Killing for Company hooked as lot of psychiatrists in Edinburgh when I was there.
When I lectured about evil to my friend’s Theology students, they mostly wanted to know about serial killers - I was all set for theodicy.
Despite a career in Forensic Psychiatry, the group of serial murderers I encountered was encouragingly small. It was what people often thought the work was all about though.
Thank you very much again for your kind words! Killing for Company is actually a really good book! Bad books about serial killers are very easy to get hold of: good ones, less so. That's one that I sometimes recommend. I am intrigued by the idea of lectures on evil, and, indeed, as you may have noticed from my recent posts, am getting more and more interested in the topic. I shall probably write something overlong and wildly speculative before long! First, though, I have to finish that piece on the unreliability of eyewitness memory...
I fully agree about the book. It’s well written and was recommended to me as a fledgling. It’s a sad if intriguing story which, to some extent, set the mould. I haven’t read too many others on the topic but did benefit from an FBI roadshow after The Silence of the Lambs film aroused the general public’s interest. Apparently the only realistic correspondence between the film’s sets and the actual FBI Quantico building was the elevator interior. That sounds and sounded credible to me. Some of what was conveyed in the talk wasn’t so convincing - it was an interesting morning though, for certain.
I ask the same question. Sift through any popular avid ‘true crime’ group on social media, and you find they are more interested in the ‘gore,’ the ‘Netflix’ style hype and speculative media aspects rather than genuine interest in the social issues that lead to such crime. We’ve all experienced the choked traffic watching where there is an accident on the opposite side of the road, say. Same sort of thing. And critical thinking goes out of the window.
As long as the students understand the complexity of this topic, realise that serial murder is a quite rare phenomenon, and that it is generally the not-serial murders (and murderers) that constitute the bigger challenge for police and psycholigists alike, I have no problem with people being interested in that topic. I am, too.
Problems only arise when students are interested in this subject for the wrong reasons (which is, of course, not under the control of the lecturer) or develop a false idea of their future professional life or an unrealistic picture of offender profiling (which is in reality very different from its pop-cultural depiction).
Thanks for your thoughtful comments! You are quite right: a lot of people over-estimate the frequency of serial murder. Nevertheless, that's what gets the students excited! That may be an example of the availability heuristic in action, I suppose. I've had one or two students who were interested in serial murder for what you might think of as the 'wrong reasons'. Sometimes, the 'serial murder' session was more or less the only one they came along to. Meanwhile, it seems that about half my undergraduate students want to be offender profilers. I think 'Criminal Minds' may be to blame. I don't like to upset them but a large part of my job over the last few years has been explaining that it's not what you see on the telly...
Killing for Company hooked as lot of psychiatrists in Edinburgh when I was there.
When I lectured about evil to my friend’s Theology students, they mostly wanted to know about serial killers - I was all set for theodicy.
Despite a career in Forensic Psychiatry, the group of serial murderers I encountered was encouragingly small. It was what people often thought the work was all about though.
Excellent article. Thank you.
Thank you very much again for your kind words! Killing for Company is actually a really good book! Bad books about serial killers are very easy to get hold of: good ones, less so. That's one that I sometimes recommend. I am intrigued by the idea of lectures on evil, and, indeed, as you may have noticed from my recent posts, am getting more and more interested in the topic. I shall probably write something overlong and wildly speculative before long! First, though, I have to finish that piece on the unreliability of eyewitness memory...
I fully agree about the book. It’s well written and was recommended to me as a fledgling. It’s a sad if intriguing story which, to some extent, set the mould. I haven’t read too many others on the topic but did benefit from an FBI roadshow after The Silence of the Lambs film aroused the general public’s interest. Apparently the only realistic correspondence between the film’s sets and the actual FBI Quantico building was the elevator interior. That sounds and sounded credible to me. Some of what was conveyed in the talk wasn’t so convincing - it was an interesting morning though, for certain.
I ask the same question. Sift through any popular avid ‘true crime’ group on social media, and you find they are more interested in the ‘gore,’ the ‘Netflix’ style hype and speculative media aspects rather than genuine interest in the social issues that lead to such crime. We’ve all experienced the choked traffic watching where there is an accident on the opposite side of the road, say. Same sort of thing. And critical thinking goes out of the window.
I think difficult, bizarre, and weird topics are excellent entryways to get students pondering and thinking. Well done!
Thank you! I hope they are. If I got one student pondering and thinking my job here is done...
Agreed, I feel much the same way about my teaching.
As long as the students understand the complexity of this topic, realise that serial murder is a quite rare phenomenon, and that it is generally the not-serial murders (and murderers) that constitute the bigger challenge for police and psycholigists alike, I have no problem with people being interested in that topic. I am, too.
Problems only arise when students are interested in this subject for the wrong reasons (which is, of course, not under the control of the lecturer) or develop a false idea of their future professional life or an unrealistic picture of offender profiling (which is in reality very different from its pop-cultural depiction).
Thanks for your thoughtful comments! You are quite right: a lot of people over-estimate the frequency of serial murder. Nevertheless, that's what gets the students excited! That may be an example of the availability heuristic in action, I suppose. I've had one or two students who were interested in serial murder for what you might think of as the 'wrong reasons'. Sometimes, the 'serial murder' session was more or less the only one they came along to. Meanwhile, it seems that about half my undergraduate students want to be offender profilers. I think 'Criminal Minds' may be to blame. I don't like to upset them but a large part of my job over the last few years has been explaining that it's not what you see on the telly...