biological familys mental health

conditions or criminal history, it is assumed that there were biological factors that contributed to

his behavior. It is clear that the nurturing he received from his adoptive parents could not have

possibly played a role in the killer he became. His positive childhood environment was not able

to override his natural mental tendencies.

Berkowitz stated that his reason for killing was that to keep the demons quiet. He

claimed that the demons in his head would not stop tormenting him; in order to get rid of them,

he began doing what they wanted. This mental deterioration is only one sign of deep

psychological disturbance. Along with this, Berkowitz also said that when dogs howled, he was

convinced that these dogs were demons asking him to kill women. Another example of his

mental disturbance affecting his life appeared when he was an adult. He was convinced that his

house owners were part of the demon conspiracy. Berkowitz later moved into another apartment,

but was still controlled by the demons in his mind. Due to this evidence, it is apparent that David

Berkowitz suffered from deep psychological dysfunction, most likely embedded in his genes.

Conclusion
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There is no conclusive answer to this debate. There is no way to truly tell what causes these

human beings to become the monsters that they are. Naturally, every person is born with

different genetic make-ups, and many argue that differences in genetic code do not create a

psycho killer. However, observations on the lives of serial killers and their experiences clearly

shows that nurture takes the dominant role in the creation of a serial killer. This is still a hotly

debated topic. Different criminologists point to different serial killers to support their theories

on what creates these monsters.

It is apparent that nurture takes the primary role in the creation of a serial killer. Nature

does play a major role in their creation and is responsible for a good portion of the process, but

not to the extent that nurture is responsible. No person is truly born evil; it takes traumatic

experiences to turn them evil. Children raised in unhappy homes develop closed off and distant

personalities. Some children in unhappy homes become violent and act out in drastic ways or

fantasize about killing people. Each of the killers that were researched was mentally,

emotionally, and sometimes physically and sexually traumatized at a young age. In order to cope

with these occurrences, they became bitter, anti-social, and violent. They then slowly developed

into the serial killers they one day would become. These monsters live through extremely

difficult childhoods that cause them to be closed off to the world and even resent humanity,

making it easier for them to murder other human beings.

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For deciding nature and nurture dichotomy for serial killers it is not easy to come up with

answer. There is no any correct answer for this situation. Modern geneticists have pointed out that

a nature-nurture dichotomy is clearly untenable, incorrect, and meaningless. The subject has to be

discussed in terms of the continuous and complex interactions between an organism and its

environment, and the relevant contributions of both sets of variables in determining the behavior

of the organism. Every different serial killers history and properties show that both nature and

nurture are essential. They may have biological and physical problems like head injuries, maternal

problems and very common poor abilities of parental attitudes. They also have physical and

psychological abuse. All of these examples show that both nature and nurture is essential.
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Beasley, J. L. (2004). Serial murder in America: Case studies of seven offenders. Behavioral

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Henson, J., & Olson, L. (2010). The Monster Within: How Male Serial Killers Discursively

Manage Their Stigmatized Identities. Communication Quarterly, 341-364.

Knight, Z. (2006). Some thoughts on the psychological roots of the behavior of serial killers as

narcissists: An object relations perspective. Social Behavior and Personality.

Lopez, E. (16 de May de 2015). Serial Killers and The Mind: Predestied or Environmentally

Influenced. Obtenido de https://seedsandfruitsessays.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/serial-

killers-and-the-mind-predestined-or-environmentally-influenced/

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