How is the psychology of a killer different from the psychology of ordinary people. Coursework: Psychological characteristics of the personality of a serial killer Psychiatrists appointed by the prosecution
of the fourth article 32 of the Federal Law of February 16, 1995 “On Communications”: determination of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of October 2, 2003 No. 345-O // Ros. gas. 2003. 10 Dec.
Mashkov Sergey Alexandrovich - candidate legal sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Criminalistics, Forensic Expertise and Legal Psychology, Baikalsky State University economics and law, 664003, Irkutsk, st. Lenina, d. 11; e-mail: [email protected]
Information about the author
Mashkov Sergey Alexandrovich - Candidate of Law, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Procedure, Forensic Science and Juridical Psychology, Baikal National University of Economics and Law, 11 Lenin st., Irkutsk, 664003; e-mail: [email protected]
A. A. Protasevich, L. V. Teleshova
PECULIARITIES OF THE PERSONALITY OF THE CRIMINAL IN THE CONTEXT OF CRIMINALISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SERIAL MURDERS
The article is devoted to the concept of the personality of a serial killer in the context of the forensic characteristics of serial murders as a special category of crimes against a person. The analysis of certain categories was carried out: foreign and domestic serial killers, as well as female serial killers. Comparative analysis carried out serial killers times of the USSR and modern Russia.
Key words: serial murder, identity of a serial killer, female serial killers, forensic characterization of a serial murder.
A.A. Protasevich, L.V. Teleshova
THE FEATURES OF OFFENDER "S IDENTITYIN THE CONTEXT OF THE CRIMINALISTICS CHARACTERISTIC OF SERIAL MURDERS
The article is dedicated to the concept of the identity of a serial murderer in the context of criminalistics characteristic of serial murders, as a special category of offenses. The analysis of the separate categories: foreign and domestic serial murderers, and female serial murderers. There is the comparative analysis of serial murderers of the Soviet Union and modern Russia.
Keywords: serial murder, the identity of serial murderer, female serial murderers, criminalistic characteristic of serial murder.
The identity of the criminal - a serial killer with a great degree of probability can be called the central element of the forensic characteristics of this type of crime, because it is this element that determines the entire uniqueness of the phenomenon of serial murders. The identity of the offender is the primary source of all the main differences between the category of serial murders and the forms of multiplicity of crimes.
The category "personality" is revealed in many scientific disciplines, first of all, it is psychology, but the concept of "personality of the offender" is not purely psychological in nature, it has absorbed the features of a forensic and criminological nature. Thus, it seems that the identity of the offender will be correctly determined using the basics of general and legal psychology.
Based on the foregoing, we define personality as a system of socially significant qualities of an individual, a measure of his mastery of social values and his ability to realize these values.
The personality of a criminal is understood as a set of negative social and socially significant properties and qualities of a person, which, in interaction with external circumstances (situation), led him to commit a crime.
It is believed that, as a rule, the perpetrators of murders are characterized by immoral inclinations, impudent and cynical behavior in everyday life, addiction to alcohol. Victims of killers are also often characterized negatively, sometimes by their actions they actually provoke a crime. This characteristic refers to simple murders, since in no textbook on forensic science the reader will find the forensic characteristics of serial murders singled out in a separate chapter. And whether this statement is true for characterizing the personality of a serial killer, this is what we will try to find out.
When analyzing the category of "personality of a serial killer", it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of "personality of a serial killer" and "portrait of a serial killer". Under the identity of a serial killer, as we have already defined, we mean a set of negative social and socially significant properties and qualities of a person, and under the portrait of a serial killer, we will understand an integral set of characteristics, which includes: psychological picture, criminological and forensic characteristics.
The psychological portrait is conditional, as it reflects only the psychology of a person and may contain the following features:
Race (and sometimes nationality);
Age;
general characteristics personality and prevailing motivation of crimes;
Level of education, professional qualifications, intelligence, occupation;
Individual personality traits (habits, hobbies, inclinations, skills, etc.);
District of residence;
Area of the place of work (study service);
Socioeconomic level;
Features of origin (parental family) and personal life history;
Marital status, stability family life, the presence of children;
Attitude towards certain types of activity (to serve in the army, to sports, etc.);
The presence of mental or other pathology;
Behavior before, during and after the commission of the crime;
Presence of similar and other criminal experience and probability of recidivism , .
The portrait, in addition to those mentioned, may include other signs that reflect significant and informative features of the criminal in determining the directions of the search work.
The peculiarity of the psychological portrait is that it is compiled based on the materials of criminal and operational cases, that is, it contains signs of an alleged unknown criminal.
A criminological characteristic is a set, a system of traits or properties that characterize a person who has committed a crime.
Properties that form a criminological characteristic:
1) socio-demographic properties of the offender's personality;
2) criminal law;
3) social roles and statuses: in the socio-political sphere; in the sphere of civil relations; in production; in the family household; in the field of leisure;
4) moral and psychological properties;
5) mental properties: level of mental development (intelligence); abilities, skills, abilities, habits; features of the flow of emotional processes; emotional properties, volitional properties; needs.
The forensic characterization of the person who committed the crime is compiled in the complex of the forensic characterization of a certain type of crime as a whole. For each type of crime, there is a characteristic of the offender, consisting of common features inherent in most of the persons who committed this species crimes, such as gender, age, nationality, social status, financial situation, attitude to certain social groups and so on.
As can be seen from the above, all three characteristics in their composition have several items of the same name. The difference lies in the fact that each of the listed characteristics is compiled for different purposes, in the presence of different amounts of information about the identity of the offender and at different stages in the investigation of the crime.
When characterizing the personality of a serial killer, it is important to distinguish between the portrait of a foreign and a domestic serial killer. Comparative analysis is possible.
Table 1
Comparative analysis of portraits of foreign and domestic serial killers
Foreign serial killers__Domestic serial killers
White race __ Slavic race_
Mature age (close to 30 years old and Age categories: under 20 years old, 20-
older)__35 years_
Intelligence level:
Organized non-social type: high, medium;
Disorganized antisocial type: low_
Professions that satisfy their need for violence_
Family situation:
1. Incomplete families; domineering mother suppresses father; were victims of domestic violence as children; parents are alcoholics, drug addicts, the killers themselves do not have these addictions.
2. Families are outwardly prosperous, parents pay much attention to intellectual and physical development child, ignoring the emotional sphere_
Symptoms of the McDonald triad: cruelty to animals,
arson, bedwetting_
Social manipulation skills_
Antisocial personality without obvious mental disorders, but with anomalies of character and behavior (psychopath, sociopath)_
As can be seen from the table, a comparative analysis of the main indicators of the characteristics of the considered type of persons in Russia and abroad coincide. Various characteristics are formed under the influence of certain factors, for example, such as the standard of living and social well-being in the territory where the offender lives, the time and circumstances that accompany the murders, etc.
JulieB. Wiest in his book "Creating cultural monsters: serialMurderinAmerica" (Creating cultural monsters: serial murder in America) analyzes the biography of 15 serial killers, we will try to present the data collected by the author of the book as clearly as possible.
Total number of serial killers in the study: 15;
Gender: men - 14, women -1.
Race: white race - 12; African Americans - 2; Mexican - 1.
Age at the time of the first murder: up to 30 years - 8; from 31 to 50 years - 7.
Intelligence level: low - 2; medium - 9; high - 5.
School performance: poor - 12; average - 1; good - 2;
Level of social adaptation: adapted - 5; unadapted - 11.
Labor activity at the time of detention: permanent job - 10; intermittent work - 4; unemployed - 1;
Marital status: married / married - 3; single/unmarried/divorced - 12; the presence of children - 8; absence of children - 7.
Service in the army (for 14 men): served - 5; did not serve - 9.
Interest in military/law enforcement work: had - 3; did not have - 12.
