Further Research

As I get farther and farther into my research on serial killers I'm starting to understand them slightly. After having read various sources and biographies of different killers there seems to be no one clear cut reason for their behavior. I read an in-depth biography on Jeffrey Dahmer and learned that he had what most would consider a normal childhood and very loving parents. It seems that his problems began at a very early age when he moved with his family and became very withdrawn from the world around him. On the other hand, John Wayne Gacy's father was an alcoholic that physically abused his mother and verbally berated his children. What I have noticed in my research is that a lot of serial killers have had some sort of brain injury. Is there a possibility that this could be related to them later developing into a serial killer? If that is so, then why doesn't everyone who suffers some sort of head trauma turn into a monstrous murderer? I'm starting to see that both environmental and physiological factors are at work here. Furthermore there seems to be no one combination of events and genes that will automatically generate a serial killer. I hope to find more information in my research efforts to help me draw a better conclusion in this matter.

Finding sources

It makes sense for me to start my research off with figuring out just what a serial killer is. To figure this out I turned to Google. I found a website called DeviantCrimes. This website has many different definitions of the term. This didn't really help me to narrow down the definition of a serial killer at all. I decided to move on from there and start researching some of the common terms you hear in association to serial killers. When you hear about serial killers you usually hear the term psychopath. So I thought that I should research this first and figure out just what a psychopath is. I searched in Google and found an article that I thought would be able to help me with this. The first article that I read was What “Psychopath” Means. This article helped give me a good definition of the word and helped to dispel some common myths about psychopaths. This made me wonder if there were any feelings at all that a psychopath felt at all? I once again turned to Google and I found the article titled The Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath. I was intrigued to learn that psychopaths do feel some emotions, they just don't feel them the way that a normal person would. I also learned that it is possible to treat someone with a psychopathic condition. Now that I have learned these things I can go on to explore next week just how a serial killer comes to be. 

Intro for my I-search essay

I've always been fascinated by science. Even as a young child I wanted to learn more about the world around me. This love of science has morphed over the years into an obsession with criminal science. I often spend my free time watching shows like “Forensic Files” and “CSI.” While watching “Forensic Files” one day I saw an episode that initially got me interested in serial killers. Murder in itself is interesting to me, but a serial killer is something more then just your run of the mill murderer. Where as most murders are motivated by jealousy or greed, a murder committed by a serial killer is motivated by something more. But what?

I've always speculated that a serial killer is made and not born. That something, somewhere in their life went horribly wrong and transformed them into a monster. I don't think that a person is born predisposed to killing. I've always assumed that most criminals have had a bad childhood. I know that the way a person is treated as a child impacts them for the rest of their lives. Is it the same for a serial killer? Having read a few biographies of well known serial killers it leaves me wondering about my theory.

What turns a seemingly normal person into a crazed killer? Is it a result of a traumatic childhood experience? Or is it caused by a mutation in a person's genes? These are the things that I wonder about when I hear the words serial killer. Is there just one factor that causes their decent into depravity or are there multiple components involved? These are a few of the questions that I'm hoping to find the answers to as I delve more into the world of serial killers.

Switching topics: Choosing an I-search topic

Coming up with a topic for my I-search paper is not very easy. I can't seem to find something that I really want to learn about. And when I do find something that interests me it's not something that I can really research. Some of the ideas that I've come up with so far are more for a scientific experiment. Like which diaper has better absorption? Or which is the best formula for my daughter? Another topic that I might like to write about is weather or not Wal-mart is a fair employer. A potential downside to this topic is that I could loose my job if I say anything negative about them. I do find myself drawn towards criminal justice and the science related to it. I'm drawn even more to serial killers. How where they driven to do the things that they did? I think that I might go with this topic. I'm fascinated by their thought processes and their lack of empathy. But which one to choose? There's the BTK killer Dennis Rader or John Wayne Gacy. Or do I go with the more well known serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy? I will have to figure out what I want to know and go from there I think. I might also base my choice on who I can find more credible research resources on.