The Book “Serial Murderers and Their Victims” by Eric Hickey
The author primarily focuses on various cultural phenomena associated with history and folklore elements in his analysis. At the same time, he highlights the aspects of mysticism that have been present in society since ancient times. In this context, Hickey (2015) looks at the concepts of various monsters, analyzing these fictional characters as prototypes for real criminals. The author’s analysis presents examples of people who behaved like mythical beasts committing their crimes. Tracing such patterns from antiquity to the present, Hickey draws the reader’s attention to the theme of evil, expressed in monsters and various mystical cults. After reading this chapter, it can be concluded that from the author’s point of view, it is this theme, contained in multiple cultural elements, that contributes to the emergence of various killers (Hickey, 2015). At all times, there have been people who tend to mystical beliefs and justify their inclinations with them.
From my perspective, there is a certain percentage of veracity in this theory since cases linking murderers with mysticism are indeed observed in history. A significant weakness of this analysis is the lack of a convincing thesis linking the entire narrative. The text presented in this chapter is more similar to reasoning on this topic since it does not directly identify any pattern and does not derive a precise algorithm for the psychological evolution of killers. Hickey (2015) considers many examples that suggest that the presence of evil elements in culture contributes to some extent to the formation of criminals. However, all the cases assessed are highly individual, and their subjects are not connected by anything other than a common theme of mysticism. Thus, this analysis provides several intriguing perspectives that can be used to understand the motives of individuals better. Nevertheless, it must be understood that the mere presence of certain currents in culture and the existence of a concept of evil cannot justify the formation of all serial killers. In this case, a more thorough and detailed approach is needed, analyzing the characteristics of the individual.
Reference
Hickey, E. W. (2015). Serial murderers and their victims (7th ed.). Cengage Limited.