Common Psychological Attributes Shared by Serial Killers

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Stephen Raffle, MD, is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist specializing in criminal, administrative, and civil law proceedings and assessments with offices in Kentfield, CA. Board-certified in Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry, Stephen Raffle, MD, sometimes shares his expertise with journalists, scholars and others seeking a professional medical perspective on relevant legal matters. In the article “Golden State Killer, Part 2: Forensic Psychiatry and the Rapist and Serial Killer," author Nick Rishwain's interview of Dr. Raffle highlights common psychological attributes that serial killers share.

The article centers on answering the question: How could a person carry out the terrible crimes the Golden State Killer is alleged to have committed? Among the common psychological traits Dr. Raffle discusses is serial killers' lack of empathy for others. Most understand they are committing a crime because they go to great lengths not to get caught. Lack of empathy with victims is a common denominator in such cases.

Numerous other common psychopathologies exist in serial killers. A short list includes Antisocial Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Sadomasochistic Personality Disorder, and Paranoid Schizophrenia. Although these psychological attributes are risk factors for predicting violence, identifying when one individual at a particular moment in time will become violent is very difficult. As Dr. Raffle reports, the best we can do at this time is to identify individuals who are at low, medium, or high risk for committing violence.