Serial killing is different from mass murder. Serial killing is when a person kills more than two persons in a different period of time where mass murder means killing a bunch of people in the same place and time. They call these murders as serial killing because there is a series of murders involved. Serial killers could be anyone like our father, mother, friend, husband or other closed people.

Though we may have noticed some difference in their behavior in some cases we may not have any clue that they taking the lives of many people. The gaps between one murder and the other may be a day, a month or even a year. According to the view of people, they portray a serial killer as an evil monster with unusual appearance, but actually, they are a normal human being with normal appearance. But we people fail to learn why they are involved in these activities.

To understand serial killers studying psychology is more important than studying criminology. Not all the serial killers but the majority of the serial killers has psychological reasons to do such a big crime. Our Indian law also doesn’t treat them any differently. When we try to find what was the reason behind those murders, we may get a response which is either silly or sexual based reasons.

Every human in this world has sexual and silly problems but what triggers them to kill a person? Are they really criminals or one among the people who have a mental illness? Why do they have such thoughts? What makes them kill the other person? Does every serial killer have the same mentality? How does our Indian law treat them? How should they be treated? These are a few common questions that pop in our mind which are unanswered. Our paper will throw lights on all these questions.

Who Is A Serial Killer?

Every serial killer drive to kill multiple victims may be unique, dependent on his/her history and experiences. There is no general definition for the serial killers. Serial killing is the rarest form of homicide. It occurs when an individual has killed more than two or three people who were previously unknown to him or her. There is always cooling off period between each murder. The serial killer can be defined in a simple term as a person who kills more than three people without any personal reasons. The above-mentioned definition has been accepted by both police and academic experts and provides a useful frame for reference.

This definition narrows the analysis of such crimes as it fails to incorporate with many similar characteristics of a serial killer. Serial killing is considered in relation to broad historical changes that have occurred over the past 400-500 years. The historical setting and broader social intimately tied with serial killing. When we go through human history there have probably always been an individual who engaged in serial predation. But in previous eras, it was not possible for an individual to be a serial killer.

Serial killing is a distinctly modern phenomenon. The recent social and cultural conditions to which criminologists can provide fresh insight by accentuating the broad institutional frameworks, motivations, and opportunity structures within which serial killing occurs. When it comes to public knowledge, the serial killer is a product of Hollywood productions. To heighten the interest of the audience’s story lines are created, rather than to accurately portray serial murder.

The pubic is captivated by the criminal and their crimes by focusing on the atrocities inflicted on the victims by deranged offenders. This lends more confusion to the true dynamics of a serial killer. This information also misleads law enforcement professionals from a different source. Professionals who are all involved in serial murder cases such as investigators, prosecutors, and pathologists may have limited exposure to serial murder.

Those professional experience may be based upon a single murder series and the factors, in that case, are extrapolated to other serial killers. Certain stereotypes and misconceptions take root regarding the nature of serial killer and their characteristics. Most of the serial killers are not reclusive, social misfits who live alone. We should remember that they are normal human with families and homes, are gainfully employed, and appear to be normal members of the community. They blend in so effortlessly and they are oftentimes overlooked by the law enforcement and the public.

Classification Of Serial Killers:

The serial killers can be classified according to their character and their behavior. Various criminologist, law enforcement officials, mental health professionals and social scientists have attempted to discover the true motive behind the serial killers.

They try to classify serial killers based on the typologies, which will gain information’s to further assist law enforcement officers in profiling and investigating cases related to serial killers. After making various researches the researchers have come up with a typology to determine the making of a serial killer.

According to the typology the serial killers are classified as:

What Makes A Serial Killer?

1. The organized killer:These types of offenders lead methodical lives that are also replicated in the way they commit crimes. They are triggered to kill someone by their intimate relationship, finances or employment problems. These offenders are normal person, who is skilled in employment and they have average to a high level of intelligence and they are also being socially proficient. They always restrain victims and reflect a level of control in the situation. Usually organized offenders communicate or use a verbal approach with their potential victims before the violence. The victims are chosen by the offenders based on certain characteristics such as age, physical appearance, gender, hairstyle or even based on their hair color.
   
