A study on mental disorder in serial killers

Serial killers pose a special problem for crime investigators because their motives are often far less obvious than those of the person who commits a single homicide. In most homicides, the victim somehow knew the killer, and that makes it easier to narrow down the list of possible suspects. This is not the case with serial killers; there is usually no easily determined relationship and so tracking down the killer is that much harder. The investigators need to know what it was about that particular person that attracted the killer. As such, officers must focus on the motivation of the serial killer and track him/her down that way. Mentally disordered offenders are overrepresented among homicide recidivists: those who go on killing again. For example, profiles of many serial killers show that many of them had suffered sever head injuries to the frontal lobe of their brain when they were children. If there is frontal lobe damage or abnormal activity in this region of the brain, there is an inability to make rational decisions. Neuroscientists have known that lesions to this part of the brain lead to severe deficits in violent behaviors. The authors of the present article deal with every factor which plays a role in shaping the mental state of a serial killer with focus on mental disorder. Psychological and biological causes, personality disorders which are responsible for shaping criminal motives, history of childhood development, senses of dominance and fantasy, and typology of serial killers are discussed in the present article.