The Monster Within: How Male Serial Killers Discursively Manage Their Stigmatized Identities

Denying the Darkness: Exploring the Discourses of Neutralization of Bundy, Gacy, and Dahmer

“…Much of the research done on these offenders has used interviews to focus on their psychology and how their pathology manifests through behaviors during the commission of their crimes (i.e., profiling). This has then been used to determine commonalities between offenders in order to aid law enforcement investigations [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Few studies examine serial murder from a sociological or interactionist perspective [8,[10][11][12][13].…”

“…This fracture causes the serial killer to present their virtual social identity (i.e., that of normal individual) to the outside, and their true, "fractured" social identity (i.e., murderer) is only known to them (and their victims in the process of killing) (see also [1]). These offenders learn how to manage and conceal the "stigma" of being a murderer by constructing this virtual social identity, which is continually managed in social encounters so that the offender appears normal [1,5,11,14,41,42]. With FIS, social event(s) cause a fracture of the personality, which makes the serial killer "learn" of their stigma (i.e., compulsion to kill), and then consciously conceal it from routine social interactions.…”

“…Though neither study utilized the theoretical framework of neutralizations nor was from a sociological perspective, Henson and Olson [5] and Bartels and Parsons [42] both explored how serial killers 1 manage their identities through discourse in order to present normal selves within social interaction [5,42]. Both studies found that the serial killers they examined managed their identities through discourse by either attempting to represent a normal or "sympathetic" self, admitting barriers to normalcy [5], or mitigating responsibility by saying that the actions were outside their control [42].…”

“…It is theorized that three serial killers, Theodore Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer, used neutralization techniques [45] similarly to manage their identity through mitigating responsibility, minimizing stigma, presenting normal selves, and justifying their murders. Moreover, it is theorized that the use of neutralizations facilitates their construction of self, while also protecting their selves and defending against labeling and stigma [1,5,12,14,42]. 1 Henson and Olson [5] included "interviews with 13 notorious serial killers" (p. 347) in their study exploring how these offenders manage their stigmatized identities through discourse.…”

“…Moreover, it is theorized that the use of neutralizations facilitates their construction of self, while also protecting their selves and defending against labeling and stigma [1,5,12,14,42]. 1 Henson and Olson [5] included "interviews with 13 notorious serial killers" (p. 347) in their study exploring how these offenders manage their stigmatized identities through discourse. These killers were: David Berkowitz (i.e., the Son of Sam), Kenneth Bianchi (i.e., one half of the Hillside Stranglers), Theodore Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Jr., William Heirens (i.e., the Lipstick Killer), Henry Lee Lucas, James Paul, Dennis Rader (i.e., BTK), Richard Ramirez (i.e., the Night Stalker), Gery Leon Ridegway (i.e., the Green River Killer), Michael Ross, and Arthur Shawcross (i.e., the Genesee River Killer).…”