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Ready samples of argumentative paragraphs

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Best Serial Killer Movies Based on or Inspired by True Stories

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Few feelings quite compare to the spine-chilling, heart-dropping rush of watching a great thriller movie. Whether a horror fanatic or not, waiting in anticipation before a serial killer pops out from behind the door has the power to scare the living daylights out of just about anyone.

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Serial killers-people who repeatedly murder others-provoke revulsion but also a certain amount of fascination in the general public. But what can modern psychology and neuroscience tell us about what might be going on inside the head of such individuals?

Serial killers characteristically lack empathy for others, coupled with an apparent absence of guilt about their actions. At the same time, many can be superficially charming, allowing them to lure potential victims into their web of destruction. One explanation for such cognitive dissonance is that serial killers are individuals in whom two minds co-exist-one a rational self, able to successfully navigate the intricacies of acceptable social behaviour and even charm and seduce, the other a far more sinister self, capable of the most unspeakable and violent acts against others. This view has been a powerful stimulus in fictional portrayals ranging from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to Hitchcock's Psycho, and a more recent film, Split. Yet there is little evidence that real-life serial killers suffer from dissociative identity disorder (DID), in which an individual has two or more personalities cohabiting in their mind, apparently unaware of each other.

Instead, DID is a condition more associated with victims, rather than perpetrators, of abuse, who adopt multiple personalities as a way of coming to terms with the horrors they have encountered. Of course a perpetrator of abuse may also be a victim, and many serial killers were abused as children, but in general they appear not to be split personalities, but rather people conscious of their acts. Despite this, there is surely a dichotomy in the minds of such individuals perhaps best personified by US killer Ted Bundy, who was a "charming, handsome, successful individual [yet also] a sadist, necrophile, rapist, and murderer with zero remorse who took pride in his ability to successfully kill and evade capture."

"a recent brain imaging study ... showed that criminal psychopaths had decreased connectivity between ... a brain region that processes negative stimuli and those that give rise to fearful reactions"

One puzzling aspect of serial killers' minds is the fact that they appear to lack-or can override-the emotional responses that in other people allows us to identify the pain and suffering of other humans as similar to our own, and empathise with that suffering. A possible explanation of this deficit was identified in a recent brain imaging study. This showed that criminal psychopaths had decreased connectivity between the amygdala-a brain region that processes negative stimuli and those that give rise to fearful reactions-and the prefrontal cortex, which interprets responses from the amygdala. When connectivity between these two regions is low, processing of negative stimuli in the amygdala does not translate into any strongly felt negative emotions. This may explain why criminal psychopaths do not feel guilty about their actions, or sad when their victims suffer.

Yet serial killers also seem to possess an enhanced emotional drive that leads to an urge to hurt and kill other human beings. This apparent contradiction in emotional responses still needs to be explained at a neurological level. At the same time, we should not ignore social influences as important factors in the development of such contradictory impulses. It seems possible that serial killers have somehow learned to view their victims as purely an object to be abused, or even an assembly of unconnected parts. This might explain why some killers have sex with dead victims, or even turn their bodies into objects of utility or decoration, but it does not explain why they seem so driven to hurt and kill their victims. One explanation for the latter phenomenon is that many serial killers are insecure individuals who feel compelled to kill due to a morbid fear of rejection. In many cases, the fear of rejection seems to result from having been abandoned or abused by a parent. Such fear may compel a fledgling serial killer to want to eliminate any objects of their affections. They may come to believe that by destroying the person they desire, they can eliminate the possibility of being abandoned, humiliated, or otherwise hurt, as they were in childhood.

Serial killers also appear to lack a sense of social conscience. Through our parents, siblings, teachers, peers, and other individuals who influence us as we grow up, we learn to distinguish right from wrong. It is this that inhibits us from engaging in anti-social behaviour. Yet serial killers seem to feel they are exempt from the most important social sanction of all-not taking another person's life. For instance, Richard Ramirez, named the "Night Stalker" by the media, claimed at his trial that "you don't understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil ... I don't believe in the hypocritical, moralistic dogma of this so-called civilized society."

It remains far from clear why a few people react to abuse or trauma at an earlier stage in their lives by later becoming a serial killer. But hopefully new insights into the psychological or neurological basis of their actions may in the future help us to identify potential future such killers and dissuade them from committing such horrendous crimes.
Featured image via Pixabay

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What can neuroscience tell us about the mind of a serial killer?

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Serial killers-people who repeatedly murder others-provoke revulsion but also a certain amount of fascination in the general public. But what can modern psychology and neuroscience tell us about what might be going on inside the head of such individuals?

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The Dark Psychology of Serial Killers: Unpacking the Factors Behind their Brutal Behaviour

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Dennis Relojo-Howell, (2023, February 5). The Dark Psychology of Serial Killers: Unpacking the Factors Behind their Brutal Behaviour. Psychreg on Society, Politics & Culture. https://www.psychreg.org/dark-psychology-serial-killers-unpacking-factors-behind-their-brutal-behaviour/ Serial killers have long captivated the public's imagination with their shocking and senseless acts of violence. But what drives individuals to commit such heinous crimes?

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A serial killer is known as someone who has killed lots of people with gaps between them. The Psychology behind a Serial Killer is a very curious question. Before murdering their victims, some serial killers kidnap and/or torture them. While it's not always clear what drives serial killers to commit such heinous acts, abnormal psychological processes.

Particularly severe antisocial tendencies are thought to be to blame. Serial killers in society often elicit fascination as well as fear; their crimes attract notoriety, media attention, and "fans" who research their crimes or, in some cases, form relationships with the murderer.

Understanding Serial Killers

Serial killers, according to historians, have always existed. Many serial killers at the time were going to accuse of (or even admitted to) killing for "supernatural purposes." Such murders were often thought to be the work of monsters, werewolves, or witches in ancient and medieval times, long before the concept of a "serial killer" entered popular parlance.

Though Jack the Ripper-an unidentified serial killer who operated in the late 1800s-is often referred to as the "first modern serial killer," the term "serial killer" was coined in the latter half of the twentieth century, when such murderers began to garner more media attention and drew increased attention from increasingly sophisticated law enforcement agencies. Most of the most well-known documented serial killers lived in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries, coinciding with a rise in public interest in serial killers' stories as well as a better understanding of what drives them, how they develop, and, perhaps, how their violent crimes can be prevented.

Most experts define a serial killer as someone who has murdered at least three people in less than a month, with at least some "cooling-off" time between each murder. Some criminal psychologists go even further, claiming that serial killers must have a deviant psychological motive, such as sexual gratification, that extends beyond the murder itself.

They both commit multiple homicides. Serial killers, on the other hand, usually carry out their crimes over a long period of time, allowing time to pass between each one. Mass murderers, on the other hand, carry out all of their killings in a single, brief event. For example, a school shooter is classified as a mass murderer rather than a serial killer.

The Psychology of Serial Killers

Serial killers' motivations have long piqued the interest of criminal psychologists, law enforcement agencies, and the general public. Because most of the "normal" people could never imagine doing something like this, another topic of discussion is whether serial killers suffer from severe mental illness that causes them to lose touch with reality. While some serial killers appeared to have psychotic breaks that led to their crimes, serial killers have been found to be legally insane only a few times.

Rather, the most common psychological trait among serial killers appears to be extreme antisocial behavior-they lack empathy, appear incapable of remorse, have little regard for laws or social norms, and have a strong desire to exact revenge on individuals or society at large by committing violent, terrifying crimes. To know more, you must consult it with a psychiatrist.

Though popular media portrays serial killers as "evil geniuses", the vast majority of them have average IQs. Serial killers' intelligence is a spectrum, just like the general population's-some have extremely low IQs, while others have shown unusually high intelligence.

