Serial Killers and the Phases They Go Through

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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A serial killer's addiction to his crime is an addiction to a specific pattern of violence, which has become his way of life. Each serial killer enjoys the act of killing. They enjoy the preparation for the capture and torture, the moment of death, and the disposition of the remains each has an element of pervertedness; it is all significant to the criminal behavior. "The reliance on ritual is an across the board the identifier to the serial killer and what sets him apart from the normal human" (Alan 524). The sequence of ritualistic acts is the building up to the " murder high " the emotional and sexual orgasm, explosion of power, and the experience of the moment of murder itself. A serial killer goes through seven distinctive phases, which occur before, during, and after the victims' murder.

A serial killers first phases is the aura phase. This is a form of withdraws from everyday reality that indicates the beginning of a behavior change.

The first time this happens, time seems to slow down; sounds and colors become more vivid. Odors can become more intense, and even the killer's skin can become very sensitive to pressure. What use to be reality is replaced with the existence to find a companion, at first it is a fantasy, but will act out a role in the killer's primal ritual (Burns 123). This phase can be just a moment or two, or it can last for months. In this hallucinatory state (a experience of something that does not exist outside the mind), the killer is completely cut off from everything and everyone until the aura phase is over. Then he begins searching for his victim. They create and react to the invisible. They are the only ones who can experience it. Serial...