Serial killer behavior is thought to be an overt act of aggression.Over the years there have been general theories of violence proposed to explain why people behave aggressively. These theories include an ethological, geneticpsychoanalytical and brain damage; and socio-psychological approaches. Here, I'll talk aboutthe socio-psychological theory.
The psychologist Goldstein believes that aggressive behavior is a continuum and all behaviors can be seen as containing some amount of aggressiveness. This means that violent crime, such as serial killings, differs not qualitatively but quantitatively from the aggression that humans engage in on a lesser scale. For example on a lesser scale, many parents show aggression in that they physically punish their children. Higher up on the scale, assault and battery offenders are different from serial killing only in the availability of a weapon.
According to the socio-psychological theory, for aggression to occur, there must be a stimulus to aggress, the inhibitions against aggression must be overcome and the situation must be perceived as appropriate. The subculture of the offender usually effects the frequency of crimes of violence. Many youths belong to subcultures where violence is approved of and where a wide variety of stimuli are considered worthy of violence. Toch argues that acts of aggression are usually correlated to a person's approach to life's problem and habitual patterns of behaviour.
