“PSYCHOLOGY”

SS-229

BATCH-16, 17 & 19
SECTION-B

PSYCHOLOGY OF SERIAL KILLER AND OTHE VIOLENT CRIMES

Submitted By:
Name: ALI SUFFIAN Roll #: 16L-5474

Name: TALHA IFTHIKAR Roll #: 17L-4687

Name: AFFAQ Roll #: 17L-4608

Name: ASJAD ADIL Roll #: 17L-4608

Name: BASIT TARIQ Roll #: 19L-0711

(DEC 04, 2020)

Submitted To: MA’AM ASIYA HUMA KHAN

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COMPUTER AND EMERGING SCIENCES,
LAHORE

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We feel immense pleasure in expressing our propounded regards and deep sense of gratitude to our
Psychology subject madam Asiya Huma Khan for her constructive criticism, constant encouragements
and especially for creating in us the spirit of independent thinking. Her keen interest and untiring
assistance enabled us to complete this project. Our team has put efforts in the research to get
knowledge about the study area, different practices that are common. Indeed, it would not have been
achievable without the support and help from the university and facility, as they have provided us with
full facilities to conduct our research and design. We would like to say heartfelt thanks to all of them.

We would also like to express our gratitude towards madam Asiya Huma Khan for the kind co-operation
and encouragement which helped us in completion of this project. We are very grateful to our ma’am
who helped us with the technical aspects of the report and also develop the insight in practical aspects
of our given topic. Last but not the least we would like to thank our friends and family for their unfailing
support and encouragement.

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 DECLARATION
We declare that the work presented in this report belongs to us completely. In case any of the
information provided is found plagiarized or copied from any source, we are aware that we may be held
liable for it and serious actions can be taken against us.

Dated: DEC 04, 2020

ALI SUFFIAN Signature: ------------------

TALHA IFTHIKAR Signature: ------------------

AFFAQ Signature: ------------------

ASJAD ADIL Signature: ------------------

BASIT TARIQ Signature: ------------------

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 ABSTRACT
The worldview that depicts a serial murderer as a white man, an evil creature with an unnatural
body, a broken partnership, and a sadistic sexual pleasure murdering should be questioned.
Researchers should approach the open mind when looking for awareness of this phenomenon
without preconceived conclusions or theories. In addition, each serial killer's drive to kill
multiple victims may be special, depending on his or her background and experience, and is thus
impossible to calculate. Psychological considerations have been discussed for this reason. Most
of the data are drawn from books published on the creation of serial killers. The following causes
have been identified: stress/trauma, power/control and the desire for belonging. Loneliness, low
self-esteem, emotionally sadistic and abusive pornography, American culture, peer pressures,
Satanism, parental habits, and neurodevelopmental problems. The explanation of the causes and
the interrelationship between them is animal torture or sexual or physical violence in childhood
and is thus addressed. Factors such as the desire for identity, isolation, power/control,
stress/trauma, and poor self-esteem tend to be interrelated in the process.

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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF VIOLENT CRIMES ......................... 7
1.1 Criminology ................................................................................................................................. 7
1.2 Psychological factors of violent crimes ......................................................................................... 7
1. Failures in psychological development ......................................................................................... 7
2. Learned Behaviors of aggression and violence ............................................................................. 8
3. Personality traits .......................................................................................................................... 8
a. Anti-social values:.................................................................................................................... 8
b. Criminal peers: ......................................................................................................................... 8
c. Anti-social behavior: ................................................................................................................ 8
d. Low self-control: ...................................................................................................................... 8
e. Substance Abuse: ..................................................................................................................... 8
4. Relationship of criminality to mental illness ................................................................................. 8
1.3 A Case study of violent crime ....................................................................................................... 9
1.3.1 SETTING PEOPLE ON FIRE ......................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 2: SERIAL KILLINGS AND THEIR PSYCHOLOGAL FACTORS ......................................................... 10
2.1 Serial Killer ................................................................................................................................. 10
2.2 Characteristics of Serial Killers.................................................................................................... 10
2.3 Psychological factors of Serial Killers .......................................................................................... 10
a. Anger: .................................................................................................................................... 10
b. Financial issues: ..................................................................................................................... 11
c. Reward seeking personality: ................................................................................................... 11
d. Control conscious:.................................................................................................................. 11
e. Ideology/Mindset: .................................................................................................................. 11
f. Biological illness: ................................................................................................................... 11
g. Fantasy fulfillment: ................................................................................................................ 11
2.4 Case studies of Serial killers ....................................................................................................... 11
1. Jeffrey Dahmer .......................................................................................................................... 11
1.1 Into the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: (A detailed psychoanalysis)................................................. 11
2. David Ray Parker ........................................................................................................................ 12
2.2 Into the Mind of David Ray Parker: (A detailed psychoanalysis) .............................................. 12
3. Richard Chase ............................................................................................................................ 13
3.1 Into the Mind of Richard Chase: (A detailed psychoanalysis) .................................................. 13

