Made or Born a Serial Killer

Lexis Munoz Professor Miller English 5B 23 April 2013 Are Serial Killers Born or Made? Psychologist John B. Watson expressed in his scientific studies of human behavior that emotion is learnt and as humans we are highly social creatures, and by integrating those two ideas it signifies how much we, as the human race, are influenced by others as well as with the environment causing our behavior to be similar to the ones around us. A study conducted by American psychologist Albert Bandura in 1961 called the Bobo Doll experiment in which Bandura studied on small children between the ages of three and five.

Each child was placed in a room with an adult and multiple toys including a bobo doll which is an inflated doll, soon after the adult would then hit, kick, and scream at the doll. Bandura used his theory of social learning to “stress the importance of observational learning, imitating, and modeling. ” During the experiment the adult later would leave the room while the child would remain there. Bandura continued observing what the child did to the doll after seeing how the adult treated it and of course the child did exactly what the adult did; imitating everything from what the adult used to hit the doll with, the kicking, and the hitting.

Humans cannot control their behavior because it is learned along with the emotions that come with it. Children that are brought up in an unloving, abusive, and neglected environment are later on in their adulthood emotionally scared for life and can soon become psychopathic serial killers at an extremely young age as four or even five. In an interview with a young child named BethThomas this little girl talked about her background of abuse and molestation. Her mothers death lead to the horrific abuse her and her younger 3 month year old brother at the time in the hands of their father.

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The abuse and molestation happened at a very young age but still stuck with her as she got older. While growing up her and her brother were sent to child services but were welcomed into a loving family that had no idea of their past. As time went by their adopted parent started realizing things were not right with little Beth. She killed and abused multiple animals as well as hurting her brother by hitting him and squeezing his private parts. Beth also hit her brother’s head on a cement floor until her adopted mother heard his screams and she even confessed to wanting to kill him.

She took knifes from the kitchen and said in the interview that she wanted to use them to stab her parents when they were asleep. Abuse and molestation caused so many problems in her future but she got therapy and was placed in a controlled environment and is seemed to have turned out a better person, but because of her unfortunate past, no onecan ever know if she will kill or snap at any moment. In all Beth was put through a traumatic childhood that will always be with her due to the violence she experienced.

Due to her experiences as a child she has psychological problems and hardly has a conscious which many children go through as growing up but in comparison to Beth’s case they do not always get the psychological help they need causing them to remain violent as Beth would have if she did not get treated as soon as she did. Child abused in the United States happens every thirteen second. Serial killers are not born they are made. Psychopaths grow up in harsh and unlivable environments and sometimes in inhabitable places as well.

For example in the book a Child called it, there was a boy who was abused, neglected, unfed, unloved, and so on. Though he did not turn out to be a serial killer children like Albert DeSalvo who was raised in an abusive home and whose father often brought home prostitutes and taught him how to shoplift. Further more, some may say when nature versus nurture is in comparison with whether or not serial killers are made or born that they are born into a killing machine. For example Andrei Chikatilo who is serial killer and also a cannibal was simply made into the monster he turned out to be.

There was no abuse, neglects, or bad up bringing he had to endure. He had a normal life, went to school, and never experienced abused, but soon turned into a sexual predator and molester at a young age. Many people go on and on about we are who we are and we are born a certain way. One great example to prove this theory is the disease of cancer. Cancer is a disease some just get unexpectedly that is unpreventable basically. There are some ways to try to prevent it but honestly, there is just no way anyone can completely have the ability to prevent such a complex and difficult disease.

Another judgment people may say is that there are multiple reasons and explanations for a serial killer to become into killers but it is not because of abuse, neglect, or ridiculous accusations like porn, but because they are born the way they are. It is all in their genetics many argue and there is no way abuse is the cause for a serial killer to murder, rape, and molest, and so on. It is only correlation not a cause which means those are only factors and not solely the cause of a psychopath.

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