I want to discuss why Americans have the whole serial killer issue. In most other countries, they don’t have wackos like we do. I want to know why Canadians and other countries don’t have a Jeffery Dahmer? If you all don’t know who that is, he is a very famous serial killer known for eating his victims.
Our Universities are now requiring us to take a critical thinking class or pass an exam for it just so they know were “critical thinkers” which means people who think properly. I took the class and they taught us to tell our feelings to get views from people. If they reject them or accept them or if their reaction is really weird, we should ask others and see if their reaction is the same. If it is we know if we are wrong or right.
I also took a sociology class which showed that crimes in states with Capital Punishment are less than those states without it. I completely agree with Capital Punishment under evidence of murder under sane circumstances.
I really want sociological research done on why it is that Americans have serial killers vs. other countries?
What is it in these sickos minds that causes them to so such things? I really don’t know. But what I really want to know is something that’s been left unknown for years. Are they mentally ill or capable of rational mentality? Lawyers argue over this issue in almost every court case involving a murder.
I think the Capital Punishment should be made universal in America. Our government should be doing its best to keep its citizens (rational ones) safe. If it is proven (which I mentioned earlier it is) that Capital Punishment decreases crimes, then I 100% agree it should be made universal.
We need a leader who understands that we have problems in our own country. Instead of just worrying about terrorists, take a look within your own borders.
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Many countries have serial killers.
The United States is the only country that turns them into celebrities.
lol thats funny. But then does that mean we love bad publicity? Cause if were making it a big deal then we must want to solve the problem. Too bad they havent invented a "test if your insane" machine yet.
That pretty much sums it up. I took a course on Serial Killers and how they're represented in the media here versus elsewhere a while back. It was pretty interesting stuff. We love to romanticize serial killers and hold a great fascination with the subject, as any look at the horror section of a movie store will show.
According to the FBI Behavioral Unit though, American is home to around 85 percent of the world's serial killers. I don't quite believe that; I think it's more that modern policing methods used here compared to policing methods and technologies in many other countries simply makes it easier for us to identify serial killer trends and relate killings to a single individual.
The list isn't complete, but Wiki (yeah, I said it) has a partial list of known serial killers by country of crime.
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~Fallon~
An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't- A. France
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thats cool, they actually have a course on serial killers! LOL
What did u guys learn exactly? Statistics and crime rates?
I'm studying forensic psychology and criminal justice, so it made sense to have a class on serial killers. We did case studies, theories, psychology and all that good stuff. It was a pretty interesting class.
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~Fallon~
An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't- A. France
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Well thats cool. I wish you luck in your field. Im studying Pharmacy. Idk if i'll ever deal with what you're working with, but i know statistics are useful, even in the business world.
Well, it sounds like you're really broaching on two pretty separate subjects here. You first say that we have the worst rate of serial killers in comparison with other countries, then you say that its been proven that crime rates of countries with the death penalty are lower than those without that penalty.
I have my own theory on serial killers. The average profile of a serial killer, according to John A. Dicke, Psy.D., J.D., and Shawn Engbrecht (a top instructor and security expert at the Center for Advanced Security Studies), is a white male, aged 20-40, with a high rate of intelligence, but who probably suffered abuse or was abandoned as a child, and demonstrated particular cruelty to others in his formative years. They normally lack the ability to follow things through to success, experiencing failure after failure in his life, especially when it comes to jobs.
Now, I hope I don't offend anyone with the stereotyping I'm about to do: I don't mean it to encompass all or even most white males, but am using generalities to expound on the point. And I do not have any data backing ANY of this up, just my own personal theory. But I call it the Rich White Boy Syndrome. Obviously serial killers are not "rich" normally, but I use that to refer to how our society places the white male at the top of the totem pole. In my opinion (IMO), these young men, who experience failure and cruelty throughout their life become angry and disenfranchised.
IMO they feel that they have been jipped, that being who they are, much more should have come to them in their lives much more easily than it has. IMO our society consistently implies that white males can have it all, if they only want it. So, IMO, when these disturbed men want it but cannot achieve it, and start to feel powerless over their situations, despite what society was supposed to "gift" them with, they use ritual force to give themselves back the power they feel was slipping through their fingers.
Again, this is only my personal theory on why the majority of serial killers are white males in their prime in our society.
About the crime rates i was talking within American states alone. I like that you put your own opinion.
Is this what you are trying to say:
that not necesarrily white males but people who have been abused and distressed take out their frustration in the method of serial killing?
Because if it is, here is my opinon about that:
(1) first of all, killing alot of people isn't gonna make you wealthy, or solve your problems.