2. Disorganized killers:These offenders are completely different from organized offenders. Disorganized offender’s crime scene and their characteristics suggest chaos and little premeditation before the offence. It may include evidence such as semen, blood, fingerprints or murder weapon. The offenders are incompetent to carry out or maintain social relationship or interaction and the disarrayed crime scene reflects this. This lack of intimate relationship may increase the chances of potential sexual or sadistic acts as a part of the murder.
   
3. Mixed killers:These killers are the one who cannot be easily identified as organized or disorganized. Those who are falling under this category are said to have both organized and disorganized characteristics. Mixed killing may involve more than one offender. They always have some sort of planning and there are unforeseen events. The unforeseen events may include a victim resisting or offender escalating into a different pattern of violence. The offender leaves the victim’s body poorly covered. These offenders may be young and/or involved in drugs or alcohol.

Unlike normal people, serial killers are relatively charming. They appear to be one among us but they aren’t. Not only they have a motive to kill someone but they are manipulative and aggressive too. But what are the reasons behind it? How does a man transform into a serial killer? Now let’s see the causes of serial killers.

1. A study has found that every serial killer has common emotional development issues and an above average intelligence.
    
2. Pregnancy: Doctors say that a child in a womb could hear everything that the mother hears and experience few emotions that the other’s experience. If a woman is so stressed, depressed or any other emotion then the child also experiences the same. It may reflect in not only the child’s growth in the womb but also it affects its mental growth which may lead to many mental disorders.
    
3. Infancy: It is the period of every human being to be given more attention and love. The first twelve months in our life is the period in which our basic emotions develop. The child should experience more affection and physical touch or else the child may experience many disorders in future. When we compare these theories to our real life, we could observe that most of the serial killers are adopted or abandoned children.
    
4. Childhood: Most of the serial killers have experienced bullying and loneliness in their childhood. It is said that commonly they had dyslexia which makes them less concentrative in their studies. They have also experienced abnormal weight, height, etc. due to which they bullied and ignored by their peers. There are also serial killers who had experienced sexual abuse, harassment which leads them to any mental disorders.
    
5. Parenting: The parents of the serial killers also ignored, bullied, shouted, etc. Their parents tend to be an alcoholic who drinks and forces their children to involve in the same activity. Some parents are workaholic who doesn’t check on their child properly and fails to give attention even if they try to contact. In the worst situation, few parents have harassed their children physically, mentally and sexually too.
    
6. Chromosomes: Recent studies had proved that one’s chromosome abnormality can trigger them to become a serial killer. For example, if any person is born with one extra X chromosome or Y chromosome it may lead to abnormality.
    
7. Fantasy: We people have our own fantasies but we know our reality but serial killers tend to live in their own fantasy every second. Their emotions are designed by their fancies. They are controlled by their imagination. They just follow their imagination and do whatever the fantasy orders them to do.
    
8. Sadist: Few people are addicted to hearing the pain, sorrow, screaming, etc. Their emotions are mixed up. They would love to see blood. There are serial killers who have the habit of having sexual intercourse with a dead body of the person whom they killed. This is the extreme level of sadism.
    
9. Mission: These serial killers are not psychotic. They would have missions which are mostly immoral and illegal. Their guilt and own pressure to complete the desired task leads them to do aggressive things.
    
10. Lust: Sexual gratification is the main aim of these killers. Serial killers who kill for lust would like to have total control and dominance over their victims. So, to ensure that they have control over their victim they kill them.

Some serial killers are psychotic and some are not. Mostly their attitudes and motive depend on their parenting and childhood.

Laws In India
The concept of serial killers doesn’t have its mark in the Indian Code. The only sections to deal with it are Section 299 and Section 300.

Section 299 of The Indian Penal Code says:
Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide.

And Section 300 of The Indian Penal Code explains that:
“Except in the cases hereinafter excepted, culpable homicide is murder, if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death, or

(Secondly) -If it is done with the intention of causing such bodily injury as the offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused, or

(Thirdly) -If it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury intended to be in­flicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, or

(Fourthly) -If the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or such injury as aforesaid.”