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CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION AND REFERENCES ......................................................................................... 14
3.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 14
3.2 References ............................................................................................................................. 14

Table of Figures
Figure 1: Importance of family structure and integrity ............................................................................. 7
Figure 2: Violent crimes versus Non-violent crimes .................................................................................. 9

Tables
Table 1: Common characteristics of serial killers .................................................................................... 10

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF
VIOLENT CRIMES

1.1 Criminology

It is the study of crimes and criminals. The study of behavior of criminals falls under this
domain. Criminologists are trying to address questions like Why do criminals commit crimes?
Let's take a look at the social explanations of violence that can give us insight into the
psychology behind violent crimes.

1.2 Psychological factors of violent crimes

Psychological crime theories state that criminal activity is the product of various thought
processes. There are several various psychology hypotheses, but they all agree that an
individual's actions are the product of his own thoughts and emotions. There are four key
theories on the psychological philosophy of crime that characterize the mentality of criminals:

1. Psychological developmental failures

Some people commit crimes because they don't develop or grow in the way others do. Some are
at greater risk of becoming offenders due to the conditions under which they were born. For
example a person who grew up without his parents, no one was there to teach him what was
morally right or wrong in his childhood, will not feel guilty after stealing anything, nor will he
hesitate to do so. The graph below shows that the proportion of young people who were not
intact with their families had higher proportion of crimes committed.

Figure 1: Importance of family structure and integrity

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 2. Behaviors learned from aggression and violence

The main idea behind it is that if a person is surrounded or grew up in an environment of

violence and aggression, there is a good chance that he might turn himself aggressive and
violent. It's because he's learned that violence and aggression are acceptable. For example, if a
child's father shouts at his mother and drinks alcohol, the child is likely to turn out the same way,
because his father has taught him that it is normal to get frustrated by screaming at others and
drinking alcohol.

3. Personality traits

Psychologists suggest that there could be certain personality traits that increase the vulnerability
of someone to criminal behavior. There are therefore, some traits that criminals tend to have in
common. These are the as follow

a. Anti-social values: It assumes that criminal behavior is justified; it may blame others for
their negative behavior. It is also called criminal thinking.
b. Criminal peers: An individual with this characteristic may have colleagues or associates
who are engaged in criminal activity. Bad company or colleagues persuade an individual
to engage in illegal activity.
c. Anti-social behavior: A person who has conducted an atypical behavior before age of
fifteen for example killed an animal, running away from home, stealing etc.
d. Low self-control: The person is unable to control his aggression and impulsivity; as a
result he fails to think clearly before acting, ends up committing a crime.
e. Substance Abuse: The abuse of drugs or alcohol reduces a person’s ability to live
productive and successful life.

Most criminals have similar traits that play a significant role to engage them in crimes, although
there are more traits than described above, but they give us a good idea of personality of a
criminal.

4. Criminality relationship with mental illness

Any person with psychiatric problems probably commits offences, but this is not evident of all
people with mental disease. There is a higher than expected number of offenders with psychiatric
problems. For example, individuals who experience schizophrenia and show early antisocial
behavior frequently display consistent and flexible habits of criminal offences. The graph below
illustrates the relationship between disorders of behavior and crimes.

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 Figure 2: Violent crimes versus Non-violent crimes

1.3 A Case study of violent crime

1.3.1 SETTING PEOPLE ON FIRE

In one region in West Virginia, five fire crews were arrested for allegedly starting 11 fires had
the slogan which meant that they light them and then they fight them.
One of the six men suspected of arson telling the police in Maryland is the biggest case of
residential arson in memory of the fact that the fires were meant to raise the visibility of the local
car club.
The police believe [three retired volunteer firefighters] set fire to the house so that they will be
the first to be seen on the scene as heroes. Yesterday, just outside the White House entrance, a
man who set himself on fire was saddened by his desperate return to Yemen. Since revealing that
he had set fire to a woman's flat, a 30-year-old man in New York faces up to 20 years in prison
while she and her children stayed there after the women rejected his proposals.
"A 41-year-old man was arrested in Bellevue, Washington," he added, "after setting fire to his
house to block voices or get rid of viewers he believed were on TV.

