Use psychological assessment tools to measure motives of serial killers

 

Clinical Psychologist and Lawyer, Department of Forensic Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Dr Charlotte O. Kwakye-Nuako has called for the use of psychological assessment tools to understand the motives of persons who commit heinous crimes.

She said investigations on the causes of the acts of violent offenders such as serial killers, are necessary to prevent future occurrences.

Dr Kwakye-Nuako in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said human beings are valuable, therefore, for one person to degrade another in such cruel manner requires assessment to ascertain what could be wrong with the brain of the killer.

She said society downplays the behaviours of violent offenders by attributing their actions to demons, and concentrate on counselling only families of victims. However, Dr Kwakye-Nuako noted that it is time to treat the perpetrators in similar manner.

According to her, some of the reasons why people commit violent offences could be traced to their childhood experiences, a need for revenge against a society they believe has not been kind to them or some other factors that are likely to be revealed through psychological evaluation.

Dr Kwakye-Nuako observed that the manner in which rich people are revered in society as well as the fact that money is used as the yardstick to measure one’s success could inform the actions of the killers.

She said the perpetrators could engage in such atrocities for reasons such as rituals, organ harvesting, or for fun, especially if they are psychopaths who are unsympathetic and lack empathy.

Dr Kwakye-Nuako attributed some behaviours of such violent offenders to social factors such as movies which reveal dubious means of acquiring wealth.

She said some people who are desperate for riches would ignore the consequences of their actions and proceed to commit the crime. The Psychologist also mentioned advertisements on television and radio with regard to means of acquiring wealth as capable of influencing people to be serial killers.

According to her, research has revealed that some serial killers suffer mental illness after killing their victims, while others are adversely affected in other ways.

The Clinical Psychologist stated that the effects of serial killings on society are enormous, including; panic and fear in the society which impacts negatively on socio-economic development.