Culpable homicide and murder have only a thin line of difference. Generally, if a person kills someone, they will the have motive and intention to kill them. Motive leads to intention. A motive is a malicious mind which is the ultimate object. Intention refers to the immediate act caused. In the case of these serial killers, they will have the intention to kill those persons but there is no motive. It is said that mens rea is partially absent in their cases. Some have argued with this partial mens rea and Section 84 of The Indian Penal Code.

According to Section 84 of The Indian Penal Code:
“ Nothing is an offence which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsoundness of mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that he is doing what is either wrong or contrary to law.”

But the same rule was absent in the Criminal Procedure Code and Mental Health Act of 1987. The Bombay High Court in the case of State of Maharashtra vs Sindhi Alias Raman, S/O Dalwai quoted that the medical insanity that the criminals have might not be the same insanity said in Section 84 of The Indian Penal Code. Though the insanity is same as quoted, these criminals are able to identify the consequences of the committed act. Though they do not have a guilty mind they knew that they were committing a wrong or illegal act. Automatically Section 84 of the Code doesn’t apply here.

There were many cases in India regarding serial killers. In the famous Auto Shankar case, Shankar and his associates were found guilty of six murders committed over a period of two years between 1988 and 1989. The victims’ remains were either charred or found within 12 homes.

In Joshi- Abhyankar case, four commercial art students have committed ten murders within January 1976 and March 1977. At times they have also robbed and drank alcohol. These are only two examples. In all the serial killer cases the killers are hanged or given life imprisonment. But in all these cases there was no question regarding psychopathy was raised.

Conclusion:
To summarize the discussion above mentioned many factors plays an important role in the development of these serial killers. There has not been one sole factor or no one major factor for the development of characteristics of the serial killer, it is a combination of several factors and incapability to cope up with a healthy life. Even though the factors may be overlapping or independent but they do not guarantee each other existences and do not guarantee that the person with these characters will become a serial killer. One of the notable disturbing aspects of the serial killer is that virtually everyone is at risk.

Even a person who is cautious is not safe from the serial killer. There are various motivation theories are relevant to the exploration of a serial killer, but readers are not to place excessive explanatory on one theory. A continuous investigation would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach which allows for consideration of genetic, psychological and social influence upon the serial killer.

An analysis of the 7,160 single-bias incidents by bias motivation revealed that 54.7 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 17.1 percent were triggered by a religious bias, 14.2 percent were motivated by a sexual-orientation bias, and 13.2 percent of the incidents were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Nearly 1 percent (0.7) involved bias against a disability.
There were 5,190 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2005.
Of the 3,109 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property.
Of the 6,804 known offenders reported in 2005, 60.5 percent were white, and 19.9 percent were black. The race was unknown for 12.3 percent, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders.
The majority (30.0 percent) of hate crime incidents in 2005 occurred in or near residences or homes.
If we analyze the above data we would find that in modern America racial bias form a greater cause for Hate Crimes and among those the White offenders were much more than the black ones, may be because the white possess an ancient sense of Supremacy.

This can be confirmed by the statistics provide by the Government of UK
Nationally, in 2006-07, police reported 5,619 hate crimes in which someone was injured, 4,350 hate crimes without injury, and 28,485 cases of racially or religiously motivated harassment. There were also 3,565 cases of criminal damage related to hate crimes. The typical hate offender is a young white male (most homophobic offenders are aged 16-20, and most race hate offenders under 30). The majority of hate crimes happen near to the victim’s home while they are going about their daily business, and an offence is most likely to be committed between 3pm and midnight. Most hate criminals live in the same neighbourhood as their victims.

One can encounter great similarities in the above statistics; this shows that under same of similar socio-cultural background, the structure of hate crimes is almost the same. But for India the Story is different, India forms a totally different socio-cultural background with regards to its European neighbours.