It is debatable. Some serial killers have psychotic symptoms , while others have severe bipolar disorder . However, only some percentage of serial killers are considered mentally ill enough to be declared legally insane . Rather, the majority show symptoms of psychopathy or sociopathy; they may also meet the diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder .

Many serial killers exhibit antisocial characteristics such as a lack of empathy, a disregard for laws and other people's rights, and a lack of remorse, and many meet the criteria for psychopathy or sociopathy. Psychosis, schizophrenia, or another personality disorder have all been diagnosed alongside or instead of psychopathy in serial killers.

Motivations of Serial Killers

At a serial homicide symposium in 2005, the FBI and other criminology and forensic psychology experts discussed serial killer motivations in depth. The audience made a number of observations and suggestions about the serial killer's motivations for homicide investigations.

The FBI published Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators, which details the specific observations made by attendees at the symposium.

In a serial murder investigation, determining the motive can be difficult. A serial killer may have a variety of motives for committing his or her crimes. The motive(s) of a serial killer can change over time, both within a single murder and across a series of murders. The classification of motives should be limited to behavior and conditions observed at the crime scene.

Even if a motive is discovered, it may not be useful in locating a serial killer.

Using investigative resources to determine the motive rather than identifying the offender can cause an investigation to derail or bog down.

Investigators should not automatically link a serial killer's motivations to the severity of the crime.

Finally, regardless of the motive(s), the majority of serial killers do it because they want to. The few serial killers suffering from a severe mental illness for whom no coherent motive exists are an exception to this rule.
Attendees at a 2005 FBI symposium on serial murder proposed using broad, non-inclusive motivation categories as guidelines for criminal investigation.

They argued that such categories can help law enforcement officials narrow down the suspect pool in a serial homicide investigation. The symposium participants identified seven broad categories of motivation that can be used as research guidelines.

Why We're Fascinated with Serial Killers

Serial killers carry out heinous acts that should - and do - repulse us. But, in addition to the disgust and fear that serial killers elicit, there is often a morbid curiosity: we want to know more about them and figure out why they do what they do. This is right for both society and individuals as a whole; indeed, the societal fascination with serial killers can be seen in the plethora of books, TV shows, podcasts, and movies about them, not all of which portray the killers in a purely negative light.

While a fascination with serial killers can certainly go too far, a fascination with evil is not inherently psychologically unhealthy. According to some experts, our fascination with serial killers stems from our desire to understand the unknown and feel safe in our own lives; similarly, serial killer fascination may provide a safe outlet for dark thoughts and urges that everyone-even those who would never harm another person-experiences.

Serial killers can instill fear in their victims' communities, leading to increased policing, new laws, or a general distrust of strangers. Serial killers, according to some sociological theorists , serve an important social function by defining the line between "good" and "evil" in the public's eyes.

Despite recent advances in our understanding of serial killers, many societal misconceptions about them persist. They are "evil geniuses" (though most are of average intelligence); they are all men (only about 15% of serial killers are women); and they are dysfunctional loners (many have families and are well-regarded in their communities).

Ending Words

It's important to remember that serial killers are compelled to commit murder, regardless of their motivation(s). They do it because they want to and need to. If you think there is someone who behaves like this then you must consult it with a psychiatrist.

Book an appointment now, to answer all your queries. You can book an appointment with the top Psychiatrists in Pakistan through Marham by calling at Marham helpline: 0311-1222398 or by online booking facility through the website or Marham mobile app.

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FAQ's

What makes a serial killer psychologically?

The most common psychological trait among serial killers appears to be extreme antisocial behavior-they lack empathy, appear incapable of remorse, have little regard for laws or social norms, and have a strong desire to exact revenge on individuals or society at large by committing violent acts.

What are the three characteristics of a serial killer?

The triad connects animal cruelty, a desire to start fires, and history of bedwetting past a certain age to violent behavior, particularly homicidal and sexually predatory behavior.

Serial killers have what color eyes?

Brown is the most common eye color among serial killers. Blue and green are the next two colors.

Why do serial killers make their victims wet the bed?

Late bedwetting is usually the result of a medical condition or emotional abuse. However, there could be a link between late bedwetting and psychopathy. Furthermore, as previously stated, a child's upbringing can influence how violent they become later in life.

Is it possible for serial killers to feel the love?

That's a myth, and it's a bad one. Most serial killers have no trouble feeling love, and even more so, most of them are neurotypical, and neurotypicals, serial killers or not, love just fine.

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The Psychology behind a Serial Killer | Marham

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A serial killer is known as someone who has killed lots of people with gaps between them. The Psychology behind a Serial Killer is a very curious question. Before murdering their victims, some serial killers kidnap and/or torture them. While it's not always clear what drives serial killers to commit such heinous acts, abnormal psychological processes.

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A serial killer is an individual who murders a series of victims over a period of time, typically with gaps between each killing. Some serial killers kidnap and/or torture their victims prior to murdering them. While it's not always clear what motivates serial killers to commit such heinous acts, abnormal psychological processes-notably severe antisocial tendencies-are to blame.

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Message from the Director

National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime

II. Definition of Serial Murder

III. Causality and the Serial Murderer

IV. Psychopathy and Serial Murder

V. Motivations and Types of Serial Murder: The Symposium Model

VI. Investigative Issues and Best Practices

VII. Forensic Issues in Serial Murder Cases

VIII. Prosecution of Serial Murder Cases

IX. Media Issues in Serial Murder Investigations

X. Issues Regarding Talking Heads in the Media

Appendix A: Symposium Agenda

Appendix B: Serial Murder Symposium Working Group

Appendix C: Symposium Attendees

Message from Director Mueller

Every day, law enforcement officers across America are called to respond to murders. Each homicide case is tragic, but there are few cases more heartrending and more difficult to understand than serial murder.

For years, law enforcement investigators, academics, mental health experts, and the media have studied serial murder, from Jack the Ripper in the late 1800s to the sniper killings in 2002, and from the "Zodiac Killer" in California to the "BTK Killer" in Kansas. These diverse groups have long attempted to understand the complex issues related to serial murder investigations. Until the Serial Murder Symposium, however, there had been few attempts to reach a consensus on some of these issues.

This monograph presents the findings and collective wisdom of a multidisciplinary group of experts, who brought their individual experience and insights to the same table. Our hope is that it will give you new ideas and new resources as you continue your important work.

The FBI is committed to contributing to the understanding of these horrific acts. The FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime stands ready to assist our state, local, and international partners. We believe the best way to combat any threat - be it terrorism, gang violence, or serial murder - is to combine our knowledge and resources with those of our partners, and to work as a team. I am grateful for the partnerships that helped spur this symposium, and for the partnerships that were formed as a result.

I deeply appreciate the work that went into this publication. I would like to thank all those who participated for their willingness to share their dedication, time and expertise. I believe it will be invaluable to our collective ability to understand, respond to, and hopefully prevent, serial murder.

The NCAVC would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals, without whose efforts the Symposium and this monograph would not have been possible:

* The members of the Serial Murder Symposium Working Group, for their assistance in planning the Symposium. The names of these individuals are listed in Appendix B.

* The Symposium attendees, for their generous sharing of time and expertise in the area of serial murder. The names of these individuals are listed in Appendix C.

The topic of serial murder occupies a unique niche within the criminal justice community. In addition to the significant investigative challenges they bring to law enforcement, serial murder cases attract an over-abundance of attention from the media, mental health experts, academia, and the general public. While there has been significant, independent work conducted by a variety of experts to identify and analyze the many issues related to serial murder, there have been few efforts to reach a consensus between law enforcement and other experts, regarding these matters.