From the data presented, it is possible to compile an average portrait of a foreign serial killer according to the specified criteria:
A serial killer is a white male over 30 years of age with an average or high level of intelligence, with a permanent job or business, single or divorced, not in the military and with no interest in law enforcement. This description compiled for the portrait of a foreign serial killer, however, no significant difference between foreign and domestic serial killers has been established. And such a description in no way corresponds to the characterization of a serial killer, which was given at the beginning of the article and served to describe a simple killer.
We should not forget about the need to analyze the personality of serial killers - women. When we hear the expression “a serial killer is a woman”, a certain contradiction arises: a serial killer is a person who committed murders, one after another, who took the lives of many people and a woman who gives and protects life, an object of admiration and poetic chanting. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the history of forensic science knows cases of women committing serial murders, cases, at first glance, rare, but not exceptional. The hallmarks of "female" serial murders are the mechanism of committing crimes and the motive. Let's try to understand these features.
To begin with, it is necessary to conduct a complete collection of information on cases of serial murders committed by women, based on their
Despite the fact that the number of such crimes is not large, an attempt was made to include in the analysis all known cases for which there is enough information to conduct such an analysis. The following results were obtained about the work carried out:
Distribution by state
2) European countries 16.5%;
3) Russia (USSR) 16.5%;
4) Mexico 10%.
By way of killing
1) poisoning 52%;
2) suffocation 14%;
3) torture 14%;
4) use of firearms 5%;
5) use of edged weapons 5%;
6) the dominant method of 10% is not traced.
Based on
1) selfish 48%;
2) personal dislike 9.6%;
3) revenge 9.6%;
4) adherence to the political regime 9.6%;
5) jealousy 5%;
6) unidentified 18.2%.
By sexual orientation
1) 96.7% are heterosexual;
2) 3.3% are homosexual.
Family status
1) 64.5% were married;
2) no data 35.5%.
An interesting result is the dynamics of the number of victims of female serial killers for the period after the times of arbitrariness over servants and subjects and the Second World War (Fig.). The number of victims gradually decreases and becomes stable (with the exception of a jump to the level of 46 victims of Jenny Jones, the maximum number of estimated victims, the minimum number of 11 people are used to plot the graph), regardless of political, economic and social environment different states of the world. This makes it possible to predict the retention of the established level in terms of the number of victims of female serial killers.
Dynamics of the number of victims 1949-2010
The analysis gives us the opportunity to build a generalized portrait of a female serial killer: a woman who is or was married, has children, the preferred method of committing murders is poisoning, the crime is committed for selfish motives, family members, children, lovers and people from other countries are almost always victims of poisoning. immediate circle of contact.
As mentioned earlier, the "handwriting" of female serial killers is characterized by a distinctive way of committing a crime - poisoning. Why do 52% of female serial killers choose this method? The answer seems obvious: the impossibility of using physical force to achieve a result. In fact, everything is not so simple, because the victims very often became their own children and elderly parents, who were significantly inferior in their physical strength to young healthy women. Here, the method of committing a crime is in close connection with the motive; in 48% of cases, a mercenary motive for committing a crime was established: receiving insurance payments, eliminating heirs, personal enrichment, etc. In this case, the death of the victims should not arouse suspicion and attract undue attention. The symptoms of poisoning are similar to the symptoms of common food poisoning.
Next in frequency of occurrence are such methods of murder as torture (14%) and strangulation (14%), here the use of physical violence against the victims is already clearly visible. The victims are children, the elderly, prisoners concentration camp- which is understandable, the choice of a weak victim is also characteristic of male serial killers.
It is impossible to consider all serial killings as a simple sum of murders committed by women and murders committed by men.
mi. There is some area of intersection associated with the sexual self-identification of killers, as well as killers who have committed crimes in a way that is not typical for their gender, age, social status (such murders are marked in the diagram as “X”).
Such a formula can express the ratio of some paired features that characterize serial killers for any significant criterion, in our case, such a criterion is the method of committing a crime, for example, gender: male, female; level of well-being: poor, well-to-do; the process of growing up: in a complete, incomplete family; whether there was violence in the process of upbringing: yes, no, etc. And in almost every case, we will be able to observe the formation of the area of intersection that we encountered in deciding the place of serial killers with violation of gender identity among serial killers in general. Cases relating specifically to this area are often misleading in the investigation of crimes, and even at the stage of initial investigative actions. An unfounded prejudice about the identity of a serial killer and its significant features can lead to new victims and the loss of precious time. The identity of a serial killer as a key element of the forensic characteristics of this type of crime requires a more extensive analysis, building a clearly organized structure and system of research areas, as well as a competent and adequate synthesis of the data obtained.
An interesting question is about changes in the personality of serial killers in chronological dynamics, as well as in the context of political and geopolitical changes. A prime example can serve as a comparative analysis of the serial killers of the USSR and modern Russia. In tab-
facial 2 submitted Comparative characteristics serial killers of the times of the USSR and modern Russia.
table 2
Comparative characteristics of serial killers of the USSR and Russia
Criterion USSR Russia
Socio-demographic characteristics of the criminal's personality Family man, full-fledged member of Soviet society, age: 30-45, gender: male, "loners" A group of young people, mostly from single-parent families, without permanent place work or predominant activity, age: 14-30, gender: male
Dominant motive sexual self-assertion
Method of committing Violent acts of a sexual nature, strangulation, numerous stabbings Beat victims with hammers, bats, strangulation
Characteristics of traces of the crime Localized on the body of the victim and in close proximity to it, some carried away trophies Localized on the body of the victim, photo-video filming, storage of video recordings of the crime
Method of hiding traces Hiding corpses Demonstration of corpses, body parts of corpses, video recordings
Characteristics of the victim's personality Women, children Unfavorable strata of society, women, children
As can be seen from the table, such an element of forensic characteristics as the "personality of the offender" has changed in most points. The dynamics of quantitative indicators (the number of serial killers, the number of victims, etc.) is not as important as the qualitative characteristics (method and mechanism of committing crimes, motive, etc.).
Analyzing serial murders committed in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus since 2000, one can identify a number of trends in the personality of the offender, and these changes are striking. Serial killers have become "younger", i.e. the age at which they begin to commit crimes, which later turned into a series, has decreased significantly. If earlier serial killers were mostly people of mature age, now it can be
young people whose age ranges from 14 to 30 years. Most of these young people grew up in dysfunctional families, secondary education, specialized secondary education, average intelligence level (members of the Blood Magic gang, Dmitry Karimov, Artem Anufriev, Nikita Lytkin). But there is also a diametrically opposite situation: children grew up in complete, prosperous families, in abundance, without knowing the need, received a decent education, and nevertheless committed cruel, sophisticated murders (Dnepropetrovsk maniacs).
If we look for trends in serial murders over the past five or six years, we can note that serial crimes are committed by a group of persons (two or more persons), using the means of video and photography of their crimes, often these materials are posted on the Internet information and telecommunication network on special sites that promote violence, cruelty or hostility against certain groups of the population. By performing such actions, the killers seek to show off their "feats", perhaps to indicate their civic position.
The authors of the article analyzed the portraits of foreign serial killers, serial killers of the USSR and modern Russian serial killers, including female serial killers, and the time has come to compare them with the characterization of the killer given at the very beginning of the article, which is usually included in the forensic characterization of murders and found in most forensic science textbooks. Whether serial killers fit the description of a wild, poorly educated, loner with immoral behavior and an addiction to alcohol, apparently not. This necessitates the consideration of serial murders as a special category of crimes against the person, and the provision special attention such an element of the forensic characterization of serial murders as the identity of the offender.
List of used literature
1. Bogomolova S., Obraztsov V. "Psychological profile" in the service of the US police // Notes of criminalists. M., 1994. Issue. 4. S. 292-305.
2. Enikeev M.I. Fundamentals of general and legal psychology: a textbook for universities. M. : Yurist, 1996. 631 p.
3. Criminalistics: textbook / ed. A.G. Filippova. M. : Vyssh. education, 2007. 448 p.
4. Petukhov V. On the development in Russia of psychological portraits of persons committing serial crimes against a person // Zapiski criminalistov. M., 1994. Issue. 4. S. 305-309.
