The Mind of a Serial Killer…

I have often wondered what fuels an individual and makes them want to take the life of another, living human being. In my mind, taking another life is the ultimate crime, the ultimate worst thing that you could do and is completely out of the question. What makes these individuals think that they have the right to end a life? Do they even think of the individual as a human with a soul? Do these killers even have a soul? All of these questions run through my mind when I read about serial killers and the careful thought that goes into their acts of murder.

Researchers believe that this lack of empathy and psychopathic behavior may be attributed to a abnormalities in frontal lobe structures (Kassin, Fein & Markus 2011). These abnormalities would lead an individual to have the tendency toward aggressive and violent behavior and may also lead an individual to become addicted to the act killing. Jack Pemment states, “Addiction to anything starts with an introductory act; the anticipation of the act will be coupled with feelings of promise and exhilaration, and once the act has been completed there will be an elevated sense of satisfaction…lack of empathy could mean that feelings of pain will not be reciprocated (Pemment 2012).”

When researching different, famous serial killers one in particular stood out: Joel Rifkin. Between the years of 1989 and 1993 Joel “The Ripper” Rifkin went on a “killing spree” (biography.com 2015).

          

Once arrested Rifkin immediately confessed to 17 and was convicted of murdering 9 female prostitutes in the New York, NY area. Rifkin is now serving 203 years in the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York state. (biography.com 2015)

Psychopathic behavior such as this, not only stems from brain abnormalities but also from early life in which the individual was brought up (Craparo, Schimmenti & Caretti 2013). Rifkins early life was anything but easy. He was born on January 20, 1959, given up by his birth parents and adopted by Bernard and Jeanne Rifkin (biography.com 2015). Growing up Rifkin had a difficult time fitting in and was often bullied by his peers. He was excluded from team sports and different neighborhood activities because he was rather “sloppy” and “slow” in posture and gait. Rifkin also suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia which made him struggle academically. In high school, Rifkin did his best to fit in but was always rejected and excluded. This isolation and rejection eventually took a toll on Rifkin. In 1972 he began having dreams about raping and stabbing women, particularly prostitutes. It is thought that the Alfred Hitchcock film, Frenzy, may have inspired this fixation (biography.com 2015). He began trolling for prostitutes and would frequently skip his college classes and part-time jobs and spend time with these prostitutes instead. In 1989 Rifkin could no longer fight the mental fantasies and Susie, a young prostitute, was the first victim. Rifkin murdered these woman in extremely brutal ways, dismembering them and scattering the remains. Because of the brutal ways in which these woman were killed, the Police were unable to identify some of woman or the perpetrator of the crimes (biography.com 2015).

In June 1993, Rifkin was finally arrested. After killing his final victim and leaving her body to rot for several days, on the way to a dump site, Rifkin was pulled over by the Police for lack of a license plate on his truck. Police officers noticed an awful smell, saw the body and immediately took Rifkin into custody. When being interrogated about the murders he had committed, Rifkin recalled all 17 incidents, remembering most of their names and even drawing sketches to help police find the bodies of the missing victims (biography.com 2015).

The idea of excitation transfer may also come into play in the case of Rifkin. Excitation transfer refers to when the arousal created by one stimulus intensifies an emotional response to another stimulus (Kassin et al., 2011). While Rifkin had a troubled childhood which played a role in his desire for attention from prostitutes, the excitement that he felt while with these prostitutes may have aided in his aggression toward and the murder fantasies about these woman. Below is a documentary about Joel Rifkin. He was able to be interviewed for this documentary; his responses and recall of the murders are quite disturbing. The lack of empathy and emotion on his part is fascinating and if you have the time to watch it, it is extremely interesting, enlightening and disturbing.

Now, while Rifkin was not formally diagnosed with a personality disorder early on, his behavior suggests otherwise. As stated above research suggests that impaired prefrontal cortex processing can disrupt the executive functioning and cognitive abilities which allow humans to plan or inhibit actions (Kassin et al., 2011). This executive functioning allows the individual to respond to a situation in a reasonable, and also emotion driven manner rather than relying solely on external stimuli. It is seen that certain parts of the brain are active when an individual participates in an aggressive act.

The photo above, courtesy of Neuroscientist, James Fallon, displays the abnormalities seen in the frontal lobe of a control subject versus an individual with Psychopathic tendencies. As you will notice in the brain scan of the psychopath there is a lack of normal activity in the prefrontal cortex where the executive functioning occurs (Kassin et al., 2011). Click here to read more about James Fallon and his findings: http://zotzine.uci.edu/v02/2010_03/fallon.php

In conclusion, while I am not, by any means, condoning the action of killing or providing Joel Rifkin an excuse for killing those woman, not only external factors but many biological factors were at play in these situations. When asked why he killed these woman, or what they did to provoke, Rifkin did not have an answer indicating his lack of empathetic emotion. These particular woman did not do anything hurtful to him, they were innocent for the most part. Rifkin had terrible fantasies and a strong addiction to the act of killing and he did not know how to control it.

References

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. (2011). Perceiving Persons. Aggression. In J.D. Hague (9th ed.), Social Psychology (pp. 448-449). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.

Joel Rifkin. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 10:13, Apr 15, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/joel-rifkin-11930477.

