LASA 1: Writing a Brief Draft

Benny Fajardo

Argosy University

LASA 1: Writing a Brief Draft

The investigation query for this review is “do serial killers have mental illnesses”. The paper highlights and synthesis three articles that attempt to elucidate the psychology of serial killers and murderers. The main areas of discussion include psychosocial, environmental, and biological elements that can influence criminal conduct.

“Allely, C. S., Minnis, H., Thompson, L., Wilson, P., & Gillberg, C. (2014). Neurodevelopmental and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 19(3), 288-301”

The article is a meta-analysis piece whose focus is to investigate “neurodevelopmental and psychosocial” elements in mass murderers and serial killers. The journal provides that psychosocial, trauma, fantasies, and neurochemistry increases the likelihood of one committing a crime. The four elements are linked to mental capacity of an individual and crime, which makes it relevant to the focal question for this analysis; do serial killers have mental illnesses? The authors presume that killers with head injury or autism spectrum disorder encounter psychosocial stressors. The investigation results provisionally showed that extreme forms of violence might result from compound interplay of sociological, psychological, and biological elements. The research findings also indicate that possibly, a notable segment of serial or mass murderers may have had “neurodevelopmental disorders” such as head injury or “autism spectrum disorder”. However, the authors presume that investigation into serial and multiple killers is in its debut and there lacks meticulous researches and much of the literature is speculative and anecdotal. In my viewpoint, psychosocial and neurodevelopmental risks should undergo constant monitoring to avert the chance of perpetrating crime. Findings from this article confirm Brown et al.’s works, which presume that environmental and biological elements can interact to make a person perpetrate criminal activities.

“Brown, J., Harris, B. R., Daniels, S., Oberoi, P., Wresh, J., & Weinkauf, E. (2014). Psychology of Albert Fish. Behavioral Health, 1. 1-6”

The article is a published article that focuses on the “psychology of Albert Fish” whose paraphilic offences have been a subject of investigation for the better of a century. Over a period of 20 years, Albert Fish had killed a minimum of 15 children, tortured and disfigured about 100 victims, and molested over 400 children. Fish case has drawn wide conjecture for experts interested in the “nature and nurture” feature of the paraphilic serial killer. The contretemps made by the author is that Fish history depicts environmental and biological elements mainly linked to extreme conduct, partly because he was born to an old boat captain father and visually and auditory hallucinating mother. A minimum of seven of his family members suffered mental sicknesses, and two of them passed on in asylums. At the age of 5, Fish was placed in an orphanage soon after the demise of his father, where he constantly faced abuse, including whipping and beating with clothes shred. He once fell from a cherry tree, which resulted in severe stutter, dizzy spells, and subsequent headache.

The authors dissolve that the group of negative environmental and biological elements eminent in Fish’s life does not give a sole defining element that can sufficiently elucidate how he ended up becoming an infamous, pedophilic person. While some of his early childhood encounters of head trauma, tortures and ridicule possibly influenced the establishment of some of his conducts, they cannot completely account for his offences. Similarly, the family history of mental sickness cannot uniquely account for the length of his odious conducts. The authors presume that possibly the solution to the query of what made him perpetrate such offences lies in the interaction between environmental and biological factors. In my outlook, persons with environmental and biological elements should undergo constant monitoring to avert the chance of perpetrating crime. The findings from this article confirm Allely et al.’s work that environmental and biological elements can interact to make a person perpetrate criminal activities.

“Hicks, B. M., Vaidyanathan, U., & Patrick, C. J. (2010). Validating female psychopathy subtypes: Differences in personality, antisocial and violent behavior, substance abuse, trauma, and mental health. Personality Disorders: Theory, research, and treatment, 1(1), 38.”

The article’s main topic is validating female psychopath subtypes and the focus of the investigation was to check if secondary and primary psychopathy subtypes observed in male detainee would be observed in female detainee. The authors postulate that “primary psychopaths” have incapacitated feelings such as guilt and empathy thus appears lacking anxiety, cold and callous while secondary psychopaths have comparatively ordinary capabilities for emotional encounters. Because of trauma and environmental stressors, they encounter impulsive conduct, aggression, hostility, emotional distress, and high levels of anxiety. The authors found that primary psychopaths showed less mental health disorders notwithstanding considerable exposure traumatic situations. Secondary psychopaths had personality traits of more institutional and violent conduct, greater substance abuse, early debut of criminal and antisocial conduct, low behavioral limitations and of negative emotionality, mental health disorders, including suicide attempts. In my viewpoint, persons with secondary psychopathy should undergo constant monitoring to avert the chance of perpetrating crime. This article confirm with Brown et al. and Allely et al. that mental disorders can trigger criminal and unlawful conducts among individuals.

Reference List

Allely, C. S., Minnis, H., Thompson, L., Wilson, P., & Gillberg, C. (2014). Neurodevelopmental and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 19(3), 288-301

Brown, J., Harris, B. R., Daniels, S., Oberoi, P., Wresh, J., & Weinkauf, E. (2014). Psychology of Albert Fish. Behavioral Health, 1. 1-6

Hicks, B. M., Vaidyanathan, U., & Patrick, C. J. (2010). Validating female psychopathy subtypes: Differences in personality, antisocial and violent behavior, substance abuse, trauma, and mental health. Personality Disorders: Theory, research, and treatment, 1(1), 38.