5. Protasevich A.A. Search portrait of a criminal as an integrative system. Irkutsk: Izd-vo IGEA, 1998. 108 p.
6. Repetskaya A.L., Rybalskaya V.Ya. Criminology. General part: textbook. allowance. Irkutsk: Izd-vo IGEA, 1999. 239 p.
Protasevich Alexander Alekseevich - Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer Russian Federation, Dean of the Judicial and Investigative Faculty, Baikal State University of Economics and Law 664003, Irkutsk, st. Lenina, 11; e-mail: [email protected]
Teleshova Lyubov Vyacheslavovna - post-graduate student, Department of Criminalistics, Forensic Expertise and Legal Psychology, Baikal State University of Economics and Law, HR Inspector of the Dean's Office of Correspondence Education of the Faculty of Forensic Investigation, 664003, Irkutsk, st. Lenina, 11. Email: [email protected]
Information about the authors
Protasevich Alexandr Alekseevich - Doctor of Law, Professor, Head of Judicial-Investigation Faculty, Baikal National University of Economics and Law, 11, Lenin St., Irkutsk, 664003; e-mail: [email protected]
Teleshova Lyubov Vyacheslavovna - Post-graduate student, Department of Criminal Procedure, Forensic Science and Juridical Psychology, Baikal National University of Economics and Law, inspector of the correspondence course of the Judicial-Investigation Faculty,11, Lenin St., Irkutsk, 664003; e-mail: [email protected]
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"Psychological characteristics of professional assassins"
The personality of a criminal is a set of negative personality-structural mental qualities characteristic of criminals of a certain criminal orientation. The psychological characteristics of a person are understood as a relatively stable set of individual qualities that determine typical forms of behavior. A huge role in the formation of any personality is played by worldview and moral features and properties: views, beliefs, orientation values, life aspirations and expectations. The ideological position not only determines the general orientation of the individual, his purposefulness, but affects the entire set of behavior and actions, habits and inclinations. A person becomes a personality only when he has developed a certain system of views on the main issues of social existence, life and activity.
When studying the personality of a criminal, the following provisions are of particular importance. Firstly, the established attitudes towards various social and moral values and various aspects of reality (to work duties, property, family, children, others, etc.). Secondly, the level, nature and social significance of needs and claims (socially useful and justified or socially harmful, unjustified) and the chosen ways of satisfying them (legal, illegal, socially dangerous), as well as the reasons for such needs.
Characteristics of the personality of the offender is complemented by his intellectual, emotional and volitional properties.
Intellectual properties include: the level of mental development, the amount of knowledge, the breadth or narrowness of views, the content and diversity of interests and aspirations, life experience, etc.
Emotional properties consist of such signs as strength, balance or mobility of nervous processes, the dynamism of feelings, the degree of emotional excitability, the nature of the response to various manifestations of the external environment, etc.
Volitional properties include: the ability to accept and implement decisions taken, the ability to regulate one's activities and the direction of actions, the possession of endurance, perseverance, firmness, perseverance and other features.
The above factors will help us highlight the psychological characteristics of professional assassins.
Among the various killers, hired killers can be distinguished, whose personality has recently become the subject of attention of criminologists. Today, the activities of hired killers are considered within the framework of professional crime. The identity of the hired killer is an innovation for a special relapse, which later develops into professional crime. If earlier it was believed that murders in themselves cannot be a source of profit, today the "profession" of a hired killer is one of the highest paid. It can be assumed that this is closely related to the characteristics of the era in which we live - the "epoch of consumption".
“Hitlers,” writes Yu. M. Antonyan, “are those who ... kill not out of passion, not out of hatred for a particular person and revenge, but out of cold calculation. These are criminals-rationalists, which does not exclude, but, on the contrary, suggests that they have the most complex interweaving of deep motives for just such behavior, which are not covered by their consciousness. And these are professionals who have received the necessary training in the army, in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, the Caucasus and in all those places where the hostilities took place in which they took part. The psychological training of such persons began as early as adolescence in group fights, beating "outsiders"; improved in the criminal actions of militants - members of organized criminal groups - with violence against young soldiers or "scapegoats" in correctional institutions. At present, the perpetrators of contract killings may be part of a criminal organized group or, as "professionals", exist autonomously and secretly. But those who can use their services (“customers”) know about their existence.”
Most often, killers use firearms, and one that, according to them, did not have a criminal background. They leave him in place. These persons are distinguished by great caution, attentiveness, mobility, and resourcefulness. Usually they carefully prepare for "work", inspect the site of a future assassination attempt, determine the points from which they will fire a shot, methods of disguise, escape routes, and the location of vehicles. Explosions, and even more fires, are used less frequently. There were cases in criminal practice of the use of poisons, as well as radioactive substances that cause a slow but certain death. In more rare cases, death as a result of an accident during a car accident is "organized". The thoughtfulness of all the details, careful selection and testing of weapons, etc. are included in the "professional" activities of killers, are a necessary attribute of their work, which must be performed successfully, because otherwise you can pay with your own life, which also indicates a fairly high level of intelligence from these persons.
When one person perceives another abstractly and only as a target for a shot, he must be an alienated person, that is, emotionally cold, impassive, which excludes empathy, the ability to put oneself in their place. He must have, if not complete, then a very significant detachment from life, necrophilic features. These features are inherent in most hired killers. Some of them do not perceive the victim as a living person at all, especially as an individual.
Is it really only self-interest that guides the actions of professional assassins? Certainly not, since their behavior is polymotivated, which is also emphasized by Yu. M. Antonyan. “Firstly, ... assassins for the most part are necrophilic natures, whose behavior is determined by the very need to kill. Secondly, these are players who really need to be in sharp, exciting situations of risk and danger, which does not at all contradict the assertion of composure and discretion of such people. In these situations, calm, self-possessed individuals who can calculate different options can successfully act. Thirdly, it is by no means excluded that certain hired persons for the murder take revenge on businessmen, merchants and other persons because they are more successful and richer, that they do what the murderer can only dream of. Most people in modern world the thirst for profit is in charge, but only a few become "mercenaries", therefore it is impossible not to agree with the opinion of Yu.M.Antonyan.
Unlike other killers, who are characterized by increased vulnerability and susceptibility to interpersonal relationships, killers - calm, balanced people. They are difficult to unbalance. Their distinctive feature is the ability to be invisible, nothing to attract attention to themselves. This is one of the conditions for their successful activities in fulfilling "orders". Thus, in the face of hired killers, our society is faced with quite an unusual phenomenon, with a special category of people and criminals.
Moral and legal norms do not have a significant impact on the behavior of hired killers. Such people usually either do not understand what society requires of them, or they understand, but do not want to fulfill these requirements. Since such persons have violated or deformed normative control, they evaluate the social situation not from the standpoint of moral and legal requirements, but on the basis of personal experiences, grievances, desires. In a word, they are characterized by a persistent violation of social adaptation.
They are also characterized by violations in the field of communication: the inability to establish contacts with others, the inability to take the point of view of another, to look at oneself from the outside. This, in turn, reduces the possibility of adequate orientation, produces the emergence of affectively saturated ideas associated with the idea of hostility from the surrounding people and society as a whole. All taken together forms such features as self-absorption, isolation, isolation, on the one hand, and aggressiveness, suspicion, on the other. As a result, the correct assessment of the situation is even more difficult, since the behavior is controlled by affective attitudes, and the actions of others are considered dangerous, threatening the person, which leads to illegal ways out of the current situation.
The personality of a criminal is usually considered in relation to its three constituent elements: socio-demographic, biological and psychological. At the same time, it is customary to begin the description of a person with socio-demographic indicators: gender, age, education, criminal record, nature and duration of criminal behavior, etc.
The absolute majority of those who commit assassinations are men - more than 90%. The rest, respectively, are women. As practice and scientific literature testify, the involvement of women or minors in murder for reward by customers is exceptional. This is due to the following reasons:
1) historically, murders are the "field of activity" of men who more easily agree to murder, unlike women, and, therefore, it is easier for customers to contact male representatives with such a proposal;
2) men stronger than women, and since most of the victims are also men, the elimination of which, in the event of a situation getting out of control, may require the use of physical violence to bring the crime to an end, therefore it is advisable to hire men;
3) as a rule, professional hired killers are persons who have completed military service and have weapons skills.
