Research Paper on:
Motivations and Personalities of Serial Killers

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
in advance whether a person is prone to criminal activity. Law enforcement agencies have begun using a method called profiling to identify serial killers and terrorists. Some school  districts are looking into the concept as a way of early detection into the minds of troubled children whose violent ways might be discovered before it is too late.  By watching for certain signals educators hope to intervene before these students actually complete a violent act (Lord PG). Some have felt it is the influence of drugs or alcohol  that induces this kind of criminalistic behavior. While substance abuse may affect a person as far as committing offenses, it is far unlikely that substance abuse alone could create  a serial or mass murderer. Mitchell (PG) points out that there are "studies correlating a geographical prevalence of alcoholism and serial murder and might show that there is some  relation between the two (although this relationship might well be spurious)." Some personality traits have been shown to be more prevalent in the makeup of serial or mass murderers.  Impulsiveness, low self-esteem and poor social skills, as well as competitive and aggressive behavior are quite common among these killers as is hypersensitivity to criticism (Mitchell PG). It  has also been pointed out that those with active or high fantasy prone imaginations are more apt to be able to become serial killers. Even Carl Jung pointed out  that it is the tortured that become the torturers, thus establishing the fact that child abuse assumes a very prominent role in the makings of a serial killer. Perhaps  it is a sense of helplessness or lack of self worth that causes the abused to turn to others to inflict pain upon. Sometimes this fantasy life comes to