Victim Selection (Essay Sample)

Title: Victim selection
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Traditionally, the view of a victim was that, "a victim is the person who comes out of a transaction worse," (Schneider, H., 1982). One of the accepted modern definitions of a victim is the definition given by Schneider, H. (1982). He defined victim as the person who ends up offended, through destruction, being sacrificed or injured by someone else or a group of individuals.
The process through which a victim is selected from within the potential candidates is a topic that has attracted many researchers. Psychologists have been in the frontline, in the efforts of trying to explain what triggers the choice of a certain victim over another. The psychologists’ view of victim selection has been that; it is triggered by sexual ego.
On several occasions, people have fallen prey of serial killers out of their expectation. Expertlaw. (2015), identified a serial killer as an individual, who commits a sequence of murder cases, for a particular common reason best known to the murderer. Ramsland, K. (2006), in his book, explained that, a serial killer commits at least two separate incidences of murder. The author adds that, the reason for the killing in all the incidences must rhyme for the killer to be considered a serial murderer. To explain the argument further, the author points in the case of Robert Spahalski (2005). In this case, Robert turned himself to the police and claimed that he had committed four different murder crimes. Upon investigation, the police found out that he had committed the alleged murder cases, but the motive for each killing was distinct. For this reason, he could not be charged with serial killing.
Researchers have pointed on two main grounds under which serial killers choose their victims. Majority of investigators and psychologists have settled on the grounds of "chances." The argument here is that serial killing occurs by chance, and no specific targeted victims (Ramsland, K., 2006). In this perspective, the aim of the serial killer is to kill, regardless of specific features such as color, race, ethnicity, use o mention a few. The only particular factor about the choice of victim in the serial killing, in this case, is the area. The serial killer may target a particular region, from which to execute the serial murder.
An evidence of victim selection being guided by chance is the case of Adam Lane murder of Monica. Adam Lane was convicted for killing Monica Monssaro (2007). When questioned about how he chose his victim, he explained that, he was driving in town and he felt he should take a life that day. He moved from door to door checking if it was locked. If he found the door locked, he left to the next door. He found Monica’s door open, and that’s how she fell victim of the serial killer. This is an evidence of victim selection being based on probability.
The second view on the choice of casualties in serial killing is that; the serial killer has a particular target victim. As a result of the challenges in capturing the actual targeted victim, the serial killer opts for the easy to capture alternative, at least for the time being while he/ she attempts to find the targeted victim. This leads to many people falling victims of the serial killing, although they were not the targeted victims, (Holmes, R., & Holmes, S., 2001).
Researchers have found victim selection process to differ, to depend on whether th...