At the same time, it should be noted that with the further spread of murders for hire in Russia, there has been a tendency to involve women as direct perpetrators of the crime.
As Yu.M. Antonyan: “Murder is an area in which women have always shown their activity.”
At the same time, in relation to murders for hire, women are more active in the role of customers.
It is not uncommon for minors to be found among hired killers. The involvement of minors as direct executors is motivated by the following circumstances:
Firstly, children are interrogated in the presence of legal representatives, and the specific methods and methods used by investigators during interrogations of other persons cannot be applied to children;
Secondly, it is unlikely that teenagers are sufficiently informed about the identity of the organizers of the crime and other data to help the investigation;
Thirdly, it is much easier for minors to approach a potential victim, especially if she is well guarded;
Fourth, the cost of juvenile killers is low;
Fifth, if necessary, it is easy to get rid of juvenile killers.
Such children, as a rule, are homeless or from dysfunctional families, which are characterized by the absence of one of the parents, parental abuse of alcohol or drugs, violence against children, lack of control over children, hostile relations with the stepfather (stepmother), etc.
The perpetrators of assassinations can be divided into two groups according to the age criterion: those with the highest criminality, persons aged 20-35 years, and other persons.
The first group is the largest and most socially dangerous. This is due to the following factors: as mentioned above, these are persons who have completed military service or have criminal experience, weapons skills, organizational skills planning and committing crimes; physical activity falls just on the age period from 18 to 35 years; the number of unemployed among young people is growing every year, on the one hand, and on the other hand, there are many temptations around that can be satisfied only by having a significant amount of money, which an unemployed young person has nowhere to take; among young people, especially those who served in "hot spots", there is a certain element of hatred for wealthy people, whose fortune was obtained, most often, by not entirely legal means. Therefore, sometimes only a certain push (for example, in the form of a promised monetary fee) is enough for the above-mentioned persons in order for them to decide to take up murders for hire.
Hitmen, as representatives of violent crime, fall under the general educational portrait of a violent criminal. So among all criminals guilty of murders and grievous bodily harm, 70% have a secondary education, 15% have a secondary education. professional education, 2% - higher education. However, given the fact that among professional assassins there are often former or current military personnel, as well as athletes, it can be hypothetically assumed that the proportion of people with higher education among killers is greater than among representatives of other categories of violent criminals.
The criminal record, nature and duration of the criminal behavior of hired killers is a specific side of the category of crimes under consideration.
By the nature and number of convictions, hired killers can be classified into "amateurs" and multidisciplinary or retrained. The first group includes persons with no previous convictions and one previous conviction, as a rule, for other serious crimes. The second group, which is larger than the first, includes persons with two or more convictions. Most scholars tend to classify the activities of assassins as an ad hoc recidivist, although this requires more study.
It should be noted that most professional assassins are employed for conspiracy purposes, and murders are the main source of income. Employment is of a formal nature, respectively, the scope of legal employment is quite wide, and the choice of a particular activity is not of fundamental importance.
Among the so-called "passive" hired killers and "amateurs" there are both employed and unemployed. However, both in the first and in the second cases, hired killers motivate their criminal actions with a mercenary focus - rising unemployment, meager wages, inflation, etc.
Interesting are such socio-demographic indicators of hired killers as citizenship and place of residence. As the practice of investigating murders for hire shows, among them there are performers invited from other cities or republics.
Thus, summarizing the socio-demographic indicators of the personality of a hired killer, we note that:
First, homicide in general is a male crime;
Secondly, in the above age period (20-35 years), due to individual mental characteristics a person, under the pressure of social factors, a certain category of people experience internal contradictions, expressed in the commission of violent crimes, including contract killings;
Thirdly, the professional activities of hired killers will continue to take place within the framework of a special relapse.
Socio-demographic features of the criminal's personality characterize his external side. It is not possible to describe some facets of the inner side of the personality of a hired killer, because it is impossible to fully reveal the inner side of a person, because each killer is an individual case in which the interweaving of a complex of interrelated motives that pushed a person to a criminal path is combined.
The process of socialization of a criminal person is different from the similar process of an ordinary, normal person. In the process of socialization of the personality of a mercenary killer, moral insanity occurs, which develops distorted needs in the subject. In turn, the presence of defects in the human psyche implies the satisfaction of distorted needs by violent methods.
From a criminological point of view, it is not the fact of committing a murder for hire that is interesting, but the moment a decision is made to commit this crime. Self-expression is the dominant need of human nature. A professional killer expresses his "I" through his activities, through what he was taught or through his abilities.
Human behavior is based on its needs and desires. The content of subjective psychological personality traits predetermines the content of interests, needs and drives, as well as ways to satisfy them. The above is true for all violent criminals. The difference lies in what prompted the person to commit the crime. Under motivation in this case is understood not the cause of criminal behavior, but the mental state of a person not only at the time of committing a crime, but also during the period of preparation for a crime. Based on the foregoing, two groups of violent criminals can be distinguished:
a) committing a crime spontaneously or impulsively, in a spectacular or otherwise excited state, during the commission of which the subject loses control over himself;
b) committing premeditated, pre-arranged crimes.
We are interested in the second group, since it is this group that includes mercenary violent criminals, including hired killers, who are characterized by rationality, deliberation and balanced actions, while the behavior of violent criminals of the first group is determined by unconscious drives and motives.
The pressure of negative social factors in unity does not cause the need to commit a crime, especially such a serious one as murder. The fact that one person commits robbery, the second murder for hire, and the third is a law-abiding citizen and is unacceptable for him or he is not capable of committing illegal acts indicates a personal-structural predetermination.
The nature and abilities of a hired killer, the propensity to commit murder are developed in the so-called "transitional period", when minor conflict situations are resolved by violent methods. These methods are sometimes characterized by particular cruelty, cunning and dishonesty. Under the pressure of external factors, the split in the psyche of the criminal's personality does not occur arbitrarily, but is predetermined by the very structure of the personality. Murder requires a genetic or other physiological predisposition. It can be roughly divided into:
a) hidden - when a person is unaware of his ability to take a person's life, he does not agree immediately, after long hesitation;
b) open - when a person realizes that the commission of a murder is not alien to his nature, he agrees without hesitation and doubt, especially for a reward.
It can be noted that in the mechanism of the individual criminal behavior of a hired killer, predisposition to murder is of decisive importance, which gives rise to all the consequences that result from the commission of a crime if there is an "order" for murder.
The hired killer is an emotionally cold person. Yu.M. Antonyan argues that emotional coldness "precludes empathy, identification with people, the ability to put oneself in their place. This feature is inherent in almost all assassins, acting both at a great distance and close." In our opinion, the emotionally cold attitude towards the victim should be understood from a slightly different perspective. Of course, most hired killers have an inability to identify with other people. The emotions of such people are superficial, which explains the lack of empathy for the victim. However, for a certain proportion of representatives of the "profession" under consideration, emotional coldness is expressed in the desire to be unaware of the identity of the victim, her personal life (the presence of young children, a pregnant wife, etc.), physical condition (a disabled person, an elderly or minor person, a pregnant woman ). The desire to be uninformed is caused by the fact that the perpetrator of the crime is trying to abstract from the surrounding reality and justify himself to himself.
Hesitation in deciding to kill, for example, a child, testifies to the internal struggle in the soul of hired killers. Conscience is an expression of a person's ability to exercise moral self-control, to independently formulate moral duties for himself, to demand their fulfillment from himself and to make a self-assessment of the actions performed. However, the activity of conscience in the structure of the criminal's personality is ineffective. This is evidenced by the result of an internal conflict in the personality structure between the prohibition and the need to kill a bystander who happens to be a witness. The method of committing the described crime reflects the hypertrophied alienation and defectiveness of the structure of the personality's psyche, which is expressed:
1) in the inability to identify and empathize;
2) in the rational relation of the subject to his own actions.
