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Question for everyone on here

We Never Know

No Slack
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.

"Are serial killers born or made?"

"Not unsurprisingly, no one really knows the answer to this question. The most likely answer, though, is that the majority of the most prolific and dangerous serial killers were genetically disposed to behave anti-socially and furthermore grew up in an environment that cultivated a disregard for the lives of others."

Do All Serial Killers Have a Genetic Predisposition to Kill?


"Breakthroughs in neuroscience are changing the way criminals are defended in court. Scientific research on brain scans and DNA has provided new insight on how some kinds of criminals are different from law-abiding citizens. Differences in their brains and genes may predispose them to violence."

Can Genes And Brain Abnormalities Create Killers?
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.

There are several reasons why someone can become a serial killer, mistreatment/abuse while growing up is one, perhaps the main one
 

Lain

Well-Known Member
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.

I don't think that it has just one cause like that. The disposition of their body, how they grew up, their own free choices, and more are all influences and put them on this path I think.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.
No. I think a genetic disposition applies as well.

It dosent mean they will nessessarly kill, but the potential will certainly be there.
 

Laika

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.

Due to my own bias, I'd lean towards thinking it develops over the course of a person's life time. But I could easily be wrong and I'm comfortable with the probability it's a combination of multiple factors rather than any single over-riding one.
 

mangalavara

सो ऽहम्
Premium Member
A friend of mine who is working on a master's degree in counselling explained to me lately that there is definitely a positive (not as in 'good') correlation between being abused as a child and growing up to become a serial killer. It reminds me of the 'nature vs. nurture' thing: it's not either one or the other shapes that us psychologically, rather, both do. And, as someone who is not a determinist, I think each of us has free will in the sense that we are capable of making choices that are consistent or inconsistent with our nature and background. It reminds me of the concept of angst in Existentialism. As human beings in particular, there is a kind of dread that arises from knowing that each of us as individuals has the power to make choices that other creatures would likely not make such as jumping off a mountain.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.

What I believe is they were at one time put in a situation were they were powerless. Someone held power over then. This is really a blow to the ego. In order to regain that power, the power over someone else's life or death is an immense power to have over someone. They get a feeling of joy having regained the power taken from them by someone else. This feeling of joy is what they chase after which makes them a serial killer.

I don't think everyone becomes a serial killer because of an event like this. Genetics I believe also plays a roll. Not that a son will become a serial killer because their father was but the genetical potential causes a greater chance of it.

We are victims of both our genetics and our environment, IMO.
 

`mud

Just old
Premium Member
...as they grow up...we can't know yet....I'm almost 83...still growing......pretty soon...
 

wandering peacefully

Which way to the woods?
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.
A lot of it seems to be connected with environmental factors, ie how one was raised and youth experience, .

But there are also brain studies which indicate neurological disturbances within common genetic factors serial killers share.

A very fascinating subject. It's so difficult to fathom the minds of people who can kill one human never mind a series of humans.
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.
As with every other aspect of human nature, I think it is dangerous to try to oversimplify. The plain fact is, because we are mentally so sophisticated (in terms of all other animals in our world, so far as we can tell), how that sophistication can "go wrong" should also be a complex topic.

Everything about us, in my view, is a complex interaction of genetics, in utero environment (which includes maternal events), and nurture. And, possibly, eventually circumstances -- a potential killer may never kill because the opportunity never arose, and another might become a serial killer because an opportunity did arise that reinforced what was already there.

I really think we should stop trying to reduce everything to simplistic formulae. We aren't simple critters.
 

Hold

Day Dreamer
Premium Member
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.
I believe there are individual examples of other primates that demonstrate killer traits. The key word is 'serial' (killer). An individual that seems to kill for no gain or simple reason. The primate I mentioned was a chimp that killed other chimps for no known reason (the chimp was video taped in the wild). Before seeing this video I thought animals didn't kill their own kind.....(the exception being competing for a mate)
 
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Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Do you believe serial killers become what they are because of how they grow up?:) I do.
Yeah, 'Samskaras', how they are brought up, lack of social values in the environment in which they grew up and their education makes them so.
 
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Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Do you believe serial killers.Become what they are because of how they grow up?:)I do.

To some extent. On another I think that gives an "excuse" that people can make ill choices without needing uncontrolled justification for them. For example, I can walk up to my co-worker now and hit her on the head. To say that I was raised to do this would be pushing it. Not sure how the severity of the "hit" invalidates people making choices and/or despite of how they were raised.
 
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