Serial Killers - A Homicide Detective's Take
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/investigators/serial_killers.html
Credentials and Interest
Common Knowledge
Genesis of a Serial Killer
Victim Selection
Victim Objectification
Denouement
Case Histories
As a serial killer steps away from his base, whatever it may be, to begin the hunt for human prey, it is almost always true that he knows absolutely nothing about the person who is fated to become his victim.
It may be that having no prior knowledge of a future victim further enables the process of that victim's objectification. For as far as he is concerned, his next victim is not even a human being, in the accepted sense. So, well before he ever crosses paths with his next victim, he has already stripped that person of all human meaning and worth; he has unilaterally decreed from afar that the person is deserving of no human consideration whatsoever. Thus, then, in a serial killer's perception of his victims; past and future: that each is nothing more than an object, depersonalized in advance, existing only for himself and his enjoyment, and solely to be seized and used as he sees fit. Moreover, he perceives his unseen prey not just as an object to be used, but as an object unworthy of any consideration, worthy only of extreme contempt, vicious abuse, and ultimate destruction.
To preserve this mentation, a serial killer must lie to himself. He lies as he denies his own "badness" and projects it upon his as-yet free, future victim. He lies as he stands in judgment and pronounces his victim "guilty" for the "crime" of imagining him- or herself a worthy human being.
