Nature vs Nurture: Are Serial Killers a Product of Their Environment or Genetics?

The Extent to Which Serial Killers Are a Product of Their Environment or Genetics

Introduction

The development of serial killers has been a topic of investigation by psychologists and criminologists for years due to the complex Nature of all the factors involved. There is no single factor that can be determined to directly cause serial killing behaviour which is what sparked an interest for me.

Over the last few years, I have read many articles and watched documentaries on specific serial killer cases and always wondered what would lead to that type of behaviour.

A problem I often found was that experimenters or people working on case studies would often be biased towards their hypothesis leading to results being biased, e.g, some laboratory studies that investigated certain genetics that may cause higher levels of aggression and linked this to serial killing behaviour, however this is not a causal effect and it may be harmful to potray it that way.

This is the reason I chose secondary research to really understand the validity of previously conducted studies on this topic and the real extent of the results.

Understanding the Problem

The topic of serial killers is often dramatised in the media, which is how I initially became interested in the topic.

However, after watching real documentaries, reading case reports and listening to psychological perspectives of the behaviour, I started to understand the differences and similarities between the real world and the media in relation to serial killers.

I became interested in understanding the real development of this type of behaviour and how this can be important in criminal profiling and interventions.

Developing the Idea

As my interest initially began with the similarities and differences between how serial killers are portrayed in media vs how they behave in real life, I initially wanted to investigate this.

However, after doing research on studies related to this, I decided to investigate the factors leading to the development of serial killers as I saw how many studies that were conducted were biased and realised it may be harmful if people believe some of these biased conclusions to be true, especially the conclusions related to genetics as they falsely linked slightly higher aggression levels to serial killer behaviour.

I am currently working on really understanding the extent to which each factor plays a role (specifically focusing on childhood/teenage trauma and a polymorphism in the MAOA gene).

The Outcome

Understanding the real extent to which these factors play a role in the development of serial killers can help with criminal profiling and potential interventions, it can also help people understand the concept better and not make certain assumptions that are untrue and may be harmful, falsely believing childhood trauma or a single gene can lead to psychopathy/ serial killing behaviour can be extremely harmful and distressing especially for people that have experienced childhood trauma, etc. Which is why understanding the real role of these factors is important.

Reflection

Working on this project and reviewing many laboratory and case studies has helped me understand more about the topic, in terms of what factors are often linked with serial killing behaviour and how valid these correlations are.

The project has also helped me understand how to review academic journals/articles in a more efficient way and how to find the information that I need.

In terms of challenges, understanding how to evaluate the extent to which a certain conclusion of a study was actually valid or biased was difficult as this is hard to quantify, it is subjective so I had to learn how to interpret certain findings which was challenging at first.

Looking Ahead

My main reason for starting this project was for my own understanding which I did achieve. I plan on investigating other related questions such as my initial question of understanding the differences between how the media portrays serial killers vs how their behaviour is actually like in real life. I am also interested in psychology as a subject for further studies so I will likely investigate related topics and continue learning in this area.

At Keystone International School, we encourage students to pursue curiosity with depth, responsibility, and academic rigour, exactly as reflected in this research study.

Whether they are exploring psychology, environmental science, economics, or the humanities, every learner at Keystone is guided to think independently and produce meaningful work that contributes to their personal and intellectual growth.

If you would like your child to experience an education that values inquiry, research, and real-world understanding, we welcome you to explore our programmes.