In an effort to bridge the gap between the many views of issues related to serial murder, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) hosted a multi-disciplinary Symposium in San Antonio, Texas, on August 29, 2005 through September 2, 2005. The goal of the Symposium was to bring together a group of respected experts on serial murder from a variety of fields and specialties, to identify the commonalities of knowledge regarding serial murder.

The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) is a component of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), located at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The primary mission of the NCAVC is to provide behaviorally-based, operational support to federal, state, local, and international law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of unusual or repetitive violent crimes, communicated threats, terrorism, and other matters of interest to law enforcement.

The NCAVC is comprised of four units: Behavioral Analysis Unit-1 (Counterterrorism/Threat Assessment), Behavioral Analysis Unit-2 (Crimes Against Adults), Behavioral Analysis Unit-3 (Crimes Against Children), and the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP).

NCAVC staff members conduct detailed analyses of crimes from behavioral, forensic, and investigative perspectives. The goal of this analysis process is to provide law enforcement agencies with a better understanding of the motivations and behaviors of offenders. The analysis is a tool that provides investigators with descriptive and behavioral characteristics of the most probable offender and advice regarding investigative techniques to help identify the offender.

The NCAVC also conducts research into violent crime from a law enforcement perspective. NCAVC research is designed to gain insight into criminal thought processes, motivations, and behaviors. Research findings are refined into innovative, investigative techniques that improve law enforcement's effectiveness against violent criminals and are shared with law enforcement and other disciplines through publications, presentations, and training.

The Serial Murder Symposium was conceived, planned, and coordinated by the staff of the Behavioral Analysis Unit-2 (BAU-2). The resources of BAU-2 are focused on serial, mass, and other murders; sexual assaults; kidnappings; and other criminal acts targeting adult victims. BAU-2 staff members have developed significant expertise on the subject of serial murder and regularly provide operational assistance, conduct research, and provide training on issues related to serial murder.

Serial murder is neither a new phenomenon, nor is it uniquely American. Dating back to ancient times, serial murderers have been chronicled around the world. In 19th century Europe, Dr. Richard von Krafft-Ebing conducted some of the first documented research on violent, sexual offenders and the crimes they committed. Best known for his 1886 textbook Psychopathia Sexualis, Dr. Kraft-Ebing described numerous case studies of sexual homicide, serial murder, and other areas of sexual proclivity.

Serial murder is a relatively rare event, estimated to comprise less than one percent of all murders committed in any given year. However, there is a macabre interest in the topic that far exceeds its scope and has generated countless articles, books, and movies. This broad-based public fascination began in the late 1880s, after a series of unsolved prostitute murders occurred in the Whitechapel area of London. These murders were committed by an unknown individual who named himself "Jack the Ripper" and sent letters to the police claiming to be the killer.

Dear Boss
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good luck.
Yours truly
Jack the Ripper

These murders and the nom de guerre "Jack the Ripper" have become synonymous with serial murder. This case spawned many legends concerning serial murder and the killers who commit it. In the 1970s and 1980s serial murder cases such as the Green River Killer, Ted Bundy, and BTK sparked a renewed public interest in serial murder, which blossomed in the 1990s after the release of films such as Silence of the Lambs.

Much of the general public's knowledge concerning serial murder is a product of Hollywood productions. Story lines are created to heighten the interest of audiences, rather than to accurately portray serial murder. By focusing on the atrocities inflicted on victims by "deranged" offenders, the public is captivated by the criminals and their crimes. This only lends more confusion to the true dynamics of serial murder.

Law enforcement professionals are subject to the same misinformation from a different source: the use of anecdotal information. Professionals involved in serial murder cases, such as investigators, prosecutors, and pathologists may have limited exposure to serial murder. Their experience may be based upon a single murder series, and the factors in that case are extrapolated to other serial murders. As a result, certain stereotypes and misconceptions take root regarding the nature of serial murder and the characteristics of serial killers.

A growing trend that compounds the fallacies surrounding serial murder is the talking heads phenomenon. Given creditability by the media, these self-proclaimed authorities profess to have an expertise in serial murder. They appear frequently on television and in the print media and speculate on the motive for the murders and the characteristics of the possible offender, without being privy to the facts of the investigation. Unfortunately, inappropriate comments may perpetuate misperceptions concerning serial murder and impair law enforcement's investigative efforts. It was decided by a majority of the attendees to issue a formal statement of position regarding the media's use of these types of individuals. (The position statement is included in Section X of this monograph.)

The relative rarity of serial murder combined with inaccurate, anecdotal information and fictional portrayals of serial killers has resulted in the following common myths and misconceptions regarding serial murder:

Myth: Serial killers are all dysfunctional loners.

The majority of serial killers are not reclusive, social misfits who live alone. They are not monsters and may not appear strange. Many serial killers hide in plain sight within their communities. Serial murderers often have families and homes, are gainfully employed, and appear to be normal members of the community. Because many serial murderers can blend in so effortlessly, they are oftentimes overlooked by law enforcement and the public.

* Robert Yates killed seventeen prostitutes in the Spokane, Washington area, during the 1990s. He was married with five children, lived in a middle class neighborhood, and was a decorated U.S. Army National Guard helicopter pilot. During the time period of the murders, Yates routinely patronized prostitutes, and several of his victims knew each other. Yates buried one of his victims in his yard, beneath his bedroom window. Yates was eventually arrested and pled guilty to thirteen of the murders.

* The Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway, confessed to killing 48 women over a twenty-year time period in the Seattle, Washington area. He had been married three times and was still married at the time of his arrest. He was employed as a truck painter for thirty-two years. He attended church regularly, read the Bible at home and at work, and talked about religion with co-workers. Ridgeway also frequently picked up prostitutes and had sex with them throughout the time period in which he was killing.

* The BTK killer, Dennis Rader, killed ten victims in and around Wichita, Kansas. He sent sixteen written communications to the news media over a thirty-year period, taunting the police and the public. He was married with two children, was a Boy Scout leader, served honorably in the U.S. Air Force, was employed as a local government official, and was president of his church.

Myth: Serial killers are all white males.

Contrary to popular belief, serial killers span all racial groups. There are white, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian serial killers. The racial diversification of serial killers generally mirrors that of the overall U.S. population.

* Charles Ng, a native of Hong Kong, China, killed numerous victims in Northern California, in concert with Robert Lake.

* Derrick Todd Lee, an African-American, killed at least six women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* Coral Eugene Watts, an African-American, killed five victims in Michigan, fled the state to avoid detection, and murdered another 12 victims in Texas, before being apprehended.

* Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, a native of Mexico, murdered nine people in Kentucky, Texas, and Illinois, before turning himself in.

* Rory Conde, a Colombian native, was responsible for six prostitute homicides in the Miami, Florida area.

All serial murders are not sexually-based. There are many other motivations for serial murders including anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking.

* In the Washington, D.C. area serial sniper case, John Allen Muhammad, a former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, and Lee Boyd Malvo killed primarily for anger and thrill motivations. They were able to terrorize the greater Washington, D.C. metro area for three weeks, shooting 13 victims, killing 10 of them. They communicated with the police by leaving notes, and they attempted to extort money to stop the shootings. They are suspected in a number of other shootings in seven other states.

* Dr. Michael Swango, a former U.S. Marine, ambulance worker, and physician, was a health care employee. He was convicted of only four murders in New York and Ohio, although he is suspected of having poisoned and killed 35 to 50 people throughout the United States and on the continent of Africa. Swango's motivation for the killings was intrinsic and never fully identified. Interestingly, Swango kept a scrap book filled with newspaper and magazine clippings about natural disasters, in which many people were killed.

* Paul Reid killed at least seven people during fast food restaurant robberies in Tennessee. After gaining control of the victims, he either stabbed or shot them. The motivation for the murders was primarily witness elimination. Reid's purpose in committing the robberies was financial gain, and some of the ill-gotten gains were used to purchase a car.