Consequently, the level of emotional alienation and indifference of a hired killer is determined by the degree of dominance of conscience in the structure of his personality.
Thus, a significant role in the structure of the personality of a hired killer is assigned to such a moral category as conscience. Inside a person there is a conflict between needs on the one hand and conscience on the other, as an internal regulator of the consciousness of good and evil, moral responsibility for one's behavior. As you know, violent criminals have an undeveloped concept of a sense of responsibility. At one time, Sigmund Freud stated: “I feel an inclination to do something that promises me pleasure, but I refuse it on the grounds that my conscience does not allow me to do it. Or, succumbing to an excessive desire for pleasure, I do something against which the voice of conscience rises, and after the offense my conscience punishes me.
Consequently, it can be argued that in the structure of the personality of a hired killer, in the presence of conscience, as a regulator of moral behavior and awareness of the environment, the functioning of internal obstacles against the desire to achieve criminal plans is weakened.
According to the degree of moral and mental deformity, hired killers can be divided into:
a) passive - committing a crime for the purpose of one-time earnings;
b) active - who turned murder into their profession.
I would like to note that in the process of committing a crime, representatives of the first group may continue the process of degradation of moral attitudes and psyche. Consequently, in the case of continuing criminal activity as a killer, representatives of the first group move to the second.
According to the level of criminal education, the level of professionalism and the goals that hired killers set for themselves, accepting the "order", they can be divided into:
a) single-profile - professional killers specializing exclusively in contract killings;
b) multidisciplinary professional criminals committing various types of crimes, including contract killings;
c) amateurs - for whom killing for a fee is not a permanent source of income, but an opportunity to earn extra money.
Passive and amateurs, unlike other types of hired killers, are characterized by the absence of an active criminal will.
According to the methods of committing the murder, the perpetrators should be divided into:
a) shooters - persons committing murders from firearms;
b) snipers - persons who commit murders from a long distance, using weapons with an optical sight;
c) "demolitionists" - persons who commit murders with the use of explosive devices or explosives. In some cases, so-called "bombers" are individuals with no experience with explosive devices or explosives. They use "poor quality" home-made devices or instruments of crime made by third parties, which sometimes does not always lead to the desired result. Probably, it is the above that explains the cases of premature or late operation of an explosive device, inaccurate calculation of the power of the crime weapon, which did not lead to the death of the victim, etc.;
d) others are persons who commit contract killings with the help of knives, metal, wooden objects, electrical appliances, vehicles, poisons and other chemical substances, as well as persons disguising murders as suicides or accidents.
Professional hitmen can also qualify for:
a) high-class specialists, former or current military personnel, law enforcement officers, shooting athletes (quite often, as mentioned above, there are representatives of sports related to shooting). So, according to investigators, biathletes are in great demand in the "market of hired killers". According to A.I. Gurova "... there are very few real professionals - 20 - 30 people, whose names few people know, but those who know cherish them like the apple of their eye";
b) not specialists, but persons with criminal orientations of a violent nature, who are in the ranks of criminal groups, the so-called "legionnaires" (persons who are in the ranks of organized crime groups to commit murders and inflict grievous bodily harm), whose qualifications are formed in the process of criminal activity. It is the criminals in question that make up the predominant part of the representatives of hired killers;
c) the third group consists of the so-called "one-time" killers, who are involved in the commission of domestic contract killings. After they are involved in other contract killings, they are usually eliminated after that.
The attitude of professional killers, who are characterized by hypertrophied moral insanity, to their criminal profession can be described in the words of K. Marx and F. Engels: “The halo of holiness generally ceased to surround all relations of the old society, because they turned into purely monetary relations. Similarly, all the so-called higher types of labor - mental, artistic, etc. - have become an object of trade and have thus lost their former halo.
The motivational sphere of hired killers is a polymotivation - a combination of violent and selfish orientation. As rightly noted by V.V. Luneev, "the motivational sphere is the" center "of the internal structure of the personality, integrating its activity."
It is necessary to highlight the distinctive features of killers from other killers of the same type.
Criminals with an antisocial mercenary-violent orientation are persons with mercenary encroachments, combined with violence against a person.
As a rule, criminals with a mercenary-violent orientation combine mercenary attacks with violence against a person and absorb the personality traits of violent and mercenary criminals:
Impulsivity and disregard for social and legal norms and, as a result, the greatest (in comparison with other categories of criminals) uncontrollability of behavior and suddenness of antisocial acts;
Alienation and aggressiveness;
Lack of flexibility in behavior (rigidity);
Persistence of negative emotions (persistence of affect);
Violation of the general normative regulation of behavior, low intellectual and volitional control;
The tendency to directly satisfy emerging desires and needs.
Despite the typical personality characteristics of mercenary-violent criminals, there is an exception in the form of the professional hired killers we are considering.
So, hired killers (killers) do not kill out of revenge or hatred for a particular person, but for money by cold calculation.
They are distinguished by great caution and prudence, attentiveness, mobility, resourcefulness, the ability to remain calm and balanced.
Another distinguishing feature, as mentioned earlier, is the ability to remain invisible, nothing to draw attention to yourself. They are rational criminals and professionals.
That is, such traditionally distinguished features of mercenary-violent criminals as impulsiveness, uncontrollability and suddenness of actions are not inherent in hired killers. Unlike the mercenary killer, the killer shows aggression and violence, as a rule, only “at work”.
Although there is a significant similarity with a number of personality traits of impulsive killers: the inability to empathize with people and the inability to put oneself in their place, rigidity, composure, malice, envy and the desire for self-affirmation.
As you can see, hired killers, having specific features, also have features characteristic of other representatives of mercenary killers. However, the specifics of professional activity, a different approach to it, distinguish between killers and other mercenary killers.
It should be noted significant differences in the definition of "domestic killer". A "domestic killer" is a person with a low moral and value level, incapable of rational thinking, adequate analysis of the costs and benefits of their actions, committing both murders and other violent crimes to achieve selfish goals.
Based on the foregoing, we can say that the socio-psychological portrait of a hired killer is not similar to the portrait of a mercenary-violent criminal. According to G. Becker, "a person does not become a criminal because his motivation differs from the motivation of other people, but because from the analysis of the costs and benefits of his actions he draws different conclusions for decision-making."
Thus, professional assassins:
1) are characterized by a moral, psychological and physical predisposition to committing murders;
2) are able to control their emotions and feelings and not show aggression in everyday situations, emotionally they are absolutely cold;
3) killing for them is a job that they have been trained to do and that they can do very well;
4) strive to combine in their work a state of risk and high fees, receiving to a certain extent moral satisfaction from the work done, thereby realizing their "importance in society", that they are in demand by a certain part of society;
5) their age is the most criminally active - 20-35 years;
6) mostly hired killers are well physically developed men; psychological assassin hitman
7) abstract from the victims, seek self-justification for their actions and believe that they are harming people who deserve it.
In conclusion, it can be said that a professional hitman is an emotionally alienated, stable personality, which is characterized by rational positions and attitudes, whose mental organization is characterized by the presence of defects, with a distorted spiritual and value potential, committing murder in the interests of the customer, solely for the purpose of obtaining material remuneration as work.
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The negative qualities of this category of criminals are formed in extremely negative conditions. microenvironments , in conditions of reduced social control. Significant factors in the formation of this behavior are emotional deprivation in childhood (lack of love, affection, contacts), alienation from the family and socially positive groups.
Aggressive behavior is correlated with such negative personality traits as elevated level anxiety, high self-esteem, malice, egocentrism, low tolerance (inability to endure difficulties), autism (social alienation), inability to emotional sympathy (asintonity).
Aggressiveness can be object-undifferentiated (malice, conflict nature) and selective-objective (constantly directed at certain social objects - subordinates, individual family members, people with certain personal qualities).
