Was Our Billy Born a Crimininal: Parental Neglect and Juvenile Delinquency as a Template for Serial Killers

• In Event: Critical Criminology 3: Labelling, Harms and Community Responses

Abstract

Abstract:
Many youths, in the penal system, enter the theoretical purview of society by way of the negative stereotypes of our day. Many troubled youths have been stigmatized as violent, aggressive, anti-social, and inconsistently disciplined by their parents or guardians. The genesis of these caricatures is rooted in the historical milieu of murder and perceived as relevant to the production of criminology theories. In this paper, I have analyzed the representations of factual serial killers, as troubled youth, from Charles Manson in Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter, Edmund Kemper in Margaret Cheney’s The Co-ed Killer, and Edward Gein in Harold Schechter’s Deviant. My analysis of these texts identifies the portrayals of these serial killers as the explanatory subjects who represent serial murder because of juvenile delinquency and lack of parental involvement. The subsequent fluctuations of the triggers of serial murder such as mental impairment and the decline in romantic relationships are also discussed in relation to the texts. I conclude this analysis ny examining Robert Ressler’s Criminal Personality Research Project to propose a synergetic reply to the theories and templates that lead to serial murder.

Author

• Quianna J GLAPION, American Society of Criminology