Whether it's a conflict between two people or multiple nations, the reason to kill may be linked to the fact that one party wants what the other party possesses. That might motivate people to kill in order to take or protect those resources. The intellectual and emotional need for those resources is often greater than the reluctance to kill. In the United States, homicide statistics show that men commit more than 80 percent of all murders reported to the authorities [source: Bureau of Justice Statistics ].
Are men genetically driven to be more violent than women? We don't have all the answers -- the reason may be more than a biological tendency. For most people, killing another person -- or many other people -- isn't a trivial matter. But there are times when one person ends the life of another that seem to defy reason. What makes that happen? A person with antisocial personality disorder feels no empathy toward others.
This psychological designation includes people we call psychopaths and sociopaths. They feel very little emotion at all and may seek out dangerous or thrilling situations to get an emotional response. They tend to be deceitful and feel no shame or guilt for misleading others.
While they may recognize right from wrong, they may not care about the distinction. Knowing right from wrong is important in the legal world.
It separates sane people from the insane. An insane person, by legal definition, is one incapable of distinguishing reality from fantasy or isn't able to control his or her own actions [source: Hill and Hill ]. Just because a person demonstrates sociopathic tendencies doesn't mean that person is insane. Whether antisocial personality disorder is chiefly an inherited trait or the result of environmental influences is a matter of debate.
It's likely a product of both, and not all individuals who suffer from antisocial personality disorder will display violent tendencies. But the lack of empathy and the drive to seek out thrills can lead to violent confrontations. Many serial killers and mass murderers fall into this designation -- they kill because they lack the inhibitions and empathy the rest of us possess.
What about acts of genocide? How do societies justify wiping out an entire subsection of people? According to a hypothesis posed by Ervin Staub, genocide is a result of a combination of environmental hardships and psychological coping. Staub suggests that when times are hard, people look for an excuse or scapegoat. That can include identifying a subsection of the population as being responsible for the hardship the community experiences.
Wiping out that population is a way to cope with the hardship. It's a means to solve a problem, even though the solution and problem aren't necessarily connected in reality. Staub points out this process is complicated and takes time -- it's generally not a spontaneous reaction. Manslaughter Manslaughter is a homicide that is the unintentional killing of another person. Voluntary manslaughter occurs when a person kills another without any premeditation.
An example of voluntary manslaughter is killing committed in the heat of the passion. The intent was to kill another person or inflict bodily harm, however, the action was not premeditated.
The provocation must be such that a reasonable person under the same circumstances would have acted the same way. Penalties for voluntary manslaughter include up to 11 years in prison. Involuntary manslaughter is when a person is killed by actions that involve a wanton disregard for life by another.
Involuntary manslaughter is committed without premeditation and without the true intent to kill, but the death of another person still occurs as a result. He decapitated at least twelve victims and kept their heads in his apartment at times as souvenirs.
Sometimes, he would break into a house and bludgeon the victims to death. He was captured in in Utah, but managed to escape twice. During the escapes, he committed more assaults, including three murders. He received three death sentences and died in the electric chair in Florida in Disorganised Killers Disorganised killers do not plan, but attack suddenly.
Their victim will just, unfortunately, be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The killer will not usually bring a weapon, but will use something they find at the scene, such as a rock or pipe. They do not dispose of the body, but make take souvenirs.
It is easier to track them because they are disorganised. Mixed Killers Some killers cannot be classified. They may kill occasionally when they are drinking or taking drugs. They may be involved with other criminals who kill. This is a category for those killers who do not fit neatly into disorganised or organised killers. The FBI model has been criticised as this can be confusing.
Organised killers may be psychopaths who plan their crimes and often kill in cold blood. But disorganised killers could also be psychopaths, but may also be psychotic.
Psychotic means that they have lost touch with reality. They may have hallucinations or delusions. It describes a condition called antisocial personality disorder, which describes many of the people we would consider serial killers. With this disorder, the person has a disregard for the law and social norms. They usually have a long history of arrests and fights. Some are very skilful at lying. They may act impulsively with no regards for their safety or the safety of others.
It's possible that killers who were never soldiers -- including most serial killers or mass murderers -- had experiences similar to those of a military recruit. The major difference is that with these killers, the exposure wasn't in a controlled environment. The backgrounds of many killers show a history of brutalization. In several cases, the killers began to enact violence on weaker creatures as a way of asserting control or demonstrating behaviors learned through being brutalized.
Look into the backgrounds of serial killers, and you'll start to notice some common elements. Many people who eventually become serial killers had traumatic childhoods and were themselves victims of abuse. It's a gross oversimplification to suggest a traumatic childhood is the chief contributing factor to a serial killer's behavior, but there does appear to be a strong correlation.
Many killers have expressed feelings of alienation and have shown evidence of harboring violent fantasies before they commit to killing. In some cases, the killer suffers from a mental disorder or brain damage that either inhibits or prevents the social and psychological restrictions humans have toward killing other people.
Whether we're repressing urges that are more than several millennia old or we're naturally averse to ending the life of another person, it's clear that in most cases we need a catalyst to push us to killing. Identifying and understanding the elements that can change a person at risk into a killer may help us treat and prevent tragedy in the future.
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Sources Brooks, David. June 25,
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