Fact: Ted Bundy, a serial killer from the 70s,

confessed to killing 36 women, but researchers

suspect there were many others.

Inside a Serial Killers Mind:

How They Develop and their
Characteristics
Anastasia Kreyling
Mount Hebron High School
Independent Research GT
Advisor: Dr. Michael Aamodt

Preview of this Presentation

Introduction into my topic

Research question and hypothesis
What I have Learned so far
Data Collection and Final Product
Future Aspirations

Introduction into the Serial Killer World

Serial Killer: A person who murders 3 or more people over the
course a month long period or longer
Psychopathy: A personality disorder associated with long term
anti-social behavior
Biological Factors: Factors that act as catalysts in behavior
which cannot be altered, for example genes
Environmental Factors: Factors that are induced upon a person
to force them to develop in a certain way

Research Question and Hypothesis

Research Question: What biological/environmental
factors trigger/develop a serial killer, and how do
these factors develop the different actions/types of
serial killers?
Hypothesis: Biological and environmental factors
that develop in the childhood and adolescence are
the most influential in the development of a serial
killer, and they influence the type of serial killer that
they become.

Environmental Factors on the Development of

a Serial Killer
Environmental Factor Examples: physical and emotional abuse in the
childhood, bad household situation, child neglect, violent T.V shows,
social disorganization, lack of education, and dysfunctional
environements.
Researchers have been looking into these factors through the Nature vs,
Nurture theory.
Nurture: Plays a huge role on serial killers. These people experienced
emotional and traumatic events in their life that led them to develop
various mental disabilities such as psychopathy.

Biological Factors on the Development of a

Serial Killer
Biological Factors: variant genes of monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) and
cadherin 13 (CDH13)
MAOA: Monoamine oxidase A is an enzyme that breaks down important
neurotransmitter in the brain, including dopamine, norepinephrine, and
serotonin (Baum, 2009).
CDH13: A protein coding gene and is associated with people who have
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The types of Serial Killers

Three main categories...
Organized: Very intelligent, well organized (hence the name),
cautious, plan their kill, and they take pride in it.
Disorganized: Not on the intelligent side (low IQ), kills are
random, and the kills are not planned out.
Medical: A highly intelligent and careful person who knows hide
their kills. They make it seem as if their victim had died of
natural causes.

Characteristics of Serial Killers

Previous alcohol and drug abuse
Psychological abuse that triggered traumatic events
Bed-wetting in childhood develops into anti-social behavior
Strange behaviors like acting out fantasies
Stalking
Anti-social behavior
Isolation

Differences between Male and Female Serial

Killlers
Female serial killers are more rare than their male counterparts, but
they arent nonexistent; about one in six serial murderers is a woman
(Anthes, 2015).
The main differences are in the way that they kill. Female serial killers
tend to kill with poison while males kill with more masculine weapons
like knives. Males are more violent in their kills.
Women usually go after people that they are familiar with because most
of the time they are tailored to a specific motive while males tend to kill
randomly.
The female serial killers are found to have jobs in care-giving positions
like nurses or teachers.

Data Collection:
Similarities

Differences

Journals
definition of a
Psychopath

Other Information

Biological factors
contribute towards
the development of
psychopathy as well
as environmental
factors

Source one focused

more on the profiling
of a serial killer.

Causes decreased
connectivity in the
brain

Look at the serial

killers adolescence to
see what behaviors
prompted them to
develop into a serial
killer

Source three looked

into the making and
creation of a serial
killer.

Is identified with
characteristics such as
charm, intelligence,
bad judgment, poor
self-control, sexual
behavior, and other
criminal behaviors

Biological factors that

contribute towards the
development of a serial
killer can be
neurobiological such as
increased levels of
monoamine oxidase and
triiodothyronine.

Can be formed
biologically or
environmentally

Serial killers feel cut off

with their inner self and
others

Source two looks into

the biological side of
the creation of a serial
killer (sadistic killer).

Strange obsessions
like killing small
animals, sexual
dreams, strange, and
body mutilations

The steps to the profiling

process are, profiling inputs
stage, decision process
models stage, crime
assessment stage, criminal
profile stage, investigation
stage, and the apprehension
stage

What is the Final Product?

I created a class activity that is tailored towards
the Psychology AP class here at Mount Hebron.
This activity will inculde various steps through
which the students will classify serial killers
through the killers past (environmental and
biological factors), current characteristics, and
whether the killer is male or female.

Conclusion
The various characteristics of a serial killer are very
important towards the classification of a defined serial
killer. Traits like anti-social behavior, high IQs, and
gender are all ways to classify and determine if a
person is really a serial killer.

Concluding Statement
I would like to end by saying, be aware of your
surroundings because in our society today it is so
easy to hide ones true identity, so its important to be
very mindful of what goes on.

Questions??????

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