The difference between these types of offenders and other serial murderers is the nature of their traveling lifestyle, which provides them with many zones of comfort in which to operate.

It has been widely believed that once serial killers start killing, they cannot stop. There are, however, some serial killers who stop murdering altogether before being caught. In these instances, there are events or circumstances in offenders' lives that inhibit them from pursuing more victims. These can include increased participation in family activities, sexual substitution, and other diversions.

* BTK killer, Dennis Rader, murdered ten victims from 1974 to 1991. He did not kill any other victims prior to being captured in 2005. During interviews conducted by law enforcement, Rader admitted to engaging in auto-erotic activities as a substitute for his killings.

* Jeffrey Gorton killed his first victim in 1986 and his next victim in 1991. He did not kill another victim and was captured in 2002. Gorton engaged in cross-dressing and masturbatory activities, as well as consensual sex with his wife in the interim.

Another myth that exists is that serial killers have either a debilitating mental condition, or they are extremely clever and intelligent.

As a group, serial killers suffer from a variety of personality disorders, including psychopathy, anti-social personality, and others. Most, however, are not adjudicated as insane under the law.

The media has created a number of fictional serial killer "geniuses", who outsmart law enforcement at every turn. Like other populations, however, serial killers range in intelligence from borderline to above average levels.

Offenders committing a crime for the first time are inexperienced. They gain experience and confidence with each new offense, eventually succeeding with few mistakes or problems.

While most serial killers plan their offenses more thoroughly than other criminals, the learning curve is still very steep. They must select, target, approach, control, and dispose of their victims. The logistics involved in committing a murder and disposing of the body can become very complex, especially when there are multiple sites involved.

As serial killers continue to offend without being captured, they can become empowered, feeling they will never be identified. As the series continues, the killers may begin to take shortcuts when committing their crimes. This often causes the killers to take more chances, leading to identification by law enforcement. It is not that serial killers want to get caught; they feel that they can't get caught.

In the past thirty years, multiple definitions of serial murder have been used by law enforcement, clinicians, academia, and researchers. While these definitions do share several common themes, they differ on specific requirements, such as the number of murders involved, the types of motivation, and the temporal aspects of the murders. To address these discrepancies, attendees at the Serial Murder Symposium examined the variations in order to develop a single definition for serial murder.

Previous definitions of serial murder specified a certain number of murders, varying from two to ten victims. This quantitative requirement distinguished a serial murder from other categories of murder (i.e. single, double, or triple murder).

Most of the definitions also required a period of time between the murders. This break-in-time was necessary to distinguish between a mass murder and a serial murder. Serial murder required a temporal separation between the different murders, which was described as: separate occasions, cooling-off period, and emotional cooling-off period.

Generally, mass murder was described as a number of murders (four or more) occurring during the same incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. These events typically involved a single location, where the killer murdered a number of victims in an ongoing incident (e.g. the 1984 San Ysidro McDonalds incident in San Diego, California; the 1991 Luby's Restaurant massacre in Killeen, Texas; and the 2007 Virginia Tech murders in Blacksburg, Virginia).

There has been at least one attempt to formalize a definition of serial murder through legislation. In 1998, a federal law was passed by the United States Congress, titled: Protection of Children from Sexual Predator Act of 1998 (Title 18, United States Code, Chapter 51, and Section 1111). This law includes a definition of serial killings:

The term 'serial killings' means a series of three or more killings, not less than one of which was committed within the United States, having common characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by the same actor or actors.

Although the federal law provides a definition of serial murder, it is limited in its application. The purpose of this definition was to set forth criteria establishing when the FBI could assist local law enforcement agencies with their investigation of serial murder cases. It was not intended to be a generic definition for serial murder.

The Symposium attendees reviewed the previous definitions and extensively discussed the pros and cons of the numerous variations. The consensus of the Symposium attendees was to create a simple but broad definition, designed for use primarily by law enforcement.

One discussion topic focused on the determination of the number of murders that constituted a serial murder. Academicians and researchers were interested in establishing a specific number of murders, to allow clear inclusion criteria for their research on serial killers. However, since the definition was to be utilized by law enforcement, a lower number of victims would allow law enforcement more flexibility in committing resources to a potential serial murder investigation.

Motivation was another central element discussed in various definitions; however, attendees felt motivation did not belong in a general definition, as it would make the definition overly complex.

The validity of spree murder as a separate category was discussed at great length. The general definition of spree murder is two or more murders committed by an offender or offenders, without a cooling-off period. According to the definition, the lack of a cooling-off period marks the difference between a spree murder and a serial murder. Central to the discussion was the definitional problems relating to the concept of a cooling-off period. Because it creates arbitrary guidelines, the confusion surrounding this concept led the majority of attendees to advocate disregarding the use of spree murder as a separate category. The designation does not provide any real benefit for use by law enforcement.

The different discussion groups at the Symposium agreed on a number of similar factors to be included in a definition. These included:

In combining the various ideas put forth at the Symposium, the following definition was crafted:

Following the arrest of a serial killer, the question is always asked: How did this person become a serial murderer? The answer lies in the development of the individual from birth to adulthood. Specifically, the behavior a person displays is influenced by life experiences, as well as certain biological factors. Serial murderers, like all human beings, are the product of their heredity, their upbringing, and the choices they make throughout development. Causality, as it relates to the development of serial murderers, was discussed at length by the Symposium attendees.

Causality can be defined as a complex process based on biological, social, and environmental factors. In addition to these factors, individuals have the ability to choose to engage in certain behaviors. The collective outcome of all of these influences separates individual behavior from generic human behavior. Since it is not possible to identify all of the factors that influence normal human behavior, it similarly is not possible to identify all of the factors that influence an individual to become a serial murderer.

Human beings are in a constant state of development from the moment of conception until death. Behavior is affected by stimulation received and processed by the central nervous system. Neurobiologists believe that our nervous systems are environmentally sensitive, thereby allowing individual nervous systems to be shaped throughout a lifetime.

The development of social coping mechanisms begins early in life and continues to progress as children learn to interact, negotiate, and compromise with their peers. In some individuals the failure to develop adequate coping mechanisms results in violent behavior.

Neglect and abuse in childhood have been shown to contribute to an increased risk of future violence. Substance abuse can and does lead to increased aggression and violence. There are documented cases of people who suffered severe head injuries and ultimately become violent, even when there was no prior history of violence.

Symposium attendees agreed that there is no single identifiable cause or factor that leads to the development of a serial killer. Rather, there are a multitude of factors that contribute to their development. The most significant factor is the serial killer's personal decision in choosing to pursue their crimes.

There were several additional observations made by the attendees regarding causality:

* Predisposition to serial killing, much like other violent offenses, is biological, social, and psychological in nature, and it is not limited to any specific characteristic or trait.

* The development of a serial killer involves a combination of these factors, which exist together in a rare confluence in certain individuals. They have the appropriate biological predisposition, molded by their psychological makeup, which is present at a critical time in their social development.

* There are no specific combinations of traits or characteristics shown to differentiate serial
killers from other violent offenders.

* There is no generic template for a serial killer.

* Serial killers are driven by their own unique motives or reasons.

* Serial killers are not limited to any specific demographic group, such as their sex,
age, race, or religion.

* The majority of serial killers who are sexually motivated erotized violence during development. For them, violence and sexual gratification are inexplicably intertwined
in their psyche.

* More research is needed to identify specific pathways of development that produce serial killers.

