Political Science

A serial killer is someone who murders a number of people in a timely span separated by a cooling off period (Douglass 4). The murder committed by a serial killer usually does not have any justification and the motivation for the murder is usually psychological gratification. In most cases, a sexual inclination is usually associated with the murders committed by the serial killers. The murders committed by them follow a similar pattern and the victims of these killers may have some things in common like gender, race, age group, occupation or color.

There are two types of serial killers. First, there are the non social offenders who are organized and usually have intelligence that is above average and a similar IQ (Douglas 4). The crimes are usually methodically planned and they usually murder their victims at one place, later disposing their bodies at another place. Their main way of operation is through abduction where they use wily ploys that evoke sympathy to lure their victims. They also maintain a high level of control over the scene where they have committed the crime and have wide mastery of forensic science that enables them to cover their trails and tracks, meaning that they cannot be easily discovered. These criminals can go to any length to ensure that their projects are not discovered and may do things such as falsifying suicide notes, framing innocent people, faking gun warfare or making the murder appear as if it was a natural death.

The second category of serial killers is called the asocial offenders who are usually disorganized and have low intelligence with an average IQ of less than 90 (Douglas 5). Their crimes are not methodically organised and they are very impulsive. In most cases, they do not bother to hide their trails, dispose the body or even try out faking mechanisms. However, the anonymous nature of their crimes makes it easy for them to avoid capture. These murderers are socially inadequate with very few friends and are introverts by nature.

Psychological Disorders of Serial Killers
There are various psychological disorders that are associated with serial killers. One of these disorders is the attention deficit hyperactive syndrome (ADHD) that is symbolised by patterns of inattention or impulsive hyperactivity. In serial killers, there is a lot of medical evidence that correlates the behavior with some cognitive dysfunctions of a human (Fox 3). This means that some people with this syndrome are prone to engagement in impulsive behaviours that are psychological in nature and one of this behavior is serial killing. Another disorder that has been associated with serial killing is psychopath that involves asocial behaviors and continued violations of the rights of other people. This disorder begins during childhood and it develops to be a very dangerous syndrome if the continued violation behavior is not arrested or nipped in the bud, it can degenerate into vicious crimes such as serial killing (Douglas 6).
 
Conduct disorder is another psychological disorder that is associated with serial killing. Someone does not become a serial killer overnight a serial killer is someone who has been having a series of criminal records or conduct problems that start earlier in life. These are people who have been having inappropriate social norms that include enjoying when dithers are suffering or are in distress and this enjoyment can be fulfilled by the sight of people dying and this is something that can motivate one to become a serial killer. Finally, there is the intermittent explosive disorder that is characterized by strong aggressive and violent behavior and most people with this kind of behavior are unable to resist impulses that make them to resort to deeds like assault and destruction of property (Fox 3). The extreme end of this conduct can be serial killing where aggressive behavior always leads to murder.

Possible Influences of Serial Killing
One of the possible influences of serial killing is an oriented mission where the killer may want to rid the world of a certain group of people e.g. the blacks, the homosexuals, prostitutes or some politicians. These killers are not psychotic and they act believing that they are reforming the society by getting rid of some types of people. These include the legendary Ku Klux Klan (Reseller 13). The other influence may be hedonism where this killer seeks or derives pleasure from seeing people die. Some enjoy or get gratification by torturing people to death. One of these types was one known as Kenneth Bianchi who would murder girls and women by torturing them after raping them violently. He would dismember all the body parts of his victims and he also had cannibalistic tendencies.

Other serial killers are driven by material gains meaning that they are usually hired to kill. These forms of serial killers are called hit men and they are the most common serial killers that are there in the society because they can kill anytime that they are paid to perform the job. They can also perform mass killings depending on the requirements of the monetary authority. The last influence of serial killing is power or control (Reseller 15). These kinds of serial killers are people that were abused in their childhood and they try to seek the power and control that they never got in their childhood by dominating others in various criminal ways including murder.

Examples of Current or Past Serial Killers
One of the most famous serial killers in history was Kenneth Bianchi who used his sexual urges to carry our different methods of stimulations that were violent and ended up murdering all his rape victims. The other one that was very notable was Jeffrey Dahmer who used to kill beautiful women whom he used to dupe and fall in love with (Douglas 10). He would ensure that all his victims were part of him by ensuring that he preserved the body parts of his victims which he used to eat. Jack the Ripper was another serial killer that used to murder prostitutes in the UK in the late 19th century. The number of his victims was very high and his crimes gained the most attention of the press because London was the most powerful city in the world at that time. He is the most lethal serial killer of all times with by far the highest numbers of victims though the number has not been established because the exact number could not be gotten.

Legal Perspective
The charges for serial killers with psychological disorders and those that do not have them differ in severity. This is because the law has the provisions that take a disorder as something that can affect ones ability to make sound decisions and to act logically, meaning that the charges and the sentences will be watered down by the psychological state (Reseller 23). However, a person without a disorder will be charged as a normal murder criminal based on the counts of murder and most of them are sentenced to death. There is no fundamental right that is violated by giving a person without a psychotic disorder a harsher sentence than a psychotic because the laws are clear that crimes motivated by malice usually attract harsher punishments that crimes that are caused by an incapacitated mind, like in the case of a psychotic

Conclusion
Most serial killers in history are not psychotics. They are criminals who want to achieve certain personal benefits by murdering others. There are may other serial killings that go unreported because of the way in which serial killers execute their murders in  a ways that look like normal acts of thuggery. All in all, the law is very fair in the way it treats the two levels of serial killers because of the varied influences, giving the one with an incapacitated mind a lesser punishment than the criminal serial killers. Many people may say that the two types of serial killers ought to get the same level of punishment but there is a medical-legal axis to every case and if it is proven that a crime was committed because of the suspects inability to reason logically because of a psychological disorder, then the law is always clear on the nature of sentences that should be given (Reseller 30).