Causes that cause Hate Crimes
The roots of hate violence are broad, but most causes come back to one element in the end: fear. This fear is most often rooted in ignorance: fear of the unknown, fear of the “other,” fear of perceived competitors; all of these hold the potential to generate a violent reaction under the right conditions or rather wrong conditions. Prejudice is, at a basic level, instinctual. Many studies have been conducted to show that people habitually, instinctually are drawn to notice differences and similarities between themselves and others. This is a natural function of our desire to create order out of the chaotic world around us. But in comparing ourselves to others, we tend to label others’ similar attributes to be desirable and others’ dissimilar attributes undesirable. Soon we are judging whether a person is “good” (that is, we react positively to them), or “bad” (we react negatively). It is only a short jump for a stressed person from thinking “that person is bad because they are different from me” to “those people caused all my problems, and I’m going to do something about it.”[10]
The effort of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White Aryan Resistance (WAR), Shiv Sena, and other ethnic groups, to preach violence against racial, religious, and other minorities continues unabated today. They have hate hotlines, computer bulletin boards, hate propaganda distribution networks, youth groups, street gangs, etc. active throughout the state, pumping out a steady drone of messages designed to transform the fears of the economically distressed, the paranoid and the ignorant into violent reaction. The recent lynching of UP youth in Maharashtra shows that India is no difference place. These kinds of crime are also rising in India. The North Indian is being thrown from every region of the country. These Groups function very systematically. They recognize very clearly the psychology of the issues they raise. This helps them to gain local support. They indoctrinate people to believe that minorities are a threat to their way of life, to their very existence, and that the only choice is to fight back in as violent a fashion as possible. What is more disturbing and dangerous is the rise and empowerment of hate groups such as Hindu Janjagran Samiti and Bajrang Dal. These issues which were once a concern of Sangha, have now gone out of its control. One other basic cause is politicians. Some political figures today are willing to fan the flames of bigotry in order to advance their own interests and careers. We have seen rampant examples in recent years of political campaign ploys that are permeated with racist and religionist connotations. The appearance that political figures and even some government leaders approve of these views gives them a coating of respectability that they do not deserve.

Economic causes
There are other causes too in earlier times hate crimes were because of lack of knowledge of other cultures, narrow mindedness but now the reasons have changed now they are economic. Economic insecurities. They feel they are left out of economic progress and left out of the political mainstream. There are millions of individuals who even at age 35 get nowhere in life. Their small business packs up or their promotions are denied. In an earlier time these bitter men would have become sadhus. Now, they get recruited to the cause of Hindu rage. The persistent perception of failure in a success-oriented society, the daily humiliation of being the loser when everyone around seems to be winning, the factory of glossy cultural products like ads and movies that scream “I have it and you don’t,” is creating armies of recruits to Hindu “rage”.

The thousands of underemployed or semi-employed youths who are perpetually available to be part of screaming “nationalist” mob against “minorities”, are not just protesting about Muslims: they are screaming out their own economic and cultural deprivation. Thus, the fashion show, St Valentine’s Day, the English-speaking “pseudo secularists” all the demonstrable symbols of the economy that are new and which appear successful, must be met with hatred and violence because “success” is the enemy. And this is not limited to Hindus and India only it is happening around the world, and with this growing economic recession it is bound to rise.

Hate Crime Laws
With rise in globalization we have seen a rise in hate crimes, especially in fast growing and extraordinary economies and in those nations which have traditionally been very diverse such as India and Unites States. So it’s high time when we should categorize Hate Crimes as a distinct category of crime and form strict rules in order to control them. Many nations have penalty enhancement acts which enhance the punishment in case of such crimes. The US has all together a separate category of crime.

The reason that we need a separate consideration for such types of crimes is that hate crimes cause greater individual and societal harm. In Wisconsin v. Mitchell, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously found that “bias-motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest” As Blackstone said long ago, “it is but reasonable that, among crimes of different natures, those should be most severely punished which are the most destructive of the public safety and happiness.”

People do have their arguments against the legislation of such acts. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously found that hate crime statutes which criminalize bias-motivated speech or symbolic speech conflict with free speech rights because they isolated certain words based on their content or viewpoint .Some have argued hate crime laws bring the law into disrepute and further divides society, as groups apply to have their critics silenced. Some have argued that if it is true that all violent crimes are the result of the perpetrator’s contempt for the victim, then all crimes are hate crimes. Thus if there is no alternate rationale for prosecuting some people more harshly for the same crime based on who the victim is, then different defendants treated unequally under the law, which violates the Constitution.

Moreover practically it is very difficult to prove a Hate Crime because they are not very much different from ordinary crimes, the only difference they are accompany is that of a hate speech which the criminal often gives before committing a crime.