Attendees at the Serial Murder Symposium agreed that there is no generic profile of a serial murderer. Serial killers differ in many ways, including their motivations for killing and their behavior at the crime scene. However, attendees did identify certain traits common to some serial murderers, including sensation seeking, a lack of remorse or guilt, impulsivity, the need for control, and predatory behavior. These traits and behaviors are consistent with the psychopathic personality disorder. Attendees felt it was very important for law enforcement and other professionals in the criminal justice system to understand psychopathy and its relationship to serial murder.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs. Although the concept of psychopathy has been known for centuries, Dr. Robert Hare led the modern research effort to develop a series of assessment tools, to evaluate the personality traits and behaviors attributable to psychopaths.

Dr. Hare and his associates developed the Psychopathy Check List Revised (PCL-R) and its derivatives, which provide a clinical assessment of the degree of psychopathy an individual possesses. These instruments measure the distinct cluster of personality traits and socially-deviant behaviors of an individual, which fall into four factors: interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and anti-social.

The interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility. The lifestyle behaviors include stimulation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic orientation, and a lack of realistic life goals. The anti-social behaviors include poor behavioral controls, early childhood behavior problems, juvenile delinquency, revocation of conditional release, and criminal versatility. The combination of these individual personality traits, interpersonal styles, and socially deviant lifestyles are the framework of psychopathy and can manifest themselves differently in individual psychopaths.

Research has demonstrated that in those offenders who are psychopathic, scores vary, ranging from a high degree of psychopathy to some measure of psychopathy. However, not all violent offenders are psychopaths and not all psychopaths are violent offenders. If violent offenders are psychopathic, they are able to assault, rape, and murder without concern for legal, moral, or social consequences. This allows them to do what they want, whenever they want.

The relationship between psychopathy and serial killers is particularly interesting. All psychopaths do not become serial murderers. Rather, serial murderers may possess some or many of the traits consistent with psychopathy. Psychopaths who commit serial murder do not value human life and are extremely callous in their interactions with their victims. This is particularly evident in sexually motivated serial killers who repeatedly target, stalk, assault, and kill without a sense of remorse. However, psychopathy alone does not explain the motivations of a serial killer.

Understanding psychopathy becomes particularly critical to law enforcement during a serial murder investigation and upon the arrest of a psychopathic serial killer. The crime scene behavior of psychopaths is likely to be distinct from other offenders. This distinct behavior can assist law enforcement in linking serial cases.

Psychopaths are not sensitive to altruistic interview themes, such as sympathy for their victims or remorse/guilt over their crimes. They do possess certain personality traits that can be exploited, particularly their inherent narcissism, selfishness, and vanity. Specific themes in past successful interviews of psychopathic serial killers focused on praising their intelligence, cleverness, and skill in evading capture.

Over the past twenty years, law enforcement and experts from a number of varying disciplines have attempted to identify specific motivations for serial murderers and to apply those motivations to different typologies developed for classifying serial murderers. These range from simple, definitive models to complex, multiple-category typologies that are laden with inclusion requirements. Most typologies are too cumbersome to be utilized by law enforcement during an active serial murder investigation, and they may not be helpful in identifying an offender.

The attendees at the Symposium discussed the issues surrounding motivation and the use of typologies to categorize varying types of serial murder. Identifying motivations in the investigation of a crime is a standard procedure for law enforcement. Typically, motivation provides police with the means to narrow the potential suspect pool.

The same logical steps are taken when investigating homicide cases. As most homicides are committed by someone known to the victim, police focus on the relationships closest to the victim. This is a successful strategy for most murder investigations. The majority of serial murderers, however, are not acquainted with or involved in a consensual relationship with their victims.

For the most part, serial murder involves strangers with no visible relationship between the offender and the victim. This distinguishes a serial murder investigation as a more nebulous undertaking than that of other crimes. Since the investigations generally lack an obvious connection between the offender and the victim, investigators instead attempt to discern the motivations behind the murders, as a way to narrow their investigative focus.

Serial murder crime scenes can have bizarre features that may cloud the identification of a motive. The behavior of a serial murderer at crime scenes may evolve throughout the series of crimes and manifest different interactions between an offender and a victim. It is also extremely difficult to identify a single motivation when there is more than one offender involved in the series.

The attendees at the Symposium made the following observations:

* Motive generally may be difficult to determine in a serial murder investigation.

* A serial murderer may have multiple motives for committing his crimes.

* A serial murderer's motives may evolve both within a single murder as well throughout the murder series.

* The classification of motivations should be limited to observable behavior at the crime scene.

* Even if a motive can be identified, it may not be helpful in identifying a serial murderer.

* Utilizing investigative resources to discern the motive instead of identifying the offender may derail the investigation.

* Investigators should not necessarily equate a serial murderer's motivation with the level of injury.

* Regardless of the motive, serial murderers commit their crimes because they want to. The exception to this would be those few killers suffering from a severe mental illness.

To assist law enforcement in narrowing the pool of suspects, attendees at the Symposium suggested that broad, non-inclusive categories of motivations be utilized as guidelines for investigation. The following categories listed below represent general categories and are not intended to be a complete measure of serial offenders or their motivation:

* Anger is a motivation in which an offender displays rage or hostility towards a certain subgroup of the population or with society as a whole.

* Criminal Enterprise is a motivation in which the offender benefits in status or monetary compensation by committing murder that is drug, gang, or organized crime related.

* Financial gain is a motivation in which the offender benefits monetarily from killing. Examples of these types of crimes are "black widow" killings, robbery homicides, or multiple killings involving insurance or welfare fraud.

* Ideology is a motivation to commit murders in order to further the goals and ideas of a specific individual or group. Examples of these include terrorist groups or an individual(s) who attacks a specific racial, gender, or ethnic group.

* Power/thrill is a motivation in which the offender feels empowered and/or excited when he kills his victims.

* Psychosis is a situation in which the offender is suffering from a severe mental illness and is killing because of that illness. This may include auditory and/or visual hallucinations and paranoid, grandiose, or bizarre delusions.

* Sexually-based is a motivation driven by the sexual needs/desires of the offender. There may or may not be overt sexual contact reflected in the crime scene.

An offender selects a victim, regardless of the category, based upon availability, vulnerability, and desirability. Availability is explained as the lifestyle of the victim or circumstances in which the victim is involved, that allow the offender access to the victim. Vulnerability is defined as the degree to which the victim is susceptible to attack by the offender. Desirability is described as the appeal of the victim to the offender. Desirability involves numerous factors based upon the motivation of the offender and may include factors dealing with the race, gender, ethnic background, age of the victim, or other specific preferences the offender determines.

Attendees at the Symposium identified successful investigative practices for solving serial murder cases. These factors were central to the discussions:

* Identification of a Serial Murder Series
* Leadership
* Task Force Organization
* Resource Augmentation
* Communication
* Data Management
* Analytical Tools
* Medical Examiners/Coroners
* Administrative Issues
* Training
* Officer Assistance Programs

Identification

Symposium participants listed the initial identification of a homicide series as the primary investigative challenge. Historically, the first indication that a serial murderer was at work was when two or more cases were linked by forensic or behavioral evidence.

Identifying a homicide series is easier in rapidly-developing, high profile cases involving low risk victims. These cases are reported to law enforcement upon discovery of the crimes and draw immediate media attention.

In contrast, identifying a series involving high risk victims in multiple jurisdictions is much more difficult. This is primarily due to the high risk lifestyle and transitory nature of the victims. Additionally, the lack of communication between law enforcement agencies and differing records management systems impede the linkage of cases to a common offender.

Attendees stressed the importance of law enforcement networking with other investigative agencies and cited the National Law Enforcement Teletype System (NLETS) messages, ViCAP Alerts, and the Law Enforcement Online (LEO) website as alternative mechanisms for sharing information to help determine other linked cases. The use of the FBI's NCAVC, both the Behavioral Analysis Units and the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, in linking potential cases was also encouraged.