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 CHAPTER 2: SERIAL KILLINGS AND THEIR PSYCHOLOGAL FACTORS

2.1 Serial Killer

“The serial killer is a man who murdered 3 or 4 victims over a span of more than thirty days
having a cooling cycle between every murder and the reason for murdering is primarily based on
psychological gratification.”
Murders may have been planned or committed in a similar way, and victims may have shared
common backgrounds or interests, such as occupation, ethnicity, gender, or age bracket.
Sometimes killings have a sexual aspect.

2.2 Characteristics of Serial Killers

Some of the significant characteristics of how a typical serial killer looks and behave like are
given below in the table. Most of the factors are discussed however these may not cover every
sort of killer out in the world.
Table 1: Common characteristics of serial killers

Characteristics of Serial Killers

Most serial killers caught were single,
white males.
Intelligent and have unique mindset.
Employment difficulties
Unstable family history
Most of them were left alone by their
fathers and were brought up by their
mothers single handedly.
Are mostly involved in exhibition,
sensuality and perverted sexual
material
Often have background of improper
bed wetting
Mostly set fires and seem to be
interested in them.
Habit of torturing small animals
Psychologically upset, law breaker and
have alcohol problem by nature.

2.3 Psychological factors of Serial Killers

The points made are not really meant to be a complete predictor of serial offenders. They are also
not meant to explain their motives. According to a published report by the FBI in year 2005, here
are the listed theories that can be the possible cause behind such psychotic behavior of a deviated
human being.
a. Rage/Anger: Rage is a clear source of anger or hostility on the part of the victim to either
a single subgroup of the community, such as the homeless, the gay community or the
world overall.

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 b. Financial issues: Economic gain is a justification for the murderer to make money off
killings that are not connected to narcotics or organized crime. Several indications of
such offenses are pleasure killings, home invasion or multiple killings involving
insurance or medical fraud.
c. Reward seeking personality: Criminal enterprise is another motive under which the
perpetrator gains in terms of status or monetary gain for committing a narcotics, gang or
organized crime-related murder. For example, a drug gang may commit murder in order
to eradicate its rivals.
d. Control conscious: Control is a reason for the killer to feel empowered and/or gratified
as he murders his victims. The act of violence is also an ending in itself.
e. Ideology/Mindset: Ideology is a desire to commit murder in order to further the desires
and ideas of a particular individual or culture. Case studies of these include terrorist
groups or individuals that out of utter disdain of the group, attack a particular racial,
gender or ethnic group.
f. Biological illness: Psychosis is an unusual case in which the person suffers from a
debilitating psychiatric disorder and murders solely because of the illness. Disorder can
include auditory, sensory delusions and paradoxical, grandiose, or strange perceptions.
g. Fantasy fulfillment: Sexually-based incentive is motivated by the sexual interests or
wishes of the perpetrator. There may or may not be signs of physical intercourse at the
scene of the crime.

2.4 Case studies of Serial killers

1. Jeffrey Dahmer

NAME OF SERIAL KILLER Jeffrey Dahmer

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN White/American
VICTIMS KILLED 17 people
TERROR DURATION: From 1978 till 1991
FACTORS FOR MOTIVE Pedophilia and Sexual assault
KILLING METHOD Drugs and Suffocation victims
PUNISHMENT Serving 937 years in jail.
EVIL SCALE Twenty Two

1.1 Into the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: (A detailed psychoanalysis)

 Dahmer began to deconstruct the pets as a child. He murdered a man, then waited 10
years for another man to be killed again. He had to be on probation for a year for

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 exposing himself and ejaculating publicly at the front of two 12-year-old girls. Spent a bit
of time in gay pubs, he'd have a talk with the guys, and then he'd drink his drinks. He
didn't just kill these men; he was just researching at that time.
 After having sex with one of the victims at the Dahmer hotel, he killed his second victim;
he was intoxicated and did not remember to shoot him. According to Dahmer's view,
gender, emotional support, and mortality were all linked collectively.
 He began to use acid as a method of way to dispose of the remains of his victims. He
used a refrigerator to hold human flesh, a human head freezer, a filing cabinet to hold
grotesque photos, and used pots to scrape the skin from the bones of his victims.
 A refugee had escaped from Dahmer's apartment. He was in a position to notify the
police, which led to the arrest of Dahmer. Dahmer was captured and murdered by a
mentally disturbed inmate while in jail.

