What Makes A Serial Killer?

            
             In La Donna Beaty's essay "What Makes a Serial Killer?" she wanted to show what secrets and motivations a serial killer has. Serial killing is nothing new, it goes all the way back to Cain killing Abel in the Old Testament of the Bible. Now serial killing has reached an unbelievable level.
             Ann Rule, one of Beaty's sources, states that up to 5,000 people are victimized by serial killers in the United States of America each year (180). There is also another astonishing number; many estimate that there are 350 serial killers at large that we do not know about. Out of those 350, almost all are attractive white males between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. Most of these men cannot keep a consistent job because they get easily frustrated when opportunities are at a downfall. They also believe that they should get what they want without having to put forth any effort.
             Many researchers believe that violence in our society today has a lot to do with the way serial killers think. Violence comes in different forms from every day acts to cartoons. Throughout these forms, Beaty claims that children learn them and think that they are okay to do. They grow up thinking this and when things don't go their way they exemplify acts of violence that lead to the death of others. Family is another example Beaty uses. She says that most killers as kids did not have a fatherly figure to look up to in times of need. Beaty also talks about how they moved around a lot and never got used to one place. Both of these examples sometimes make the kid feel rejected and out of place, which may lead to violent acts.
             Many people think that serial killers are mentally ill. However, there are more murders among the general public than in mental patients. In the 1960s a deinstitutionalization movement was suppressed stating that if a person had even a little bit of sanity in them they could not be institutionalized, even if they did have crazy thoughts or acts (185).