Leadership

High profile investigations present a multitude of leadership challenges for law enforcement, from investigators to police executives. Law enforcement personnel may face external pressures from political entities, victims' families, and the media. Collectively, strong management throughout the chain of command must continually reinforce the supreme goal of the investigation: To arrest and prosecute the offender.

Attendees at the Symposium agreed that in successful serial murder investigations, the roles of both investigators and supervisors were clearly delineated. The investigative function is the primary mission, and all other activities are in support of that mission.

In serial murder cases, the actual investigation should be directed by competent, homicide investigators, who have the experience to direct and focus the investigative process. Law enforcement administrators should not run the investigation but rather ensure that the investigators have the resources to do their job. Supervisors should also act as buffers between investigators and the other levels of command.

There are several other strategies law enforcement executives may consider while preparing for these intense investigations:

* Completing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) between different law enforcement agencies, in order to obtain mutual support agreements and commitment of manpower, resources, and overtime.

* Identifying all resources that may be needed during the investigation and maintaining detailed lists of available resources.

* Establishing good working relationships with other departments prior to the crisis, through networking, scheduled meetings, and joint training.

* Providing training opportunities in the latest techniques and methods of homicide investigation.

Additional observations regarding leadership in task force operations include:

* Communication on administrative issues should be restricted to management personnel of the various agencies, so as not to distract investigators.

* The intense pressure in high profile investigations may at times decrease logical decision making. Tunnel vision and impulsivity should be avoided.

* Law enforcement administration in each of the participating law enforcement agencies should present a unified front by agreeing to a written investigative strategy that outlines the investigative goals, the roles of the agencies, and establishes a clear and concise chain of command.

* Command staff should focus on providing and managing the resources investigators need to solve the case, rather than directing the investigation. A major problem identified by attendees at the Symposium was the issue of micro-management. When a supervisor attempts to personally direct every action in an investigation, rather than allowing investigators to perform their jobs independently, they exacerbate problems in these high profile investigations.

* While law enforcement attracts positive individuals with strong personalities, management should encourage all involved personnel to leave their "egos" at the door. This ensures that personality differences among investigators do not become a distraction to the investigation. Investigators who lack the ability to collaborate with colleagues can hinder the investigation and should not be assigned to investigative teams.

Task Force Organization

Once a serial murder series has been identified, it is important for the involved law enforcement agencies to work together. There are a number of operational and investigative issues critical to the successful establishment of an investigative task force.

Initially, a lead agency for the task force should be designated and will assume the primary investigative role. The choice of a lead agency is based upon a number of factors including the number and viability of the cases, available resources, and investigative experience. Once established, all law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation should have representation in the task force. Any outlying agencies should also be included, even if they do not have an identified case in the investigation.

An effective and reliable investigative model identifies a lead investigator and co-investigator, who, regardless of rank, are given complete control of the investigation. These investigators review all incoming information, collate the information, and assign leads. If the flow of incoming information becomes unmanageable due to an excessive influx of investigative tips, the lead investigators can delegate this responsibility to an experienced investigator, who will act as a lead control officer. Administrators must look beyond the traditional method of assigning the next available investigators regardless of skill or assigning investigators who have no desire to be involved in a major case. Consequently, law enforcement administrators must assign the most qualified investigator(s) to lead the current case.

The lead investigator(s) must have the experience, dedication, and tenacity to direct all aspects of the investigation. They should also, with management's support, have the ability to select a cadre of investigators and support personnel and assign such personnel as the investigation dictates. In serial murder investigations, the lead investigators must handle all crime scene activities and related leads, as each incident may be interwoven. It is the responsibility of the lead investigators or the lead control investigator to ensure relevant information is distributed to the entire task force.

At the onset of the task force, the lead investigators should immediately implement a preplanned task force model. Common to most models is the need to establish an information management system to track tips and leads in the case. This computer system should account for the idiosyncrasies of the investigation while being flexible enough to handle any contingency. All personnel should be familiar with its operation, and it should be pre-tested to insure viability in investigative conditions.

Primary to the investigation is sufficient manpower to successfully investigate and prosecute the case. The overwhelming consensus from the attendees is that the assignment of excessive numbers of personnel to the investigation may be counterproductive. A small group of experienced homicide investigators, under the direction of the lead investigator(s), is far more effective than a large number of less experienced investigators or investigators who are experienced in different areas of criminal activity. Additional personnel may be brought in for specific tasks as necessary.

There should be a bifurcation of responsibility between the administration of the case and the investigation of the case. The task of running the investigation is the responsibility of the lead investigator. The administration provides all of the necessary support, including procurement of equipment, funding, and manpower. As an example, task force administrators must obtain authority for priority requests for services, from the forensic laboratory and other service providers. The lead investigator(s) and the administrators of the task force must have a close, cooperative working relationship, while maintaining their own areas of responsibility.

Assignment of liaison personnel in serial homicide cases is highly recommended. The highest priority is the families of the victims, who will be supportive of the investigative efforts, when they believe the investigators are competent and all available resources are being used to identify and arrest the offender. An investigator with exceptional interpersonal and communication skills should be assigned to maintain constant contact with the families, keeping them apprised of the progress of the investigation and any pending press releases.

Liaison must also be maintained with the numerous support entities both inside and outside the task force including the prosecutor's office, the forensic laboratory, the medical examiner's office, and surrounding law enforcement agencies. Additionally, a list of available experts in specific forensic and related fields should be compiled and liaison established for use in the investigation. As long as the flow of information is manageable, one individual can be assigned to multiple liaison duties.

Resource Augmentation

As the investigation continues, the manpower requirements of the task force will increase for various reasons, including increasing the number of investigators and support staff. Restraint must be practiced by task force administrators to avoid the use of excess personnel. As previously discussed, the use of fewer personnel may be more effective. The lead investigator is in the best position to recognize when additional personnel are needed. The administrator's responsibility is to provide the authority for the permanent or temporary reassignment of the requested number of personnel to the task force.

If additional personnel are needed to expand the task force, the reassignment should be for the duration of the task force, to insure continuity of investigative information. However, for short term needs such as a specific neighborhood canvass or road block canvass, personnel can be reassigned temporarily to complete the specific task and then be returned to their normal duties.

In either event, the arrival of new personnel should be preplanned and a detailed case briefing provided. This briefing should include an explanation of their specific assignment, their work hours, details of the investigation as it applies to their assignment, expected standards for report completion, and a complete list of contact numbers. Additionally, personnel should be cautioned about discussing case sensitive information with anyone outside of authorized law enforcement personnel.

Arbitrary rotation of personnel should be avoided, as it negatively affects the continuity of the investigation. Rotation of personnel should only occur if requested by the investigator, or there are officer assistance issues. If the task force is disbanded and later reinstated, the original investigators should be utilized.

Attendees stressed the importance of disseminating information to the investigators engaged in a serial murder investigation through the following:

* Daily briefings are essential for investigators, especially when there are different work shifts. Periodic summary briefings are also necessary for managers and patrol officers. These can be accomplished via e-mails or at roll call and should be conducted by investigative personnel.

* Communication on the operational level is paramount, especially in task force investigations and when serial murder cases involve multiple states. As all information must be shared seamlessly, teleconferences may not sufficiently allow for the flow of information. Face-to-face case briefings are suggested.

* Submitting ViCAP reports on solved and unsolved murders, attempted murders, and sexual assaults for inclusion in the ViCAP database is strongly recommended and may facilitate the linkage of unknown related cases for law enforcement agencies.

A common problem in serial investigations occurs when data is not entered into the electronic database in a timely manner. Useful leads are lost when investigators are overloaded with information. The following suggestions were provided regarding data management issues:

* In order to avoid time lags, reports should be written as soon as the investigative lead is completed. If reports are not finished before the end of the investigator's shift, the lead investigator(s) may not have time to review those reports. This will lead to a back-log of reports, containing pertinent and timely investigative information.

