While she should have tried to show the extreme types of parental attitudes serial killers may have experienced as children she instead shows the general public’s feelings of parental discipline. In this, Beatty is drawing a connection that does not truly exist in her initial argument. In particular she notes, “with 79 percent of the population believing that slapping a twelve-year-old is either necessary, normal, or good, it is no wonder that serial killers relate tales of physical abuse” (Beatty). However, some of Beatty’s connections are more forced than naturally conclusive. I agree with the assertion that the high incident rate of domestic abuse in the childhoods of serial killers proves too common to be simple coincidence.Ĭombined with the visibility of violence in society, such violence in the home could be volatile in the future killer’s behavior. Such media violence naturally leads into the subject of personal experiences with violence. This does not, of course, discredit the possibility of media violence as disturbing a child already inclined to such behavior and like much of the evidence in defining serial killers, the problems with the argument do not negate the possibility of some effect. Order custom essay Evaluating La Donna Beatty’s “What Makes a Serial Killer” In fact, only a small percentage could ever be classified in this manner. Taken a step farther in relation to criminal impulses, just as not every person who is exposed to violent video games or movies becomes violent, those who do become violent do not always become serial killers. While she does briefly address it later, upon initially presenting this issue, Beatty does not look at the large number of people who are also exposed to media violence but do not grow up to be serial killers. Beatty begins her presentation of theories by touching on the most popular of modern theories for the prevalence of violence in American society – violence in the media. While the facts she provides are compelling, her personal interpretations and conclusions are at times based on fallacy rather than consistently proven logic.
I expect that La Donna would largely agree that while she sets out to explore “What Makes a Serial Killer,” she comes no closer to a conclusive definition than where she began. Given the broad range of factors which contribute to human behavior and experiences, the search continues while evidence, both complimentary and contradictory, builds. However, as with any attempt to map the mentality of the modern day serial killer, she is left largely with theories and inconclusive statistics. In addition, she observes the possible correlations between the de-institutionalization of the American mental health system as well as alcoholism. In exploring the concept of the serial killer, La Donna Beatty looks toward the violence of modern society, biology, and family.
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