Are criminals born or made? Is this perhaps a matter of nature vs. nurture?
One of the oldest questions in criminology is whether criminals are born or made. Are serial killers a product of nature or nurture? While genetics determine our personality, behavior, and appearance, we are nurtured to behave a certain way, which is determined by how we were raised, our upbringing, environment, and life experiences.
Our behavior reflects a combination of both genetics and environmental conditioning. Although, there is evidence that criminal conduct has deeper roots than social circumstances. The causes of crime lie in a combination of predisposing biological traits that are channeled into criminal behavior by social circumstances. Characteristics alone do not inevitably lead to crime; circumstances do not make everyone a criminal. People are born with predispositions for specific personality traits, though the environment has some effect on bringing out theses inclinations.
Some serial killers had a troubled childhood and upbringing, surrounded by tragedy and darkness. “Many serial killers are survivors of early childhood trauma of some kind – physical or sexual abuse, family dysfunction, emotionally distant, or absent parents. Trauma is the single recurring theme in the biographies of most killers.”(Conroy, 2018) One common explanation is that psychopaths experience some kind of trauma in early childhood.
Many but not all serial killers suffer from psychopathy. Psychopaths have no sense of remorse or empathy, and their decision-making process is faulty. Furthermore, individuals have tendencies for some things and not others. Meanwhile, serial killers choose to act on their compulsions.
While the answer to this question is still unsure, we can all agree that the answer is both.
Tags: #psychology, psychopath, science
Ahh, the good old nature or nurture debate.
This debate to me is not so cut and dry; take Gary Ridgeway, for example; his father was loving albeit very shy and submissive. He often did not defend his sons when their mother was abusive towards them. His mother was not only physically but emotionally abusive. So we could argue that being a murderer was in his nurture.
Now let’s look at Dennis Rader, he grew up in a healthy home environment, yet he killed multiple women. He stopped killing for over a decade, got married, and had two children while he murdered entire families between the years 1974 and 1991. Even his daughter would go on record to say that he was kind and loving, and she would not have ever expected that from him. So, could we argue that murder was in his nature? Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer are two other serial killers that could fall into this category as well.
I enjoyed your post. Serial killers are so fascinating to me, and I don’t know if you could tell, but I know an awful lot about them.
This is a really interesting topic and honestly something that has fascinated me for a long time. I’ve always been interested in figuring out what makes a serial killer the way they are. Obviously, something has to either be there or be triggered, because most people don’t just regularly kill people for fun.
My career goal for a long time has been to get involved in forensic psychology. I have a lot of interest in interviewing serial killers and finding out how their minds work. I think people want to find a “killer gene” but I just don’t think it’s that simple. Like you said, I think theres definitely an aspect of both environmental and biological factors at play. It will never be as simple as a gene that causes it.