* Sufficient time should be allocated during work shifts to complete reports.

* Information should be obtained, documented, and distributed in a standardized manner, to maintain consistency among different agencies. Ideally, reports should be computer generated to ease the communication issues.

* Systems similar to the FBI's Rapid Start computerized case management system should be utilized, to effectively organize and collate lead information. Computerized systems promote the analysis of a tremendous amount of data. There should be sufficient personnel committed to ensure that data is recorded into the system, in a timely manner.

* A murder book or series of murder books should be created and maintained. Murder books contain all of the pertinent investigative information and are traditionally in paper format but can also be developed electronically.

* All rough notes should be maintained and entered into evidence.

* Reports should be distributed to all participating law enforcement agencies and the prosecutor's office.

The wide range of analytical resources available to law enforcement agencies is typically under-utilized at the onset of a serial murder investigation. Due to the voluminous amount of information characteristic of high profile investigations, critical lead information may be lost. The implementation of a tested and reliable case management system, as previously discussed, coupled with competent analytical staff, is imperative in serial murder investigations.

Crime analysts offer critical support to the investigation by developing timelines on victims and suspects, compiling matrices to highlight similar case elements, and providing general analytical support. Analysts should be assigned to the initial investigation group, so information can be sorted, compared, and charted to provide timely lead information.

Symposium attendees also discussed the importance of the behavioral aspects of the investigation and recommended the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit be utilized for the multitude of services it provides to include crime scene analysis, offender profiles, case linkage analysis, interview strategies, and prosecution strategy. The case consultations can be conducted at the BAU office in Quantico, Virginia, or a team of BAU staff members can respond to the respective agency, to personally view the crime scenes and discuss the behavioral issues with the pertinent task force members.

Medical Examiners/Coroners

A thorough autopsy and the subsequent collection of evidence are critical in serial murder investigations. Medical examiners and coroners operate according to their different state mandates and vary as to the thoroughness of their investigations. Consistent procedures to collect, record, and retrieve case information are important in linking cases in other jurisdictions.

The following recommendations were made concerning medical examiners in serial murder investigations:

* Medical examiners should share information on autopsies in potentially related cases. Joint meetings with investigators can provide additional background information on these cases.

* A single medical examiner should be utilized in serial cases occurring within the same jurisdiction.

* Once a series has been identified that involves several jurisdictions, the various medical examiner offices may consider performing joint autopsy procedures to ensure continuity in evidence collection.

* Investigators should also ensure submissions of all unidentified victims to the FBI Laboratory's National Missing Persons DNA database.

* Investigators should also ensure the entry of unidentified remains recovered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and ViCAP.

Administrative Issues

Law enforcement agencies should review their current administrative policies relating to maintenance and storage of unsolved homicide case materials. Top priority should be given to these cases by extending the storage time limit and may include the following:

* Mirror the FBI's NCAVC 50-year minimum mandate to keep copies of all unsolved cases.

* Retain records of unsolved homicide cases and the accompanying evidence until the case is closed.

* Records should be electronically converted.

* Evidence storage should be available for long term storage of forensic evidence in murder cases.

* Submit cases to the FBI's ViCAP database, which maintains case information indefinitely.

Resources and Finances

It is essential that an investigative agency have the resources available in order to establish the initial setup for a task force, both from financial and logistic perspectives. There should be a contingency plan in place to handle the resource issues in a major investigation. Buildings, office space, computers, phones, vehicles, food, and other necessities should be considered in the plan.

Utilizing non-law enforcement agencies, such as the fire department for use of their high-tech equipment, may also be included in the plan. It was recommended that agencies develop emergency response plans and establish MOU's at the local, state, and national level.

Training continues to be an issue for all law enforcement departments. Complex homicide investigations, especially those involving serial murder cases, depend upon the experience and abilities of investigators to effectively conduct the investigation. With the retirement of many experienced homicide investigators, newer investigators need training and exposure to a wide range of investigative techniques. Attendees also suggested the utilization of standardized training for homicide investigators, crime analysts, and medical examiners.

Officer Assistance Programs

The brutality of the crime scenes; the senseless, repetitive acts inflicted on the victims; and a sense of helplessness in failing to catch the offender are all factors that may impact the emotional well-being of investigators involved in a serial murder case. Burnout, stress, and hopelessness are just some of the feelings that may affect members of the investigative team.

To combat these issues, attendees suggested the following:

* Regular debriefings.

* Access to critical incident counselors.

* Mental health evaluations upon request.

* Adequate time off for investigators.

NOTE: The majority of attendees agreed there should be a published, general guide to serial murder investigations, building upon the Multi-Agency Investigative Team Manual (MAIT) and addressing specific issues such as cooperative investigative models; investigative methods; case linkage; crime scene techniques; MOUs; training for police, medical examiners, and crime analysts; the role of regional intelligence centers; the integration of BAU and ViCAP; and the role of federal law enforcement.

The forensic sciences have played a key role in criminal investigations for many years. Recently, there has been increased attention on the forensic sciences by law enforcement, prosecutors, and the general public. Particularly in high profile cases, intense media coverage concerning evidence issues and the work of crime laboratories has served to heighten this interest.

In the past two decades, there have been tremendous technological advances in the laboratory testing of forensic samples. There have also been a number of improvements in the identification and collection of evidence at the crime scene, through innovative processing and evidence collection methods. Together, these advances allow for a greater probability of successful recovery and analysis of evidence than was previously possible. There is also growing recognition by criminal justice professionals of the wider scope of forensic techniques and available tests.

The field of forensic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis and the legislation that allows DNA testing on a broader number of offenders has made some of the more remarkable advances. DNA testing now allows much smaller samples of biological material to be analyzed and the results to be more discriminating. DNA testing of forensic crime scene samples can now be compared against a database of known offenders and other unsolved crimes.

Forensic laboratories have developed advanced analytical techniques through the use of computer technology. Systems such as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), various Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS), and the National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network (NIBIN), were identified by the symposium as beneficial to serial murder investigations, by providing links between previously unrelated cases.

CODIS is a national automated DNA information processing and telecommunications system that was developed to link biological evidence (DNA) in criminal cases, between various jurisdictions around the United States. Samples in CODIS include DNA profiles obtained from persons convicted of designated crimes, DNA profiles obtained from crime scenes, DNA profiles from unidentified human remains, and DNA from voluntary samples taken from families of missing persons.

The CODIS data bank of these samples is comprised of three different indices or levels: the National DNA Index System (NDIS), the State DNA Index System (SDIS), and the Local DNA Index System (LDIS).

What is important for law enforcement to understand is that the information contained at the LDIS and SDIS levels may not automatically be sent to, or searched against, the NDIS level. There are different legislation requirements for inclusion into NDIS, than to LDIS or SDIS, and not all LDIS and SDIS profiles are sent to NDIS. Even when NDIS is queried, individual SDIS data banks may not be queried. Therefore, when dealing with a serial murder case, investigators need to contact their LDIS or SDIS level representatives to ensure that in addition to the NDIS databank, samples are compared in the individual SDIS data banks of each state that is of investigative interest. In cases where there is only a partial DNA profile, a national "keyboard" search can be requested through the NDIS custodian, CODIS Unit, FBI Laboratory.

AFIS is an electronic databank that compares unidentified latent and patent fingerprints to the known fingerprint file. There have been a variety of local AFIS systems in use since the 1980s. In 1999, the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, became operational. IAFIS is designated as the national repository of criminal histories, fingerprints, and photographs of criminal subjects in the United States. It also contains fingerprints and information on military and civilian federal employees. IAFIS provides positive identification through comparisons of individuals based on the submission of fingerprint data, through both ten-print fingerprint cards and latent fingerprints.