IN violent Violent aggressiveness is often manifested in crimes - severe physical and mental injuries are inflicted. This type of aggressive behavior indicates a deep personal deformation, the formation of a stable attitude towards aggressive behavior in the individual, the constant readiness of the individual to harm people, and the extremely low social self-control of the individual. These personality defects in some cases are exacerbated by alcoholism, traumatic brain injury, and mental illness. The behavior of these persons in conflict situations for them, containing personality-critical features, is characterized by the following features: the inability of the individual to restrain the first aggressive impulse, to predict the development of the conflict and the consequences of aggressive actions, lack of knowledge of the system of behavioral techniques.
IN mercenary-violent In crimes, aggressiveness is often used only as a means to achieve a selfish goal. In these cases, the so-called instrumental aggression takes place. In violent crimes, the so-called hostile aggressiveness comes to the fore - aggression, causing damage acts as an end in itself. The duration and cruelty of violence here depend on the criminal goal - to humiliate the victim, cause her severe suffering out of motives of jealousy, revenge, self-affirmation, etc. In group violent crimes, aggression is often committed under the influence of group pressure, group traditions.
In terms of the interaction of the offender with the victim, violent crimes can be divided into two varieties: 1) the victim is not involved in the aggressiveness of the offender; 2) the victim provoked conflict interaction with the offender; the aggressiveness of the offender arose in the course of the development of an interpersonal conflict, a sharp confrontation between the actualized interests, attitudes and goals of the victim and the perpetrator, as a result of interactive antagonism.
The conflict interaction of the parties begins with the emergence of any threat for them (well-being, personal dignity, physical integrity, etc.). At the same time, the intellectual, emotional-volitional and physical resources of the opposing sides are mobilized. The parties carry out threatening, infringing and goal-blocking actions, i.e. actions are destructive, disrupting the functioning of the partner. There is a confrontation between the mental structures of conflicting personalities. Each side seeks to take a strategically advantageous position, reflects on the possible behavior of the other side, and takes preventive actions.
Spontaneous conflicts with an aggressive end are most often caused by the desire for situational dominance, possession material values, a situation of asymmetry of rights (when one of the opposing parties has a pre-emptive right to some good), incompatibility of equal actions. Direct provocations are also possible in order to defuse emotional tension and create a pretext for an aggressive attack. Any conflict that arises tends to escalate.
The criminal actions of random criminals are the result of their inadequate response to sudden acute conflict situations. Their criminal behavior is associated with their unformed ways of an adequate way out of a conflict situation. In many cases, violent crimes are committed by them due to the so-called accumulation of feelings, as a discharge of gradually accumulating conflicts in the family, in the group environment. These crimes are associated with an affective outburst on the basis of revenge, jealousy, resentment, and even for a minor reason.
Resistant type of violent offender is distinguished by a constant aggressive orientation, the formation of a stereotype of the use of brute force, and for this there is always a reason in the external environment.
Malicious type Violent offender is characterized by stereotyped aggressive behavior, a stable focus of this individual on the commission of violent acts. For malicious types of violent criminals, aggressiveness is the dominant way of their self-affirmation, and the cruelty of the act is an end in itself. This type of behavior finds steady acceptance in the criminalized microenvironment. Losing the remnants of social responsibility, malicious violent criminals do not stop even before the murder.
Research shows that the types of killers are the hardest to identify. The motives of the killers are varied: murders out of hooligan motives, self-interest and revenge, jealousy and envy, fear and anger. The most dangerous are the killers who show particular cruelty and cynicism, usually committing murders during robbery, acts of revenge, in order to get rid of hated persons (“malicious” killers).
Evil killer - a special psychological type of criminal. This type of criminal is distinguished by a stable antisocial attitude, a deep antisocial deformity of the personality. His extremely primitive life orientation, immorality, the predominance of base needs also determine extremely primitive methods of action. These are usually people with previous convictions, who have not been resocialized in places of deprivation of liberty, and who do not have a significant social status. Their everyday behavior is criminal, asocial, carried out in the conditions of a criminal subculture. Any influence from outside they meet as personal attacks, they treat with hatred the “right”, prosperous people. Experiencing chronic emotional and mental tension, anxiety, they are ready for impulsive discharge on the most insignificant occasions. Deep anti-social deformation of the entire personality structure is the main feature of a malicious killer.
There are many psychopaths among violent criminals (according to various estimates, from 30 to 60%) and people with borderline mental disorders. Among the most criminogenic anomalies of the psyche are primarily alcoholism, and then various personality disorders: dissocial, impulsive, emotionally unstable, paranoid, hysterical, schizoid.
Psychiatrist O. G. Vilensky singles out among other disorders schizoid, for which he considers typical pathological homicide mania - the desire to kill, which "does not follow from delusional ideas or hallucinations in these people, but exists on its own, prompting to look for more and more new victims." He writes that quite often it is this disorder that explains the commission of many cruel and unmotivated murders, including serial and sexual ones.
The psychological characteristics of a person are understood as a relatively stable set of individual qualities that determine typical forms of behavior.
When studying the phenomenon of serial killers (i.e., persons who have committed three or more separate, separated by periods of emotional rest, murders with special cruelty of people falling under the image of the victim that has developed in the mind of the criminal), the researcher objectively needs to rank the factors that determine the specifics of the psychological the status of a representative of this category of criminals. Among them there is also a time period during which the serial killer acted.
What helped Chikatilo, Golovkin, Onuprienko, Holmes, Bundy and others to act for years, shedding rivers of blood? Without a doubt, some elements of the investigation of these crimes caused difficulty for investigators and operatives, but there is no direct fault of law enforcement officials in this. Indeed, how can one be suspected of murdering a person if he is perceived positively by absolutely everyone around him.
This phenomenon is called the "mask of normality". "The mask of normality" [Shechter H., Everit D. Encyclopedia of serial killers. M., 1998. S.153] - the name of the scientific work of Hervey Cleckley dedicated to the psychopathic personality (1976). In the work of H. Cleckley, under the "mask of normality" he understands the ability of psychopaths to appear as an absolutely normal, mentally complete person. The semantic analysis of this term defines it as a feigned (artificial) behavior aimed at compliance with the standards accepted in society. The main emphasis of this definition is reduced to the presence of an element of conscious volitional control over behavior on the part of the bearer of the "mask of normality". Without a doubt, most serial killers are characterized by increased intellectual potential, which determines to a certain extent the presence of artistic abilities, but these characteristics do not explain how one can lead a double life for a sufficiently long time. In other words, the "mask of normality" cannot be explained by deliberate tricks to create a positive image of a criminal for himself, since such attempts will sooner or later become clear to people around him.
The manifestation of the true psychological status of a serial killer should have been determined by the mechanisms of mental defense, primarily by the mechanism of repression and sublimation. Repression refers to the process of removing psychotraumatic thoughts and feelings from consciousness. Under sublimation - the transfer of negative characteristics of the individual into a socially approved sphere. The manifestation of these psychic defense mechanisms would alert the people around the serial killer. However, this does not happen.
Given the above, we highlight two aspects of the problem under study:
1. In their non-criminal life, in the opinion of an outside observer, most serial killers are pronounced socially adapted personalities.
2. If such socially adapted behavior of serial killers was the result of pretense, then the people around them would intuitively feel this, or, in any case, would not be able to characterize serial killers, certainly positively.
Based on these two points, it can be argued that the phenomenon of the "mask of normality" is not determined by its semantic meaning. The nature of the "mask of normality" of serial killers is completely different than what has been identified to date.
In order to determine what is the root cause of the formation and existence of the "mask of normality", it seems rational to refer to some provisions of psychoanalysis.
The topographic model of the human psyche includes three levels:
1. The unconscious is the deepest and most significant area of the human psyche. The main content is a combination of instincts and repressed memories.
2. Preconscious - the level of "accessible memory", the totality of experiences of a person restored by volitional effort. Main content - unclaimed in this moment an experience.
3. Conscious - the level of "real memory". The main content is the experiences perceived at the moment, orientation towards the attitudes of society.
Instincts and vital needs that are in the unconscious are blocked at the level of the preconscious because of the prohibitions localized in the conscious. To block the instincts do not reach the critical mass, they are displayed in small portions. These conclusions are called the mechanisms of protection of the psyche. Among them, in particular, are the above-mentioned mechanisms of displacement and sublimation. It is the defense mechanisms that determine socially approved behavior, although they naturally lead to minor conflicts that determine a slightly reduced perception of a person by others.
As practice shows, serial killers in general are not characterized by such minor conflicts, which leads to the formation of surrounding opinions about an ideal spouse, a wonderful father, a wonderful neighbor. Since we cannot observe the consequences of the functioning of the defense mechanism, we are quite right to assume that the discharge of unconscious energy occurs in serial killers in a completely different way than in normal people. The most logical is the provision that such a release of energy occurs directly at the time of the commission of crimes. In other words, the psyche of a serial killer is focused not on the gradual withdrawal of unconscious energy, but on a one-time outburst that bypasses the sphere of the preconscious and conscious. That is why the vast majority of serial killers cannot reconstruct their state at the time of the murders. It seems that such an outburst of unconscious energy is not similar to the replacement mechanism, since the latter reduces the output of primitive instincts to socially acceptable ones, while in the case of an outburst of unconscious energy, there are no socially acceptable limits.
Summarizing the above, we believe that the phenomenon of the “mask of normality” of a serial killer is explained by the fact that the peculiarities of his psyche make it possible to relieve the entire burden of unconscious tension in a one-willed act, which leads to the disappearance of the prerequisites for the functioning of the mechanisms of protection of the psyche. A serial killer does not pretend to be a normal person, after committing a crime, deprived of a load of instincts, he is a model of a mentally healthy, absolutely balanced person. Self-actualization [Under self-actualization it is customary to understand the development by an individual of his own concept of ethical stereotypes. It should be noted that, unlike ethical stereotypes obtained in the process of human socialization, actualized stereotypes are a more optimal form of prohibition. Optimality is explained by the less pronounced conflict between the unconscious and conscious spheres, observed in the case of the analysis of self-actualized ethical stereotypes] in the process of killing, in this case, there is a form of balancing the psyche.
Achieving harmony through the mastery of the objects of the external world is devoted to some provisions of Tantra Yoga. Naturally, it is difficult to establish a direct relationship between these provisions and the material of this article, however, at the conceptual level, there is a clearly expressed parallel between self-actualization1 in the process of committing murders and development along the path of tantra yoga. It should be noted that the actualization of the personality does not have to be ethically positive, since the element of positivity is reflected in the optimization of mental capabilities in general or in a particular area. In the second case, we observe a typical form of self-actualization characteristic of serial killers.
It is possible that at first glance this conclusion will be unacceptable, but think about what its emotional or rational component does not accept. A scientific position cannot be ethical or unethical, it can only be scientific or non-scientific.
Under the "mask of normality" of a serial killer, we will understand the state of mental stability that arises as a result of a one-time release of unconscious energy.
In the methodology for constructing the psychological profile of an unknown criminal, the following types of "mask of normality" can be distinguished, classified according to the degree of adaptation in the society of its carrier:
1. A pronounced "mask of normality" - its carrier, in the opinion of the observer, is harmoniously inscribed in society. Representatives of this group of criminals are A. Chikatilo, H.H. Holmes, T. Bundy, A. Slivko, P. Bernardo, G. Mikhasevich.
2. Moderately pronounced "mask of normality" - its carrier, in the opinion of the observer, is inconspicuous in society. Representatives of this group of criminals are D. Damer, S. Golovkin, A. Azimov, V. Kulik.
3. Little pronounced "mask of normality" - its carrier, in the opinion of the observer, is characterized by antisocial properties. Representatives of this group of criminals are E. Kemper, G. Lucas, O. Kuznetsov, R. Speck, M. Dutroux
It can be seen from this classification that, due to a certain conditionality of the basis for the classification, the classified groups, at first glance, are also quite conditional. However, let's consider the refutation of this provision using the example of the first group of criminals.
The pronounced "mask of normality" of a serial killer is manifested primarily in cases where the offender meets the victim in public places. So, Ted Bundy met his victims in busy areas of college campuses.
Also evidence of the high "mask of normality" of the offender is the establishment of the fact of the victim's voluntary consent to go somewhere with a serial criminal. The vast majority of crimes committed by A. Chikatilo can serve as examples.
Naturally, the above classification is rather conditional, as is any classification in which a person acts as an object, however, it seems that in this case the classified groups are quite clearly distinguished. So, if we consider the relationship between the degree of manifestation of the "mask of normality" (MN) of a serial killer and the place of acquaintance with his victims, we will see a fairly clear isolation of representatives of all three classification groups.
The definition of the "mask of normality" factor is extremely important for building the psychological profile of an unknown criminal. An analysis of the biographical and psychological characteristics of serial killers makes it possible to state with certainty that there is a relationship between the "mask of normality" parameter and the parameters of family status, an element of dominance in family relationships, educational level, social activity, sociability in communication, the presence of a criminal record. So, in particular, a criminal with a high degree of "mask of normality" is characterized as a positive family man, often without dominance in family life, with the exception of a number of areas (Chikatilo, in general, obeyed his wife, but he set priorities in sexual life). A high "mask of normality" often corresponds to a high educational level and the absence of a criminal record, an exception here may be a conviction for embezzlement.
The positive perception of the offender by others is also due to the high degree of contact, understood as openness and high degree social activity, which creates the illusion of awareness of the criminal's personal life among others.
The "mask of normality" of a serial killer is closely related to the criminal's modus operandi. Achieving a state of mental stability resulting from a single-stage release of unconscious energy is possible only under a unique set of circumstances in which each element of the deformed psyche finds an outlet in environment. It is easy to understand that due to the stable characteristics of these deformed elements, the way they are brought out will also be stable. This explains the stereotypical modus operandi of the serial killer. Modus operandi acts as the optimal form of achieving the state of "mask of normality", a similar approach to modus operandi allows us to explain some elements of the theory of criminal programs developed by E.G. Samovichev [Modestov N.S. Maniacs... Blind death. M., 1977]. There is a certain mystical element in this theory, but this does not determine its unscientific nature, rather, on the contrary, it directs it to the formation of the idea of the incompleteness of modern scientific knowledge.
Theory of E.G. Samovicheva is one of the few aimed at explaining the nature of serial murders. One of the functions of this theory is to explain the fact that most serial killers come to the attention of law enforcement by making an unexpected and obvious blunder. So, V. Kuzmin was detained by passers-by while trying to take away with him the future victim - a child; Burov's killer was accidentally identified by the victim's relatives; the maniac Kashintsev was caught red-handed (sleeping next to a strangled woman); N. Dzhumagaliev was detained only because, in a drunken state, he began to show the remains of the victim to his friends. The volume of the article is limited, however, based on the studied materials of the investigation, we can conclude that an average of three serial killers out of five was accidentally caught. Foreign practice also has a large number of similar examples, starting with H.Kh. Holmes and D. Dahmer and ending with T. Bundy and G. L. Lucas. Indeed, very often the exposure of a criminal is not the result of the activities of law enforcement agencies, but, at first glance, is provoked by the criminal himself.
E.G. Samovichev explains such a provocation by the regularities of the completion of the criminal program, due to the factors of the rigid determinism of the continuum of human existence.
It seems that using a new explanation of the phenomenon of the "mask of normality" of a serial killer can analyze the completion of a criminal program at a less abstract level. The situation in which a serial killer makes a fatal mistake for himself can be illustrated by a number of provisions:
· the state of mental stability arising as a result of a simultaneous release of unconscious energy causes the emergence of a rigid relationship between the element of mental stability and the need to commit crimes.
Often (in relation to a specific serial killer this number is individual) the crimes committed lead to the fact that the mechanisms of protection of the psyche atrophy. Indeed, why are complex ways of withdrawing part of the unconscious energy needed when a simple instantaneous release is available.
· atrophy of defense mechanisms against the background of more and more frequent use of a one-time release of energy leads to the final degradation of social stereotypes based on the conscious level of the psyche.
