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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.
-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
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 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:
2. Causing death to the victim, at the time of the killing, was considered to be
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
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 6
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
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,
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
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
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
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
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 8
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.
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 9
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
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
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
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
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
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 13
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
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
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.
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 15
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.
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
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
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 17
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
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,
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.
SERIAL KILLERS: NATURE VS NURTURE 19
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Knight, Z. (2006). Some thoughts on the psychological roots of the behavior of serial killers as
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