Amoral Serial Killers an annotated bibliography Egger, S. et al. Serial Murder: An Elusive Phenomenon essay
This book gives a full and critical examination of the phenomenon of serial murder. It explores the last researches in this area, giving specific explanations for the facts why one or another group of people become victims of serial killers, and why serial killers are so dangerous category of criminals. Moreover, the authors provided many case studies with an aim to present a problem from various perspectives including its interpretation from the point of law enforcement investigators. In addition, it can be noted that the book also described possible future of serial murder research and investigation in concluding chapters, and these perspectives force people to reappraise contemporary situation in the area, and to work out new ways of solutions to existing problem. The book is easy to read, but really hard to believe because the possibility to become a victim of serial killer is very high and people need to be very careful in their contacts, especially with new and unknown people.
Gibson, Dirk C. Clues from Killers: Serial Murder and Crime Scene Messages. Praeger, 2004.
It is a truth that a serial killer often leaves a kind of message on the place of every crime with the express purpose, so, this book explores these messages naming them clues from killers. There are presented ten examinations of notorious serial killers with many descriptions of their victims, crimes, and even the way of communication with investigators. All the facts used in the book allow to make an attempt to look into the mind of the serial killer, but not every person is able to understand what mind processes force people to commit so cruel and amoral crimes. It can be even stated that the book is devoted to the psychological and forensic analysis of personality and behavior of serial killers on the example of ten wide popular criminals, tools and methods to identify and expose a knowledge-based psychological patterns, the use of forensic psychology achievements, capabilities and experience of the most respected specialists in this branch of science.
Schmid, David. Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2006.
The book presents the fact that contemporary movies, books, and media are full of descriptions of serial killers, and these amoral people become a kind of iconic figures in human society. The author compels readers to look more closely at the way how serial killers have become so popular in American culture, exploring the consequences of this popularity. Moreover, Schmid provides a lot of arguments, using historical facts, for the purpose to open a new understanding of serial killers, while he also makes a specific emphasis on both social dimensions of serial crimes and the ways of their multiple interpretations. Thus, the book is a persuasively argued and well-researched examination of the contemporary media phenomenon of the figure of the “celebrity criminal”.
Simpson, Philip L. Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer through Contemporary American Film and Fiction. Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.
The author of the book notes that contemporary films and literature very often use serial killers as the main characters, and it leads to the fact that young generation begins to interpret this kind of cruel and amoral behavior in wrong way, interpreting it as a kind of normal reality. So, the book explores the evolving serial killer genre in today’s media, underlying that serial killers, maniacs and other murderers were and will be the focus of cinema and literature because, as we might wish to the contrary, they are the part of our imperfect world. The author also provides a full picture of the way how serial killer genre became so popular in our world, and gives the reader a possibility to understand that it is impossible to divide contemporary life from cinema because very often cinema only presents existing problem and diseases of society in more visible and exaggerated form.
Wilson, Colin and Seaman, Donald. The Serial Killers: A Study in the Psychology of Violence. Virgin Books, 2007.
The book explores the way how serial killer thinks and what motives pushes the person to become a serial killer. This incisive study presents many psychological reasons of the phenomenon of serial murder, including the explanation and description of different behavioral patterns of serial killers; while the authors also deeply explore the area behind serial crimes, putting a specific attention to the problems in the psyche of serial killers, some childhood traumas, fears and fantasies. The information presented in the book gives the reader an answer to the question why an ordinary human being may become a compulsive killer one day, and many facts presented in the book are illustrated with the bright examples from our life. To add, the book is structured according to a big variety of classification, for example, such as the Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome, sex crimes, etc., and the reader has an opportunity to find any kind of information in it easily.
