Serial Killers & Rapists: Why Ordinary People Find Them so Fascinating

Human beings and why they do the things they do have held me spellbound for years. I have a degree in Sociology and studied for a year towards a Masters in Criminal Justice. Crime - or the why's behind it, fascinates me.

Many of my friends think my fascination with murderers and rapists is gory, sick and unnatural, but I say, thank goodness for people like me. Why? For the following reasons:

1.Unraveling the Puzzle: Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gasy, Ted Bundy - what made them tick? In order to prevent crime, criminologists must first understand the perpetrators.

Why do they do the things they do? What motivates them? What need does it fill for them? What attracts them to their victims? What are their "triggers"?

Many would like to think that people like the Dahmers, Gasys and Bundys of the world are just crazy and lock them away - or execute them. But, as is always the case with human nature, it's more complicated than that.

Many serial killers and rapists have above-average intelligence. According to Stéphane Bourgouin, the French criminologist, the average IQ of serial killers is 110.

Ted Bundy, perhaps one of the best-known serial killers in recent history was often depicted as unusually intelligent. He had a measured IQ of 120. Nowhere near genius level, but certainly bright.

Still, they kill. Why? It's people like me who are curious enough to want to know, and to want to know bad enough to do something about it.

2. Functioning in Society: I often wonder how one can commit a gruesome crime like murder or rape, and then go on about their daily lives as if nothing had happened.

What eventually led to the downfall of John Wayne Gasy is that he had some guests over to his house for drinks. One of the guests happened to be a cop who recognized the foul odor emanating from the house as rotting flesh - the smell of the dead.

NOTE: Gasy had buried some of his victims under his house.

So, I wonder: how do you inhabit a home where the victims lay just underneath? As you're preparing for work the next day, sitting down to dinner with friends and family, talking on the phone with a business associate - wouldn't you reflect on what you've done?