Have there ever been studies done on serial killers and if they have faith in a God or not? What percentages do or don’t?
Have there ever been studies on serial killers and their belief in the Bible?
That would be interesting- I know of some who have religion as part of their homicidal delusions (Gein & Fish & Kemper), and some who used religion as part of their post-capture personas (Lucas & Bundy), but as far as real religiosity among serial killers, I don’t know. So far, I’ve not heard where Mr. BTK’s religion fit in to his killing spree- as part of it, a hypocritical cover, or an entirely different compartment in his life.
I did a little searching, but found nothing. This should be an interesting thread. Not to get off subject, but I did find this, which relates, but is a little off subject. I am not sue how serious this is or even who wrote it, but…
It’s been a long time since I read Mind Hunter by FBI profiler John Douglas, but I remember he mentioned attempts to profile the “average” serial killer never panned out. They came from amazingly different backgrounds and educations.
One thing he mentioned they all had in common…none of them had pets.
That information is useless to a law enforcement officer but I was intrigued about it. Then it hit home: A person with no regard for human life would likely have no regard for animal life, either.
Agreed, not to mention a lot of serial killers killed pets as children and probably would be no different as adults.
I’m not sure such data would be meaningful. When a multiple murderer turns out to be black or female, he/she is almost always redefined as something other than a “serial” killer. The label is changed because a different motive is imputed to the act. I could well imagine researchers in this area creating separate categories for atheist, Muslim, Jewish and Christian multiple murderers as well.
If I recall correctly, the “serial” killer has a sort of sexual release after the first killing, and every subsequent killing is a (failed) attempt to recreate this. A religious rationale may be tacked on to this (Hey, there’s rapture and there’s Rapture!), but at its heart, the act is still sexual in origin.
True and good point, but the ones who are serial killers either believe in God or they don’t.
A lot, but not all of them, according to Crime Library .
Cool, thanks FormerMarineGuy
For long.
Religious convictions and insights are often part of psychotic episodes. If a killer is psychotic, I would wager that s/he’s more likely to have a religious explanation for the crime than not.
The MMPI (a standard psych test) used to ask whether the respondent believed in God. That question was removed in the MMPI-2 revision because it loaded on scale 8, which indicates schizophrenia or other bizarre mentation. This was considered an offensive item(although empirically it was sound).
I’ve seen some PETA people who, to all outward appearances, seem to value animal life above human life. I can imagine a serial killer with animal-rights leanings who might keep (and love) a pet. As for killers and religion, I imagine that many of them would be attracted by the forgiveness aspects of Chrisitianity.
Relgious serial killers, not so much. Religious mass muderers would fill an encyclopedia.
You could make the argument that they are the same thing in this case; it’s just that unlike other forms of serial killing, there are enough religious serial killers to form armies. “Normal” serial killers act alone.
Then again, while the behavior may be similar, it’s arguable whether or not a Ted Bundy type serial killer is the same kind of killer as someone motivated by religious fanaticism. After all, professional assassins also kill person after person; they aren’t called serial killers. Telling the difference ( assuming there is one ) between a “normal” serial killer who spouts relious dogma and a religiously motivated serial killer might be difficult, especially with our cultural taboo about admitting that relgion can be bad.
:et’s distringuished between the three types: Serial killers usually kill one person at a time over a period of years, like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer; mass murderers kill a lot of people all at once, like Columbine and Charles Texas Tower Whitman, and spree killers go on shooting sprees, like the DC snipers and Charles Manson.
I’ve never heard of a serial killer who said “My religion makes me kill people.” Most serial killers are sexually motivated, they want to totally possess the person.
Religious mass murderers include Jim Jones, the 9/11 hijackers, the Tokoyo subway attackers, and some others.
Is this true? I’ve always heard of the black man who killed a number of folks around Atlanta (?) and the woman protrayed in “Monster” as serial killers. Or are they the exception rather than the rule.
The only exception I’ve heard of is the nurse/caregiver killers who seem to have a different motivation. But I’ve never heard of them segregated by race or gender.
And the black serial killer in Poughkeepsie, who was definitely called a serial killer.
I’ve always heard that most female serial killers are motivated by money/status, in the same obsessive way; i.e. the sort of woman who poisons multiple husbands.
Hmmm… Doesn’t material gain point to a whole different pathology? The male equivalent isn’t Ted Bundy, but Monsieur Verdoux.
Not necessarily. Profit and status are central female drives, just as sex and domination are male ones. Note that men don’t normally need to kill to satisfy themselves, either. In serial killers, those drives are somehow intermixed with a desire to kill. In other words, a profit/status driven female serial killer will make a point of killing her victims, because the killing is at least as important as the other motives.
Note : I’m not a psychologist, and am just repeating stuff I heard years ago.