Serial Killers and Serial Victims...

In the discussion of titles of non-fiction books that I've read as the author of psychological thrillers/mysteries, my own understanding of the serial killer (and not all psych thrillers have one) and his mindset comes more from reading great fiction writers of this genre. When I need info on this phenomenon I use the internet for a quick search of current thinking and analysis. Criminal psychology has evolved over the decades, and keeping abreast of the terminology is paramount to writing nonfiction books on the topic for present-day readers. (I majored in psychology in my distant youth.)

But for a fiction writer I feel the more important knowledge must come from the inside. No, you don't have to be a serial killer, but it helped me to have studied the subject over a period of time--and to have been raised in a family with a serial abuser.

I have a character in my Quilted Mystery series who may well be a serial killer. but he is also a serial victim. I find it equally interesting to explore the connection between what may be two sides of the same coin, criminal and victim.

It's difficult for us to accept the idea that the capacity to become a serial killer may lie in all our breasts. Equally difficult is understanding that being a victim is also serial behavior. Obsessional behavior is commonplace among humans, perhaps some aberration of the normal learning process in animals. Every teacher knows that repetition is the key to learning.

So is the serial killer trying to learn something by repeating his acts? About his nature? About his parents' natures? About something broken in his mind?

Barbara Sullivan, Unraveling Ada, Ripping Abigail.