Why Our Morbid Fascination with Serial Killers?

A serial killer is a person who commits a number of murders over a period of time between periods of inactivity; this type of killer is much different than the mass murderer who kills more than one person in a single random event. Serial killers have been lurking around in the shadows since the beginning of civilized society. They are not that different than us: they are parents, they are spouses, they are religious, they have jobs just like everyone else and yet they are capable of doing things that we could never even dream of. What is it that interests us so much about this type of violent persona? Deep down are we jealous that they can act with little or no self control and conscience? We fear them yet at the same time we are fascinated by them. Is it that associating human beings with prey puts us in touch with our primal predatory instincts? Or perhaps the terror reaches deep down into a part of your psyche where you hide all of those feelings and things you wish would go away.

Most serial killers kill for pleasure - they are sadists: watching others suffer with no empathy or remorse sometimes even with amusement. Most serial killers blame their actions on others; that someone drove them to commit the violent act. Or claim mental incompetence due to having endured an abusive childhood or suffered through some kind of traumatic event. This seems like a convincing story to the killer, not aware that they did anything really wrong, but instead try to justify their actions. And in more extreme cases excuses like "the devil made me do it" or "I blacked out and don't remember anything" are commonly used to tiptoe around admitting guilt. However with the undeniable fact that most serial killings are premeditated, we know that there is a conscious choice or decision to commit violent acts.

The police department is very careful to not let the media start a frenzy when dealing with a possible serial killer for reasons other than frightening the public and causing a panic. Some folks are so obsessed with serial killers that they even go to such lengths as to buy or acquire personal items from their favorite murderer. There is even a website dedicated to listing serial killer's last meals before they were put to death as well as the dates and times of their deaths and even upcoming dates of execution. Maybe Hollywood is partly to blame for the glorifying of serial killers with movies such as "Silence of the Lambs" and "Natural Born Killers". It is now more than common to find paintings or books created by one of these murderers for sale with a great public market.

Whatever the reason for our fascination we need to understand that these people are not to be idolized in any way. They are sick individuals who need to be analyzed for the greater good of society. There is a growing lust to know more about these murderers no matter what their ethics or moral beliefs may be. Maybe this repeated exposure, which leads us to acceptance, is contributing to the downfall of society as a whole.