“Gunning for you and all mankind, I’ve lost my mind. Psychotic, rabid dementia, I won’t be fine.” – Avenged Sevenfold
While the members of Avenged Sevenfold, a Heavy Metal band, are not psychotic killers, their lyrics refer to the destruction of other humans. Many people have a morbid curiosity about a psychopathic murderer’s mind. The criminal justice system has a number of trained specialists to study the minds of psychotic killers. Psychopathic killers usually grow up in similar, unstable homes. However, they usually have completely different crime scenes. Most of these killers have different motives for murdering their victims.
Psychopaths are stereotyped. They are shown as vicious, violent people, but in reality they can seem nice.. Their one, common peculiarity is their lack of empathy. They lie and manipulate and do not regret or care that they do. Honestly, they do not care about anything at all. They cover up their deficiencies with a charming attitude so no one knows how they really act at times. They outwardly show no mental disturbance and do not hear voices or hallucinate. They are not confused or anxious or driven by overwhelming compulsions. They are usually quite social and have a better-than-average intellect. In fact, e
evidence suggests that one or two areas in the brain are not enough to produce profound impairments of psychopaths. Psychopaths are misunderstood. Researchers have estimated that approximately 500,000 psychopaths are in the U.S. prison system. The chances are that everyone knows a psychopath. Psychopathy makes up .5% to 1% of the general population which approximates to 250,000 living freely, not committing crimes but still taking advantage of people around them. They are notoriously good at learning people’s strengths and weaknesses (Buckholtz 22+).
Many psychiatrists are left with the false impression that an antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy are the same. Antisocial disorder is a helpful diagnosis when then question is whether a person is likely to have a bad behavior; it does not discriminate against criminals. Only one out of every five antisocial people are psychopaths. Psychopaths brains process differently. Researchers say that there is a disability that impairs the emotional development. Signs of psychopathy may be seen as young as the age of five years old (LaBrode 151-160). Behaviors of psychopaths consist of lying, prone to boredom, sexual promiscuity, no long term goals, irresponsibility, early childhood behaviors, juvenile delinquency, shallow, and manipulation. They are indifferent about pain and do not fear it (Jadczyk). They usually get worse, not better after standard treatments like group therapy. Seeing others’ vulnerabilities gives them opportunities to hone their manipulation skills (LaBrode 151-160).
Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy is a good example of a psychopath who appears to be normal. He was born November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. He grew...
