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Killing
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：She was not asleep, as her roommates had thought when they approached the bed of Joni Lenz on the afternoon of January 4, 1974. They found her lying in a pool of blood that was seeping from her head and face. Terrified, her roommates removed the covers from Joni Lenz's body only to find an even more horrible sight. A bed rod had been torn away from the bed and savagely rammed into her vagina. Shortly after her discovery, Joni was transported to the hospital as she lay in a coma, suffering from brain damage that would affect her for the rest of her life. However, she was lucky to be alive. Joni was one of the few victims to survive an attack by Ted Bundy who reigned terror across the United States during the 1970's. There were countless more victims before and after Joni who were not so fortunate to have lived. Some thirty-six women may have fallen prey to Bundy, but only he knew for sure. It is a number that Bundy has carried with him to his grave； (Bell, par. 1). No one could have imagined that the handsome young man by the name of Ted Bundy, a native of Philadelphia, could be responsible for the terrifying reign of vicious rapes and murders that left women across the state of Washington wondering if they would become the next victim on his criminal record. Or how could people fathom the fear that ran rampant as the serial killer known as David Berkowitz, otherwise known as the Son of Sam, brought the city of New York to its knees during the mid 70・s. Then there is the case Albert DeSalvo, who till this very day still brings on debates as to whether or not he is the infamous Boston Strangler who・s victims ranged from the age of 19 to 85 (Lester 19). Regardless of geographical location, serial killers baffle police departments all across the globe. The obvious question raised when researching these criminals is how they were able to turn the corner from being law-abiding citizens to terrifying and in some cases sadistic maniacs. Upon labelling an individual as a serial killer one must Tran 2 understand what exactly is it that separates a serial killer from just an ordinary murderer. By popular definition, an individual who attacks and kills and least three to four victims one by one in a series of incidents in a relatively short interval would be deemed a serial murderer. This however is a fairly subjective definition for many reasons. Firstly, if an individual goes to prison after a couple of murders and upon release continues his spree of killings, does his time in prison automatically reduce his victim count to zero? What if the killings were separated by years instead of months is the individual still considered to be a serial killer? Or even so, what if the individual kills twelve people is he only considered being a serial killer after the third victim or is he not a serial killer if he is caught after his second victim? For the sake of argument we will use the definition of a serial killer stated above as the tentative definition for our future references to a serial killer. Sociologists have many theories as why people decide to live outside the accepted social standards of living and become deviants. Everything from Robert Merton・s Strain Theory to other theories such as Control Theories, Opportunity Theories and finally Emile Durkheim reasoning that deviance has its positive benefits. Serial killers are the most extreme cases of deviant people who do not live within the constraints of the law but exercise their behaviour outside of the accepted norm. Is this behaviour genetic, hormonal, biological, or cultural? Do these people consciously kill or are they basically a slave to their uncontrollable urges? We all at some point in our lives experience irrepressible rage when we felt that following normal human conduct could take a little breather so we can act strictly on our impulses, but just as we all have these violent urges, we also have internal blockades that keep us from practicing these urges.
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