Have all serial killers been abused as kids,or is this just an attempt to explain why these things happen?

Question

I mean,they can't all have had the same upbringing,surely?

Answer 1

Some of them no doubt have a childhood experience that contributes to what they become, but there are plenty of people out there who have been abused and dont turn into murderers. :0)

Answer 2

Hi there.

Good question! The idea that an incident shaped serial killers is basically incorrect - it is true that sexually abused children have a much higher chance of becoming abusive adults, but nothing similar applies to serial killers.

A Russian psychiatrist who did the best work in this area did identify common features - a disassociation from society, delusions of grandeur, fixations with death (such as hanging arounfd graveyards when young), early experiments torturing animals - but found nothing to suggest a trauma causes serial killing.

It seemed to him a predisposition that might become reality if the early issues were not picked up and dealt with. So serial killers are most likely to come from emotionally frigid upbringings.

Giving them "reasons" to kill is just Hollywood trying to make them accessible to the rest of us.

Cheers, Steve.

Answer 3

Some were, not all. Jeffrey Dahmer wasn't.

Answer 4

even if they were it isnt an excuse to kill people

Answer 5

i have just read a book called talking to serial killers, it was really intereating, and all of the cases i read about indicated that the persons upbringing was very significant to their actions in later life. im unsure though, lots of people have troubled childhoods, but not all of them end up killing! i thimk that when a serial killer is convicted etc, the authorities look into everything to try and piece things together, and try to link behaviours to things, i dunno, things effect people in different ways, so something that may not affect one person, may cause somebody else to do terrible things !!!

Answer 6

i think some people are just born evil. no matter what upbringing they have had. its just an excuse.  many people who are abused dont go out killing people when ever they feel like it

Answer 7

About 95% were abandoned, abused physically and mentally

the other 5 % are just sick in the head like Dahmer.  

Answer 8

I think it is an attempt to explain away the behavior. Jeffrey Dahmer wasn't  abused as a kid. Neither was David Berkowitz "Son of Sam". And, from what I have read about him, Ted Bundy wasn't abused either. There are plenty more serial killers I can think of who weren't abused. I think it is people trying to make sense from something that is senseless. Maybe, trying to blame one evil for another. Hope I helped!

Answer 9

some have been abused some just havent ever had anyone most killers are either abused or abandoned as children but most of the time its an attempt to explain why they do it like u say

Answer 10

no, it's just a trigger for a lot of them; a learned behavior taken to extremes, if you will.