Pemment, J. (n.d.). The Making and the Breaking of the Serial Killer. Retrieved April 15, 2015, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/blame-the-amygdala/201301/the-making-and-the-breaking-the-serial-killer

Craparo, G., Schimmenti, A., & Caretti, V. (2013). Traumatic experiences in childhood and psychopathy: a study on a sample of violent offenders from Italy. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 4, 10.3402/ejpt.v4i0.21471. doi:10.3402/ejpt.v4i0.21471

Summer Lovin’

WHY DO WE CONFORM?

“…people often try to hide or stretch the truth about themselves…on occasion, everyone tells something less than ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'” (Fein, Kassin & Markus 2011)

Conformity is defined as changing ones behavior and actions to fit into a group; the act of yielding to group pressures. In the text-book, Social Psychology by Saul Kassin, Steven Fein and Hazel Rose Markus, it states that conformity happens because of two reasons: 1) The need to be right and, 2) A fear of ostracism, or a fear of the consequences of rejection. There are two kinds of conformity that fall under this fear of ostracism:

Private Conformity – The change or beliefs that occur when a person privately accepts the position taken by others.(Fein, Kassin & Markus 2011)

Public Conformity – A superficial change in overt behavior without a corresponding change of opinion that is produced by real or imagined group pressure.(Fein, Kassin & Markus 2011)

These concepts can be illustrated by analyzing two characters from one of my favorite movies, the 1978’s Grease.

Danny Zuko

Danny Zuko plays the rebellious and handsome greaser who is also the head of the T-birds, a high school gang. He spends a romantic summer with Sandy, walking on the beach and forgetting that about his rebellious side. Although, once school begins for the year he conforms back into his bad-boy image.

 Sandy Olsson

Sandy Olsson is a sweet and innocent young girl who meets Danny while on vacation during the summer. Instead of heading back home after the summer is complete, like she told Danny she was going to, her family decides to stay. This results in Sandy and Danny attending the same Rydell High and Sandy finding out about his “other side”.

Both Sandy and Danny conform to fit into the groups with which they choose to associate. This can be seen in the video below of Danny and Sandy singing the song “Your The One That I Want”. Pay special attention to the beginning of the video and feel free to sing along to the rest! 🙂

At the beginning of this video you will notice how Danny and Sandy both change their appearances while yielding to group pressures. Private and public conformity can be seen in these circumstances. Sandy changes her appearance and her attitude on the surface, but her good-girl personality and beliefs are still intact. It is superficial, her opinion has not changed, so this would be public conformity. Danny on the other hand goes through private and public conformity. He changed his opinion and also his appearance while yielding to group pressure. You will notice how he has become somewhat of a jock, participating on the track team and wearing the track sweater, all to impress Sandy. It seems as thought deep down Danny wants to act this way, not only for Sandy but also for himself.

At the beginning of this blog there is a quote that begins with, “…people often try to hide or stretch the truth about themselves…” (Fein, Kassin & Markus 2011). This is in part because of conformity and the need to be accepted into certain social groups. Social influence is an extremely strong dynamic that affects everyone. We just need to make sure that what we are allowing to influence us is worth while and will have a positive lasting effect rather than negative.

 

Exam Question: (Fill in the blanks)

___________ __________ is a ______________ change in overt behavior without the corresponding change of opinion that is produced by real or imagined group pressure.

Answer: Public Conformity; Superficial

References:

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. (2011). Perceiving Persons. In Social Psychology (9th ed., pp. 114, 254-262). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077631/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

Rewriting the Script

What is the first thing that comes to mind if I mention New York Fashion week? Super thin models, celebrities, high-end fashion, high heels, “big hair”, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, bright lights, runways and red carpets are what come to mind for me. This would be the social perception or script that I have written about fashion shows. A script refers to the anticipated behaviors, goals and outcomes of an event. This particular script was written because of what the media has told me a fashion show should be like by seeing fashion shows on television and in movies.

This is just one example of a script, there are actually different kinds of scripts. Cultural and behavioral scripts are the two most common. Cultural scripts would refer to the way in which different cultures perceive a situation. For example, in some cultures dinner guests are expected to clean their plates as a sign that they enjoyed the meal. Behavioral scripts would refer to the manner in which an individual is expected to act during a certain situation. An example of this would be how one is to act on a first date or during a job interview. Our knowledge of a certain social setting or situation would determine the level of detail in our scripts as well.

So, going back to talking about New York Fashion Week, based on your script would you expect a model with Down syndrome to walk the runway? That isn’t something that I would expect. Based on the script that I have written about fashion shows, and also based on what I know about Down syndrome, in my mind this would be something very out of the ordinary. Jamie Brewer however, re-wrote, so to speak, my script for me.

Brewer was recently the first model with Down syndrome to walk the runway during New York Fashion Week. You can read more about the story and also watch Brewer’s performance below: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/02/12/jamie-brewer-model-down-syndrome-new-york-fashion-week/23286501/

To give a little back ground, Down syndrome is a genetic disorder affecting an individual developmentally and intellectually. Because of this impairment, social interactions, such as walking in a fashion show in front of a lot of people, may be difficult. Individuals with Down syndrome prefer to work and reside in a stable, structured environment, because it is easier to adapt and grow as an individual that way. Jamie Brewer was able to defy these odds and actually works as an actress and model. In an interview she states, “embrace the fear and go for it.” This just goes to show that the scripts that we have written about a situation may not be accurate. We need to keep an open mind and be willing to rewrite the script.

References:

Facts About Down Syndrome. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://www.nads.org/pages_new/facts.html

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. (2011). Perceiving Persons. In Social Psychology (9th ed., pp. 107-109). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.