Question 1
What are the definitions of mass murder, spree murder, and serial murder? How are they different? How can you identify the difference? Please discuss the differences and give examples.
In a mass murder, a murderer kills his victims of four or more at a time, in a place with a single crime scene. The locations of the murder could be inside a home or building, on the open street, or at offices or schools. For example, on March 26, 2006, Aaron Kyle Huff, twenty-eight years old: Aaron walked in on a certain house party with three guns of more than three hundred rounds of ammunition, a black machete, and a baseball bat. He fired the gun and killed six people of ages between fourteen and thirty-two respectively. A mass murder possibly combined with a spree murder when the murderer goes to more than one location of the crime scene to find and kill his poor victims. For example, the case of George Emil Banks was a spree mass murder where George killed multiple victims in many locations. Another example was the case of Charles Whitman who killed his own wife at a location with his own mother at another location.
As a thorough picture of the murder scenario, after he killed his wife and mother, the next morning Charles went to a third location at the University of Texas Tower where he killed many people. With his case, Charles was a spree and mass murderer. In addition, the methods he used was he killed his wife with a knife, strangled his mother, and he used a rifle when he killed the people from the university. Serial killers murder three or more victims; however, every victim killed on separate occasions. A serial murderer differs from a mass murderer and a serial murderer; serial murderers select their victims, have moments of cooling off periods between murders, and plan the crimes very carefully. In addition, some serial killers would travel to other places to find their victims or just remain in the same place in a general geographic area. The example of this type of murder was the case of Ted Bundy.
Question 2
Discuss the characteristics of the offender and murders in each example.What differentiates each from the other multiple victim homicides? Discuss the differences and give examples.
The different styles of homicides reflect its differences in the background characteristics of the offender. The murder crime scenes reveal the stylistic differences in the role of the violent behavior in the offense. The crime scene indicators reflect the actions that shape the offenses rather than the expressive components being impulsive and emotional. The case of Aaron shows that he was under the influence of drugs like marijuana. During the confrontation with police authority, he committed suicide by shooting himself; he put the barrel of the gun in his mouth and fired. In the case of George, he was a psychotic when the crime scenes happened. He killed his children; he believed that by doing so his children will be free from torments by the racial views of cruelty against the mixed race children. George tried to kill himself many times, and gone on hunger strikes and forced to eat. The case of Ted Bundy was different; God-fearing parents and relatives raised him; however, due to exposure on pornographic magazines, he was gone out of his curiosity and rebellious acts. Question 3 Do some research on Ted Bundy’s childhood and use what you have read in the course to evaluate his criminal behavior from a psychological standpoint.
As a young boy, his parents were devoted Christians, and exposed with good examples from his families and relatives. In addition, he was not a victim of abuse of any kind; his parents loved him as their child. During his teenage days, Ted influenced by his friends to watch or read pornographic images and tried to use prohibited drugs, and he blamed his killing on pornography.
Al Carlisle, a psychologist, evaluated Ted 1975 and said, “Ted was intelligent, high achievement oriented, had insights for a political career, and loyal to a cause” . The ability of Ted who killed people in different instances were a sign of a gradual evolution processes; fantasy, dissociation, and compartmentalization. The serial killers presented public persona that appeared as good; however, nurtured a dark side that allowed murderous fantasies. These fantasies accommodated the expression of the unacceptable impulses, aspirations, and desires. The compartmentalization used by Ted, it was a very destructive process that resulted in violence, fantasy melds with painful reality.
Question 4
Use what you have learned about crime classification to classify the crimes Bundy committed. Ask yourself if all the crimes he is known to have committed fall into one category, or if there are multiple classifications. Explain your answer.
After a thorough readings, the case of Ted falls under the category of serial murder. He assaulted and murdered many young women and girls. He was a definition of a heartless evil, and the number of crimes he committed by killing those victims made him one of the most notorious criminal who violated the law.
Reference
Alin, P. (Director). (2013). Ted Bundy Final Interview - Full (The dangers of pornography).
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9gvCjUJH6k [Motion Picture].
Bonn, S. (2012, May 24). Doc Bonn Explains: The Difference Between Serial Killers, Spree
Killers and Mass Murderers. Retrieved from http://docbonn.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/doc-bonn-explains-the-difference-between-serial-killers-spree-killers-and-mass-murderers/.
Douglas, J. E., Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (2006). Crime Classification
Manual . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Imprint.
Ramsland, K. (2012, August 24). Imagining Ted Bundy. Retrieved from
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shadow-boxing/201208/imagining-ted-bundy.
