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Deviance: Attachment

At 17 years old Harold Shipman's mother died while he was caring for her.

His mother was the person who was closest to him as she dotted on him and instilled in him a sense of superiority

Deviance: Commitment

When Harold Shipman lost his mother he lost the only thing that kept him attached to the real world.

When his mother died he became committed to becoming a doctor but for the wrong reasons. His commitment to become a doctor took a turn for the worst almost immediately as he began killing his patients soon after they came to see him.

Deviance: Involvement

When he became committed to murdering his patients Harold Shipman held nothing back.

Anyone who was over the age of 40 and needed treatment or a prescription had a very high chance of being killed no matter their background

Deviance: Belief

It is theorized that Harold Shipman lost any belief he had in society when he watched his mother die while caring for her however, this theory is not widely recognized by the vast majority of Psychologists

The more widely believed theory is that Harold Shipman had a God complex brought about by his mother giving him a sense of superiority in where he thought he could do anything and have complete control over who lived and who died as a doctor because he believed he was better than everyone else.

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Early life

Born on January 14th 1946

Was the favorite child of his mother Vera who gave him a superiority complex.

By his adolescence Harold Shipman was isolated and had very little friends.

His mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and he looked after her until her death on June 21st 1963.

Medical School and life after

After his mother passed away Harold Shipman went to Leeds university's medical school.

Met his wife Primrose at 19 years old and married her when she was 17 and five months pregnant with their first child

Joined a medical practice in Todmorden Yorkshire and initially thrived as a family practitioner

Deviance

Became addicted to painkiller Pethidine

Forged prescriptions for large amounts of the drug

Trial of Harold Shipman and punishment

His lawyers tried to plead that in the cases of death of his older victims Harold Shipman had only administered the morphine to ease their pain and it was an accident that they had died.

His lawyers were also able to have the evidence of Shipman's fraudulent acquiring of drugs like morphine thrown out

Harold Shipman was convicted on 15 counts of murder and one account of forgery

He was sentenced to 15 life sentences and one 4 year sentence and he was denied any chance at parole.

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Commonalties

Victims were always killed with an injection of morphine or diamorphine

Victims were always over 40 years old

The victims were always killed at either a hospital or on a surgical table.

People from all walks of life were targeted no one group was specifically targeted.

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Strains of Deviance: Innovation

After he injected his victims with morphine he would always change the medical records on the computer to hide his involvement with their murders

Harold Shipman always hid behind the perception that he was helpful and friendly family doctor which made people believe that he was innocent and that the victim died of natural circumstances or during the treatment

Strains of Deviance: Ritualism

From the start of his killings, Harold Shipman always overdosed his victims on morphine to kill them.

Strains of Deviance: Rebellion

Harold Shipman's final victim was a former mayoress, Kathline Grundy. He injected her with a lethal dose of morphine killing her as he did his prior victims however, in this instance after he murdered her he forged her will which sparked the suspicion of her daughter Angela Woodruff who called for the investigation that would lead to Harold Shipman's arrest.

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Modus Operandi

At the start of his killings Shipman would inject his victims with high amounts of morphine or diamorphine.

Later on he would start killing his victims through surgical operations and would change their death records in the hospitals database

On his final victims he started to forge their wills so that they would have left everything to him.

Killer type and motive

Harold Shipman was a medical killer and a very sophisticated one.

Each of his kills were planned out especially the ones that involved surgery.

He used his medical license to cover up his murders and whenever the families of the victims would request he call someone to help their family member he would pretend to make the call and would say he was one hold and would wait until the person died.

Harold Shipman had a God complex and he enjoyed exercising power over his victims

As a doctor he knew that the life of his victims was always in his hand and he enjoyed being in control of whether they lived or died.

The only behavior that was considered strange was when he would kill a person and the family members of that person would request he try and revive them. He would always show a reluctance to try and save them and it would take a long time to convince him to try and do something.

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https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC318504/

https://www.biography.com/crime/harold-shipman