Poster Session 2, 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM: Campus Center Auditorium [A81]

How Childhood Impacts the Development of Serial Killers

Presenter: Kathleen Rodrigues Ferreira

Faculty Sponsor: Carolyn Crotty Guttilla

School: Massachusetts Bay Community College

Research Area: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

ABSTRACT

Serial killers have been around for many decades with 68% of them being from the United States (Killerdata, 2025). They made a permanent impact on society from influencing pop culture to inspiring others for their own murders. They are different from murderers because of their peculiar behavior and desire of killing. As a college student whose major was early child development and enjoys watching true crime, I wanted to research factors from childhood that makes up a Serial Killer. Therefore, this poster examines early signs and builds connections between the environment that they grew up in and their behavior for people to understand the prevalence of Serial Killers with the hope of preventing more. For this research, I used a combination of journal articles, media, and research analysis to identify signs that are linked among Serial Killers. It was found that there were three main common signs; animal abuse, pyromania, and bed wetting (Vocal Media, 2025). Additionally, most of them faced abuse with 50% psychologically, 36% physically, and 26% sexually (SITA, ,2023). There was a link between those factors like Ed Kemper who was a bedwetter and got physically abused, Henry Lee who was sexually abused, was a bedwetter and did animal abuse, and Gary Ridgway who was physically abused and a bedwetter. This information shows how persistent these signs are linked between Serial Killers during their childhood years, which means early intervention is critical to prevent future risks of future criminal activity.