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Serial Killer Characteristic Over-generalization

© Michael Decaire

This was not the topic I was planning on discussing this week. However, after flipping around on some websites this weekend and examining my peers literature on serial offense, criminal behavior, and personality I got quite upset with what I was reading and so this article is born.

The movie business and the media has always been guilty of one thing when it discusses serial offenders. Overgeneralization. Ok perhaps I should explain what I mean by this. Research and experience shows that some individuals who become serial offenders have a behavioral history of fire-setting, animal cruelty, and other forms of lessened violence. These individuals for one reason or another (i.e., increased need gratification, personal stressors) have escalated towards violence towards humans.

Now the problem with overgeneralizations is that one begins to assume that most if not all offenders appear to have a certain characteristic (such as escalation from animal mutilation). The truth is this. Most animal mutilators do not become serial killers AND most serial killers were not animal mutilators.

The movie business has been notoriously bad for representing serial killers with an over used, statistically insignificant offender stereotype. However, it is the movie business. And I know how often I get annoyed when people in certain professions over-critically analyze a film to death.

However, when I here such statements from professionals, academics, or other members of this field who are experts at there work I get easily frustrated. Below are some quotes I have taken from a recent article I read. The individual who wrote it is a renowned profiler. I respect a lot of his work. But I am aware of how impressionable the online readership is. And stuff like this really bothers me. My comments follow each quote.

"Doll Mutilators Will Do the Same to Real Women"

Ok this was in the title of the article. Talk about going down hill right at the beginning. Doll mutilation is not unlike animal mutilation in a statistical sense. There is no reason to believe that doll mutilators will for certain do the same to real women. While I would 'guess' that the percentage that do escalate is higher then those who mutilate animals (simply since the doll is much more symbolic of a human female) I am aware of no literature that correlates the two to a significant degree (if at all). This is simply a statement that cannot be made. Some doll mutilators will escalate to real women. For certain I can state that not all will.

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