Definition of serial killer

It is known as serial killer to that individual who has murdered three or more people in a period of time greater than a month, leaving a dead time between one murder and the other and whose main motivation when it comes to killing, he finds himself in the psychological satisfaction that the act of killing gives him.

Person who has murdered more than three people in a time greater than one month

A variety of psychological urges can lead to the killing of the serial killer or serial killer, as it is also known, especially the sexual obsessions and the excessive intentions of power.

Modus operandi and sick profiles

The methodology, that is, the modus operandi that a murderer of this type follows is usually always the same, because the crimes more or less are They perform under the same conditions and the chosen targets share characteristics, among them, profession, sex, age, race.

It is a recurring fact that most serial killers present unhealthy background, that is, they themselves were victims of abuse during their childhood.

The question of murderous fantasy is a characteristic of these criminals because they generally fantasize from childhood and in adolescence, with murders, they like to read about crimes and then end up applying all these questions to their crimes real.

There are three signs that if a child coexists, they will warn us that we are facing a future serial killer: pyromania (starting fires only by emotion), cruelty to animals (they kill animals like cats and dogs in front of their friends to impress them and for sheer delight) and enuresis (persistence of uncontrolled urination, even and beyond having reached the age at which it should be controlled).

For example, if what leads to the killing of an individual and later turning him into a serial murderer are the repeated abuse that he has suffered as a child of part of his mother will make him choose women who share common characteristics with his mother as the main victims of his misdeeds.

While the concept was installed in the seventies of the last century by the FBI Special Agent Robert ResslerIn reality, the concept had already been used since the 1930s.

It is necessary to clarify that the serial killer should not be confused with other types of murderers with which it is commonly related, such as the mass murderer (that individual who kills a large number of people in a short period of time) and the lightning killer (who commits multiple murders in a relatively short period of time and in various places).

Hard to catch

In most cases, catching a serial killer is not an easy task for investigators since they are usually criminals. quite organized that they try not to leave loose ends on their actions, or because they tend to use some distractions to entertain those who they investigate.

When the police confirm that they are pursuing a serial killer they usually couple to the investigation to psychiatry professionals who will allow you to draw a profile of the murderer from the evidence found in each of the cases.

In many cases, this profile makes it possible to find the murderer or also prevent an attack.

When dealing with murderers who present severe mental problems, it may be that justice confines them to perpetual confinement in some institution mental once they are caught.

Criminals who catch the public

On the other hand, serial killers are a type of criminal that arouses considerable interest among ordinary people such as consequence of their sadistic crimes, their personalities, their ability to evade the police and continue accumulating victims.

This situation has generated that many of them transcend to fame and become figures media, whose stories are also represented in books, movies, comics, among others.

The movie theater It is one of the media that has most reflected the stories of serial killers, either adapting cases from real life or creating murderers of this class that later become very popular. Many of these productions have achieved phenomenal success with the public.

One of the most emblematic and successful cases is that of The Silence of the Innocents, starring the acting duo Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in which the latter embodies the role of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist who practiced cannibalism with the victims who she murdered.
Foster plays an FBI agent who approaches Lecter to help her catch another serial killer.
History shows how ductile and wicked personality de Lecter manages in many cases to dominate the young agent.

The story would capture such a predilection from the public that it had sequels and prequels.

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