(2) second of all, there must be some serious chemical damage in your brain if you (not the person i'm responding to) express your stress and anger through killing others
(3) I may agree that the majority of the people who are serial killers in America are white males, but have you watched the tv program "snapped" where females kill their husbands/boyfriends? It may not be considered serial killing since they only kill one person, but it is still a crime of murder commited by FEMALES.
please feel free to follow-up on my opinion
I can vouch for JadePnk's profile of a serial killer. Sociologists and criminal profilers agree that most serial killers are middle aged white males. Why this is so, I don't have quite a well constructed theory. I do believe that emotional and mental instability are a major cause of it, which, like JadePnk pointed out, is often caused by abuse as a child.
Of course, there are non-white and female serial killers. Take the DC sniper for example.
I must have misunderstood what she was trying to say. My reply to her was just to say that the fact that "white middle aged males" aren't justified to kill on behalf of abuse in the past or lack of success. The quotations stood for the stereotype. I would like to know so also why this stereotype is true.
I agree that it is obviously a deranged line of thinking, but I still feel that it is about a power dynamic that they feel they deserve but was not given through other avenues. And I do agree that abuse is no reason to commit these atrocities, but I don't think anyone can deny that in at least many cases it plays a factor in the disturbed thoughts and actions.
As for women murdering their boyfriends and husbands, yes, it does happen, and much more often than serial killings, but at the same time, there are many more instances of violence and murder of women by people they are intimate with than of men.
Again, IMO, it comes down to the power-dynamic, albeit in a far less extreme form.
wives were about half of all spouses in the population in 2002
I found that a particularly amusing statement given our terror of same-sex marriage. I'm probably missing the obvious, but if they were only "nearly" half... who else are they counting here in the spousal pool to acount for the rest of the not quite 50 percent?
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~Fallon~
An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't- A. France
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One of the original serial killers was Elizabeth Bathory, a duchess from Transylvania in the early 1600s. She preyed on young women, and killed them so that she could bathe in their blood. Absolutely out of her mind. She's the figure that partially inspired the Dracula story. Anyway, the point is, serial killers are all over the world.
I disagree with capital punishment. The US is one of the only modern industrialized nations to continue to utilize it, and we are members of a not-so-notable company, which includes China, Pakistan, and Iran.
In the US, there are a few problems with the death penalty. Firstly, it is permanent and irreversible. A mistake would mean the death of an innocent man. Fortunately, there has not yet been a proven case of wrongful execution, but it's certainly possible. Secondly, blacks in America are disproportionally sentenced to death far more often than other races, for similar crimes. The best way to combat an issue like this is to suspend capital punishment indefinitely.
If you don't see any moral problems with capital punishment like I do, consider the financial problems: it actually costs more tax payer money to execute someone than to jail them for life. Tens of thousands of dollars go into the appeals and legal costs for condemned criminals.
I've heard about Elizabeth Bathory. I've seen a movie made about her but idk what it was called. It was about video games and people who played it, the game became real and they had to defeat her or they die for real.
As for Capital Punishment
(1) I definitely don't think that innocent people should be put to death. Mistakes can be prevented given time and lots of backup. If that is not available, than i disagree with death as a sentence.
(2) i didn't know that blacks are sentenced the death penalty for the same crimes as whites, so i agree to it IF there is no racism, sexism, or any other -ism involved.
(3) as for the taxes, if it is going to make our country safer, i don't mind paying high taxes. We are paying taxes for things anyways, might as well use them for our safety.
(4) even if we are only one of the few countries that have this penalty, does not mean we should discontinue it. That is not enough proof to discontinue something.
I am not trying to be rude, so please don't take this reply as some kind of rude comment or anything. I am just trying to justify what i believe in. I would appreciate your reply to this as well as i am always open to all comments whether rude or not.
: )
Apart from our desire to feel better about ourselves (which is why we slow down to watch car accidents, or watch reality television in which people act like selfish pricks), a big reason why many serial killers (or any killing), we don't have much of a desire (generally) to lift up the bad guys.
Exceptions would be people who rob Vegas or idiots that throw red paint on people wearing fur.
What we do have is a desire to see how depraved everyone else is. ("therefore I am good, because everyone else is HORRIBLE! Just look on TV!" )
Remember, also, that most countries do NOT have free press. If you were running an oppressive tyranny, would you want to let your security look lax by reporting about a serial killer? Or would you find the guy and put a bullet in his head? Most do the latter.
We can't be too suprised when our western values of freedom of speech/press aren't echoed everywhere. Just because it is not reported often does not mean it does not happen.
The sun may rise in the east, but it sets in the west.
thats a good way to put it i guess. I never thought of it that way.
Jumping a little off topic:
But now we need to find a cure for serial killers rather than a cure for cancer. In some way i think they are mental and rational at the same time. Its weird.
I think cancer kills significantly more people than serial killers do. I hope they find a cure for cancer first. And AIDS, and malaria, and MS, and all kinds of things that kill more people. Then put money into curing serial killers.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I was trying to use a metaphor. Of course i hope they'd find a cure for cancer first, so many people in my family and around the world have been affected by it.
Gotcha. I missed that. ;)
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman