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.