2. David Ray Parker

NAME OF SERIAL KILLER David Ray Parker

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN White/American
VICTIMS KILLED 14 to 60 people killed
TERROR DURATION: From 1950 till 1999
FACTORS FOR MOTIVE Sadism, sex slavery and murder
KILLING METHOD Suffocating victims
PUNISHMENT Serving 224 years in prison
EVIL SCALE Twenty two

2.2 Into the Mind of David Ray Parker: (A detailed psychoanalysis)

 David used to execute and torture his hostages in a million dollar torture room that he
called his "toy box" containing whips, chains, pulleys, ropes, wrenches, leg spreader bars
and medical blade and chisels.
 He also had assorted sex aids, bondage devices, and detailed drawings illustrating various
methodologies of causing pain, an electric motor used in punishment, and a 12-volt
motorized chest stretcher..
 His daughter was accused of murdering one of his victims, and his live-in partner was
introduced to the victims as "mistress"
 Parker was arrested after one of his hostages survived after three days of robbery and
torture. He died 8 months after he was sentenced to prison.

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 3. Richard Chase

NAME OF SERIAL KILLER Richard Chase

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN White/American
VICTIMS KILLED Six victims were killed
TERROR DURATION: One Month in 1977
FACTORS FOR MOTIVE Pedophilia, drinking victims’ blood
and Sexual assault
KILLING METHOD Shooting victims
PUNISHMENT Was given Death sentence.
EVIL SCALE Seventeen

3.1 Into the Mind of Richard Chase: (A detailed psychoanalysis)

 Richard was a victim of abuse on his maternal side. Chase captured, murdered, and
castrated various animals, who he would then consume raw, and even mix and consume
raw organs with soft drinks in a food processor. Chase believed that the consumption of
the animals would prevent his heart from fainting.
 Richard showed the symptoms of the McDonald Triad (that is socially disturbed behavior
involving animal harm, causing fire and consistent bedwetting).
 He was involuntarily committed to a mental institution after being taken to the hospital
for blood poisoning, which he contracted from injecting rabbit's blood in to his veins.
 He was identified with delirious disorder and was administered with anti-depressants.
He was no more perceived as a threat to humanity, and was released in 1967.
 After killing his second pregnant victim, Chase had sex with her corpse, mutilated her,
and was found drenched in the women's blood.
 Chase was engaged in pedophilia and human sacrifice with all his women victims. For
his last scene of the crime, he raped a six-year-old girl and then murdered her, drank her
blood and ate her organs before disposing of her body in a local church..
 Richard Chase was convicted of six first-grade murders. The jury refused the plea of not
guilty on the basis of madness and was condemned to death. Since learning the vivid and
bizarre descriptions of his crimes, Chase's fellow prisoners became evidently terrified of
him. They have attempted to persuade Chase to commit his own murder.
 Chase was found dead in his cell on 26 December 1980. He committed suicide by
ingesting a vast amount of antidepressants he had concealed in his cell.

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 CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION AND REFERENCES
3.1 Conclusion
In terms of their psychic existence, serial murderers are characterized by assassination. This is
the product of a download or termination of the great emotional strain they had before the
assassination. True assassination is the final move in a sequence of anti-human acts in which
force has been used before, violence being the product of ongoing spiritual deterioration. Thus,
we might assume that the serial murderer is the most hateful and most dangerous offender. This
person displays irritability, impulsiveness and increased aggressiveness. He is egocentric,
dominant, with a poor potential for thought, dysfunctional and shallow in emotional interaction,
allowing him participate in contradictory circumstances, responding aggressively. Knowing the
origins and neurological features of killings, assaults and crimes makes it easier to understand
deviant conduct in order to find ways to deter, identify and eliminate it and to find ways to
rehabilitate it.

In end, we believe it is best not to ignore the negative sides of daily life, not to picture them from
ourselves, and to be more mindful of what affects us. Only deterrence, as a method of crime
intervention, through family and school education, through cultural practices or even through our
jobs, will help us understand the dark world of crime.

3.2 References

1. The Development of Serial Killers: A Grounded Theory Study. (2018, June). Meher

Sharma.

2. Spiru Harvet University. (2013, January). No One is born a Serial Killer! (No. 5). Ilie

Magdalena Ioana.

3. Serial Murder and the Psychology of Violent Crimes. (2008, January). R.N. Kocsis.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-049-6

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