· due to the deformation of the conscious sphere, the perception of the world occurs according to the canons of the unconscious, the motto of which is the realization of needs without taking into account the features of the external world.
· the perception of the world at the level of the unconscious leads to the fact that the factors of the external environment (social disapproval, the possibility of criminal consequences) are not given much importance. As a result, the serial killer does not consciously provoke law enforcement agencies to interrupt his criminal program, he simply becomes unable to take into account the very possibility of the influence of law enforcement agencies on his fate, due to disorientation in the world of social prohibitions.
Obtained over the past two decades, the results of an empirical study of the personality of serial criminals in comparison with law-abiding citizens indicate the presence of some distinctive features in the structure of personality.
Noteworthy is the study of the value-normative system conducted by A.R. Ratinov and his colleagues, which revealed significant differences between serial criminals and law-abiding citizens in the level of development of legal consciousness, in relation to various legal institutions of society.
Thus, the maximum solidarity with the criminal law and the practice of its application is expressed among law-abiding citizens and to a much lesser extent among serial criminals, although their legal awareness is approximately the same, and partly (knowledge of the articles of the Criminal Code) also has an inverse relationship.
The degree of assimilation of legal values and norms as “their own” among criminals is much lower than among law-abiding citizens. The main motivation that keeps criminals from further illegal actions is the fear of undesirable consequences, and not agreement with the established norms and rules for their observance, as is typical for law-abiding citizens.
Significant differences were revealed in the estimated attitude towards law enforcement agencies and their activities among the surveyed groups. Criminals assess punitive practices as excessively harsh, especially for those types of crimes for which they themselves are convicted, they treat the justice authorities with caution, distrust, which is not typical for the vast majority of law-abiding citizens.
Studying the specifics of the value-normative system of the personality of a serial criminal is still not enough to reveal his psychological essence and, accordingly, to identify the causes of criminal behavior. That is why a significant contribution to the development of criminal psychology is the attempt made under the leadership of Yu. M. Antonyan to study the psychological characteristics (features) of criminals and their individual categories.
Yu.M. Antonyan found that criminals differ from non-criminals at the statistical level by very significant psychological characteristics, which determine their illegal behavior. In other words, the concept of a criminal's personality can be filled with this psychological content. Since these psychological traits are involved in the formation moral character personality, there is reason to assert that criminals differ from non-criminals in general in moral and legal specifics.
The results of the study allow us to give a psychological portrait of the surveyed serial criminals and highlight their characteristic personality traits.
First of all, criminals are distinguished by poor social adaptation, general dissatisfaction with their position in society. They have such a trait as impulsiveness, which manifests itself in reduced self-control of their behavior, rash actions, emotional immaturity, and infantilism.
Moral and legal norms do not have a significant impact on their behavior. Such people usually either do not understand what society requires of them, or they understand, but do not want to fulfill these requirements. Since such persons have violated or deformed normative control, they evaluate the social situation not from the standpoint of moral and legal requirements, but on the basis of personal experiences, grievances, desires. In a word, they are characterized by a persistent violation of social adaptation.
They are also characterized by violations in the field of communication: the inability to establish contacts with others, the inability to take the point of view of another, to look at oneself from the outside. This, in turn, reduces the possibility of adequate orientation, produces the emergence of affectively saturated ideas associated with the idea of hostility from the surrounding people and society as a whole. All taken together forms such features as self-absorption, isolation, isolation, on the one hand, and aggressiveness, suspicion, on the other. As a result, the correct assessment of the situation is even more difficult, since the behavior is controlled by affective attitudes, and the actions of others are considered dangerous, threatening the person, which leads to illegal ways out of the current situation.
To a large extent, traits common to all criminals are expressed in serial killers. At the same time, they have pronounced homogeneous personal properties.
Serial killers are most often impulsive people with high anxiety and strong emotional excitability, who primarily concentrate on their own experiences, and in behavior are guided only by their own interests. They have no idea of the value of another person's life, the slightest empathy. They are unstable in their social connections and relationships, prone to conflicts with others. From other criminals, serial killers are distinguished by emotional instability, high reactivity of behavior, exceptional subjectivity (bias) of perception and assessment of what is happening. They are internally disorganized, their high anxiety gives rise to such traits as suspicion, suspiciousness, vindictiveness, which in most cases are combined with anxiety, tension, irritability.
The environment is felt by serial killers as hostile. In this regard, it is difficult for them to correctly assess the situation, and this assessment easily changes under the influence of affect. Increased susceptibility to the elements interpersonal interaction leads to the fact that the individual is easily irritated by any social contacts that are felt as a threat to him.
Such people have rigid (inert) ideas that are difficult to change. All the difficulties and troubles that they encounter in life are considered by them as the result of someone's hostile actions. They blame others for their failures, which relieves them of the burden of responsibility.
Serial killers are most sensitive to the sphere of personal honor; they have a painful self-esteem combined with an overestimated (inadequate) self-esteem. The constant affective experience that the less deserving have significantly more benefits than they do, causes a desire to protect their rights, and they can play the role of "fighters for justice." Therefore, they can commit a “just” murder not only during robberies, when values are, as it were, redistributed, but also out of revenge or jealousy, when personal honor is allegedly defended, and even when committing hooligan actions.
Serial killers are characterized by emotional disturbances, psychological and social alienation, difficulties in establishing contacts, isolation and lack of communication. These persons also experience difficulties in assimilation of moral and legal norms. Most often, they commit crimes against a particular person or situation in connection with the accumulated affect, while not seeing (or not wanting to see) another way to resolve the conflict.
Serial killers tend to endow other people (by the mechanism of projection) with traits, motives inherent in themselves, namely: aggressiveness, hostility, vindictiveness. This leads to the fact that they begin to perceive others as hostile and aggressive. Because of this, by committing an act of violence, the serial killer believes that he is thus protecting his life, his honor, as well as the interests of other people. Thus, these individuals are distinguished not only by high susceptibility in interpersonal relationships, but also by their distorted assessment. Violent actions on their part usually occur according to the principle of "short circuit", when even an insignificant reason immediately causes destructive acts.
The average psychological portrait of a serial killer is as follows: age 35 - 37 years old, previously convicted once or twice, including for a violent crime, addiction, alcohol abuse, impulsive manifestations of aggressiveness and conflict, convicted of premeditated murder, often with special cruelty. By nature, closed, autistic (immersed in himself), pessimistic, experiencing difficulties in communication and adaptation, feelings of guilt are overestimated, sensitive, irritable, prone to affective reactions, suspicious, anxious, closed on the sensory perception of reality, with a low, often depressed mood background . General aggressiveness is generally reduced, but with an innate tendency to verbal aggression, the level of eroticism is overestimated, the level of intelligence is below average, mental activity is reduced, logical thinking is often blocked by affective experiences. Shyness, self-doubt are revealed, low self-esteem is combined with an overestimation of personal suffering in order to avoid or reduce responsibility for what has been done.
Inclined to neglect moral and legal norms, focused primarily on personal gain. Internally undisciplined, behavior often motivated by random drives, individualist, neglects collective interests. The level of self-control is reduced, it seeks to adapt to the conditions of especially severe imprisonment. The need for constant restraint and self-control often causes anxious, neurotic reactions.
A psychological examination conducted by the staff psychologist of the colony V. V. Popov showed that almost all convicts are characterized by the presence of severe psychotrauma caused by a crime committed, arrest, the imposition of a death sentence, the expectation that execution will be carried out or not; long, in some cases even up to five years, being on death row.
The most difficult experiences for serial killers serving life sentences are caused by the following circumstances:
Feelings of guilt towards the victims and their relatives - 32.8%;
Feeling of guilt towards oneself and one's relatives - 37.2%;
Lack of communication with relatives, rupture of relations with them - 56.3%;
Loss of freedom - 46.9%;
Experience of personal failure, inability to change anything in one's position - 42.2%;
Restriction of communication with other convicts - 17.2%;
Lack of prospects for release - 59.4%;
Change in habitual way of life, monotony of life in the colony - 43.8%.