WL#5: Serial Killers: Livening up the Trope
Ever notice how nine out of ten times, serial killers or even just run of the mill murderers, were abused as children or worse, were foster kids? Apparently, those things on their own make you a horrible person, poorly adjusted and with a propensity for violence and madness. If you are both a foster child and abused you probably don’t have much of a chance in life at all. Think about the fact that kids who have been in trouble, sometimes violent offenders, they are housed in the same “group homes” as kids who did nothing other than lose their parents, and NOT because they killed them.
If you aren’t sure about the preconceived notion in this piece regarding orphans being tantamount to serial killers and want to do a quick analysis, watch the TV series Criminal Minds. The show is slightly written in favor of my argument but saves the time of wondering whether or not I am making this up. I can also speak from experience as I myself was orphaned at the age of nine. That means I know how kids without parents are housed and how they are treated. I know about the judgment and the dehumanization, no matter what you name the building. Over time they have been trying to zone out the word orphanage as too many of them have negative connotations due to the abuse endured by the children living in them.
The first place I was housed was called a “shelter home” on my paper work. I was just an innocent kid who had lost her parents. On my friend Kenny’s paperwork, it was called a “group home.” Let me explain, any grown-ups that might have cared about me, there weren’t any, but the home didn’t know that, would want to think that I was “sheltered,” as it implies a certain level of safety. My pal Kenny’s potentially concerned adults would want to know he was housed with a group of other trouble makers. They’d want to know he was being monitored and the public was safe from him. The name “group home” socially implies that, to many, a “group home” is synonymous with “juvie.”
So when it comes to public safety concerns, the last thing the public wants to consider is the possibility that more serial killers are out there, free to commit heinous murder, than are captured. That they wander the hotel strips and shops and country clubs everyone has come to think of as safe. Consider that former foster kids and abused children who become serial killers have no resources whatsoever to get away with anything, let alone murder. Meanwhile, the rich have all those things and then some, getting away with murder would be a much simpler matter for them.
To most people, the average serial killer is a mentally unstable, socially awkward, backward-thinking generally unsophisticated, mentally sick person. But what about the Harvard and/or MIT educated serial killer? The rich socialite, maybe with a posse who, apart from the glee they get from the blood spray of their victims has the money, resources and right people in their pockets to get away with it. What if they considered themselves vigilantes, taking out people the police were ignoring, maybe they’re taking too much pleasure in it. Obviously, as a plot point for a story there are a lot of possibilities.
I suppose that show Dexter has a serial killer who is somewhat sophisticated compared to the serial killers of the day. I have to be clear straight away though, I have never seen the show, I only know it was wildly popular. I have wondered if it was because of how different Dexter was from your average serial killer. I mean, obviously I’m not the first person to think about it, as a person who has never seen the series though the question in my head is this, in the story-line, was the Dexter character adopted? If he was, we still aren’t on the same page. Who writes this genre? It might be fun to build a character based on the idea, at least it would be something new.
If you aren’t sure about the preconceived notion in this piece regarding orphans being tantamount to serial killers and want to do a quick analysis, watch the TV series Criminal Minds. The show is slightly written in favor of my argument but saves the time of wondering whether or not I am making this up. I can also speak from experience as I myself was orphaned at the age of nine. That means I know how kids without parents are housed and how they are treated. I know about the judgment and the dehumanization, no matter what you name the building. Over time they have been trying to zone out the word orphanage as too many of them have negative connotations due to the abuse endured by the children living in them.
The first place I was housed was called a “shelter home” on my paper work. I was just an innocent kid who had lost her parents. On my friend Kenny’s paperwork, it was called a “group home.” Let me explain, any grown-ups that might have cared about me, there weren’t any, but the home didn’t know that, would want to think that I was “sheltered,” as it implies a certain level of safety. My pal Kenny’s potentially concerned adults would want to know he was housed with a group of other trouble makers. They’d want to know he was being monitored and the public was safe from him. The name “group home” socially implies that, to many, a “group home” is synonymous with “juvie.”
So when it comes to public safety concerns, the last thing the public wants to consider is the possibility that more serial killers are out there, free to commit heinous murder, than are captured. That they wander the hotel strips and shops and country clubs everyone has come to think of as safe. Consider that former foster kids and abused children who become serial killers have no resources whatsoever to get away with anything, let alone murder. Meanwhile, the rich have all those things and then some, getting away with murder would be a much simpler matter for them.
To most people, the average serial killer is a mentally unstable, socially awkward, backward-thinking generally unsophisticated, mentally sick person. But what about the Harvard and/or MIT educated serial killer? The rich socialite, maybe with a posse who, apart from the glee they get from the blood spray of their victims has the money, resources and right people in their pockets to get away with it. What if they considered themselves vigilantes, taking out people the police were ignoring, maybe they’re taking too much pleasure in it. Obviously, as a plot point for a story there are a lot of possibilities.
I suppose that show Dexter has a serial killer who is somewhat sophisticated compared to the serial killers of the day. I have to be clear straight away though, I have never seen the show, I only know it was wildly popular. I have wondered if it was because of how different Dexter was from your average serial killer. I mean, obviously I’m not the first person to think about it, as a person who has never seen the series though the question in my head is this, in the story-line, was the Dexter character adopted? If he was, we still aren’t on the same page. Who writes this genre? It might be fun to build a character based on the idea, at least it would be something new.