Serial Killer Sadism

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A serial killer is technically defined as “a person who murders three or more people, usually due to abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break (a "cooling off period") between them” ( Holmes, 2010, pg. ?). The motive for a serial killing can be anything from anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking (Morton, 2005). Most people think of serial killers as socially intolerable, hideous, and mentally insane people. For the most part, this is not true. However, there are ways to categorize these killers. A serial killer usually has his or her own specific nature, or signature (CITATION). Often times, the killer will commit their crimes to satisfy a sexual…show more content…
?). Sadism is one of the most common sexual needs that a serial killer can display. A sadist serial killer would get aroused when they see or cause pain inflicted on someone or something. This would be the reason that they committed their crimes. Sadism can be exhibited from smaller things like cutting the hair off of a victim, to the actual abuse or murder of a victim, to even the abuse of an animal. Sadism can also be consensual, which can include something like role playing during sex, where participants may get aroused in causing small pain to their partners. Non-consensual sadism is usually far worse, and includes severe beatings, torture, burning, and eventually murder (Hucker, 2012). Someone may become a sadist in several ways. There are psychodynamic theories, such as what Freud (1920) labeled as a “mental impulse” that had to do with the primal instincts of the person, or what Sadger’s theory (1926) said, which was that children developed a tendency to sadism when their caretakers both bring sexual pleasure and deny it when initiating toilet training or preventing masturbation. Many studies have been done on sadism, but there have been no links to biological processes, such as endocrine or brain abnormalities (Hucker,…show more content…
?). Necrophilia can be anything from simply having sexual fantasies involving a corpse, being in the presence of a corpse, kissing or inappropriately touching the corpse, to actually having sexual intercourse with the dead body. Necrophilic behavior has been around since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians are notorious for this, as embalmers sometimes abused the corpses of beautiful women that have passed away and they were now responsible for (Hucker, 2012). A necrophilic serial killer would murder their victim, and then abuse the dead body, because that is how they became aroused. Necrophilia can be closely tied to sadism, and often times someone who exhibits necrophilic traits can also exhibit those of a sadist. There have been 122 documented cases of necrophilia since 1988, and it is highly likely that there are plenty more cases that have not yet been documented (Hucker,

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