One of my housemates mentioned the other day, The Three Childhood Traits of All Serial Killers: 1.) Torturing Animals, 2.) Playing with Fire, and 3.) Bedwetting. According to my housemate, if a child displays all three traits, he will be a serial killer, which is a good thing, because if it were only one trait, all men would be serial killers at some point in their lives. If I had pushed a little bit on that pronoun, she would probably have changed it to “he or she.” My housemate can be a bit of a misandrist…
Apparently, this came up from her professor of an environmental policy course.
My reaction was: :rolleyes:
It seems to me to be too much of a “CSI” throw-away fact. (In fact, I wonder if that’s where her prof heard it…) I will freely stipulate that 1 and 3 are not desireable traits. But, speaking as a former boy scout, #2 rocks!
So the question: Is there any truth to this claim? I imagine that it would come in the flavor of “xx% of serial killers displayed aaa, bbb, and ccc tendencies when children.”
How regular do you need to exhibit these to accurately describe them as a trait?
I mean if we are talking about have you done these three anytime during your childhood then i can definately say it’s BS. Or at least i haven’t killed anyone…yet…
I can’t but think that torturing animals would indicate anything other than a disturbing lack of empathy and, as we know, a trait of sociopathy is lack of empathy.
I’d not worry too much about bedwetting (it’s common to kids with learning disorders) but setting multiple fires, particularly it’s a case of vandalism, and torturing animals surely indicates that a kid is headed for serious trouble in later life.
Anyway, there’s absolutely no way it can be a one-to-one relationship where, if the child displays all three traits, they will inevitably become a serial killer, 100% for definite. That’s just completely absurd - nothing in life is as cut-and-dried as that.
The article left out the serial killer’s prerequiste. First, he needs the Classic Middle Name and then, if they display the above behaviors, you will have serial killer on your hands.
I’ve never understood these criteria, either. Every kid I’ve ever known has enjoyed playing with fire, and bedwetting, while undesirable, isn’t exactly the rarest thing in the world. I’d worry a lot more about a kid who tortured animals, but didn’t play with fire or wet the bed, than I would about a kid who played with fire and wet the bed, but was nice to animals.
Or, to put it another way, I think that an equally valid “triad” would be torturing animals, disliking doing homework, and liking ice cream.
As you can see if the above triad links are followed, its now more thought to be a possible indicator for psychopathy, but only in the context of extended repeated behaviour and the like and psychopathy doesnt equal serial killer. Biological causes have been theorised, along the lines of brain damage or an undersized part of the frontal lobe, leading to impulse control issues.
This is probably one of your classic medical student examples, where people are way too likely to overdiagnose it if they just hear it as a factoid. Most importantly:
“Not all must be present concurrently, but at least a number of them need to be present over a period of years:”
I suppose some of it has to do with the way humans are empathic based on anthropomorphism. It’s not a big deal to beat a snake to death (to most people, I gather) but quite another to beat a kitten to death. We have trouble imagining a snake feeling pain but we know a mammal can.
Too, it depends on whether the less-‘human’ creature on the bad end of the behaviour is a pet or a foreign invader. If you wallop Sam the Snake that you bought at the pet store to death it’s much more troubling than if you came unexpectedly upon a slithering critter in your garden. Not for me mind you; I don’t like killing stuff.
I still put it to you that if Johnny Junior had an ant farm for a while that he tended to and then had at it with his magnifying glass, it would be time to haul that kid’s butt to a pediatric psychologist.