killers and their backgrounds

[lingerz]

the killers i've read or heard about always seem to have had a bad upbrining or childhood, is there any that have had a relativey good one, without the abuse or violence that is generally noticed?

One I can think of is the Preppy killer,you know the rich punk that killed the girl in the park,I think he's already out of prison,to me its just phony excuses their lawyers conjour up anyway.

Originally posted by cv.kirsch
One I can think of is the Preppy killer,you know the rich punk that killed the girl in the park,I think he's already out of prison,to me its just phony excuses their lawyers conjour up anyway.

Is this the Jennifer Levin case you are talking about? If so, that guy did seem to have everything in life going for him. I agree that some attorneys come up with "the abuse excuse", but some of them really do have some bizarre upbringing.

[mnoffki]

I wouldn't be able to name names off the top of my head, but the Crime Library is really a great source to find this answer. I have found, and this is going off memory alone, that while many serial killers have some sort of emotional trauma in their background, there are plenty that are just born sociopathic. The latter are the types that have somewhat normal lives as children, yet they have a history of violence against animals for example, or some other deviance that doesn't quite fit into what most people consider "normal".

One interesting thing to note is that in almost every case I can recall, there has been a head injury or serious illness during childhood. Whether this is a trigger or not, we just don't know, but it seems to fall into the profile of the serial killer enough to merit attention.

The average serial killer is a young-ish, white male with a middle class upbringing. Not every serial killer fits into this mold, of course, but chances are, when you have one on the loose, this is the type of person that they are looking for.

Just start looking through the serial killer section on this site, and you will be able to glean a whole lot of info on the matter.

The defense attorneys will always try to blame someone in the killer's childhood because it is their job to somehow justify the behavior in order to get them a lighter sentence. Kind of sick, but that's what they went to school for. I don't buy it, and I think that juries are well over this crappy childhood defense that has been way overused. I know that as a juror, I would be.