Some of the earlier AFIS systems were not compatible with the IAFIS system, and as a result, those earlier latent fingerprints may not be included in IAFIS. This becomes an issue in serial murder cases, when the offender committed offenses prior to the inception of IAFIS, as latent fingerprints from those earlier crimes will not be searchable. If there is a possibility the offender committed early crimes, the early AFIS systems need to be queried independently. Consultation with laboratory fingerprint experts may be necessary in order to establish what AFIS systems exist, which are interoperable, and the protocols required to query each system.

NIBIN is a national databank of both projectile and cartridge information. NIBIN is the integration of two previous systems: the FBI's Drugfire cartridge case imaging system and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS). NIBIN is an imaging system that allows both bullets and cartridges recovered from a crime scene to be compared electronically against other bullets and cartridges recovered from previous crime scenes, in an effort to link previously unrelated cases. The system can search by geographic area or nationwide, depending upon the course of the investigation. ATF is maintaining the new system in over 75 locations, across the United States.

When conducting serial murder investigations, it is important for investigators to promptly seek guidance from appropriate forensic database experts. Such experts can provide information regarding what limitations exist and what additional queries can be made of the systems, to obtain additional investigative information.

Another area in which forensic science can play an important role is in the recovery and examination of trace evidence. Trace evidence is described as small, often microscopic material. It commonly includes hair and fiber evidence but may encompass almost any substance or material. Trace evidence may provide important lead information pertaining to offender characteristics, vehicle and tire descriptors, and environmental clues that relate to killing scenes and modes of transportation used to move bodies.

A skilled trace evidence examiner can compare the trace evidence from all of the victims in a serial murder case, in an effort to identify evidence common to all of the victims. This trace evidence will reflect a "common environment" with which all of the victims were in contact. This common environment will repeat in objects in the serial offender's world, such as his vehicles and/or residence. This can demonstrate that all of the victims had contact with the offender at the same location(s).

Attendees at the Serial Murder Symposium universally acknowledged that serial murder cases present unique circumstances and concerns, particularly when multiple investigative jurisdictions are involved. In serial murder cases, crime scenes may occur in different law enforcement jurisdictions, each of whom may possess varying resources and abilities to process crime scenes. In some cases, agencies submit evidence to different laboratories, even though those agencies are located adjacent to one another. These issues degrade the ability of law enforcement to consistently collect evidence from a murder series. This may prevent identifying a serial killer or forensically linking previously unrelated cases to a common offender.

Attendees identified a number of forensic issues facing the law enforcement community in serial murder investigations and made the following suggestions:

* Once a series is identified, the same crime scene personnel should be utilized at related scenes to promote consistency in evidence identification and collection. Search personnel should follow established sterilization procedures to ensure there is no cross-contamination between the various crime scenes.

* Cross-contamination should be proactively prevented by using different personnel to process crime scenes than those used to collect known sample evidence from potential suspects.

* Documentation among the law enforcement agencies should be standardized to ensure continuity between separate cases.

* Aerial photographs of every murder crime scene, as well as the accompanying ancillary scenes, should be taken. Aerial photographs clearly depict the geography of the area and demonstrate the physical relationships and the distances between the crime scenes. They also identify potential routes of ingress and egress to the area.

* The number of laboratories and experts involved in serial murder investigations should be limited to properly certified facilities and personnel. Ideally, all evidence should be examined by a single crime laboratory, and that lab should utilize only one expert per discipline. If this is not possible, establish lines of communication between laboratories to ensure the sharing of pertinent information related to the investigation.

* Priority status for laboratory examinations should be obtained to ensure a quick turn around on test results.

* When consulting with forensic scientists, investigators should prioritize forensic examinations based upon their potential investigative value. In addition, forensic scientists should be consulted frequently to identify alternative sampling and/or testing that may lead to successful case resolution.

* Forensic testimony should be limited to what is needed for successful prosecution. Utilization of charts, graphs, or other appropriate audiovisual aides showing forensic linkages will clearly and succinctly convey the facts of the cases.

* When necessary, investigators should seek independent, secondary reviews of laboratory results. This may be somewhat problematic, since there are crime laboratories that will not duplicate forensic examinations. However, exceptions are sometimes made to this policy on a case-by-case basis.

Forensic evidence case vignette:

The case of serial child murderer Richard Mark Evonitz highlights the variety of forensic testing that may be utilized to solve difficult cases. In 1996 and 1997, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, three young girls were abducted from their residences, sexually assaulted, and killed. The first case occurred on September 9, 1996, when Sophia Silva disappeared from the front porch of her house. She was found in October of 1996, in a swamp, 16 miles from her residence. A suspect was arrested and charged for her murder, based on a faulty trace evidence examination conducted by a state laboratory.

On May 1, 1997, two sisters, Kristin and Kati Lisk, disappeared from their residence after returning home from school. Their bodies were discovered five days later in a river, 40 miles from their residence. After an examination by an FBI Laboratory Examiner yielded trace evidence that positively linked the Silva and Lisk homicides to a common environment, the suspect arrested in the Silva case was subsequently released.

The investigation continued for an additional five years, until a girl was abducted in South Carolina. The victim was able to escape, and she identified Richard Mark Evonitz as her attacker. Evonitz fled South Carolina and was sighted in Florida. After a high-speed chase with police, Evonitz committed suicide. The investigation revealed that Evonitz had lived in Spotsylvania, in 1996 and 1997.

Forensic searches were conducted on Evonitz's residence in South Carolina, his former residence in Spotsylvania, Virginia, and his car. A detailed trace examination of the evidence from these searches and the evidence obtained from the three victims revealed a number of hair and fiber matches, providing sufficient evidence to tie Evonitz to the three murders.

The following trace examinations linked Evonitz to all three homicide victims:
* Fibers from a bath mat.
* Fibers from an afghan.
* Fibers from two separate carpets in Evonitz's former home in Virginia.
* Carpet fibers from the trunk of Evonitz's car.
* Head hair consistent with Evonitz.

A trace examination also linked fibers from a pair of fur-lined handcuffs to the three homicide victims and the surviving victim.

The unique combination of different hair and fiber evidence yielded the "common environment" to which all of the victims and the offender were exposed.

Latent fingerprints belonging to Kristin Lisk were located on the inside of the trunk lid of Evonitz's car, five years after the fact.

The recognition and investigation of a serial murder series is often perceived as a separate and distinct process from the other primary goal in these complex cases: the prosecution and conviction of the offender(s) responsible for the homicides. It was a consensus of Symposium attendees that law enforcement and prosecutors should work cooperatively as the investigative and prosecution processes are inextricably linked. When police suspect that one or more homicides may be the result of a serial killer, involving the prosecutor early on in the investigation may alleviate significant problems during trial.

The experience of the Symposium attendees was that in successful prosecutions of serial murder cases, the prosecutor's office was involved and remained accessible to law enforcement throughout the entire investigation and subsequent arrest. The partnership continued during the trial and resulted in the successful prosecution of the serial murderer.

The prosecutor can assist with critical decisions early in the investigation that could potentially impact on court admissibility. Maintaining the integrity of the legal process is a paramount consideration when dealing with court orders, search warrants, Grand Jury testimony, subpoenas, evidence custody matters, capital murder issues, and concerns related to the possible offender's competency and the voluntariness of confessions.

Prosecutors are also in the best position to evaluate the different murder cases within the serial investigation for presentation in court. They can provide important recommendations regarding the future use of evidence, forensic laboratory work, witness reports, and suspect interviews during trial.

Case management and investigative decision making are still controlled and managed by the law enforcement agencies. The prosecutor acts in an advisory capacity. The responsibilities and duties of the prosecutor should be clarified initially in the investigation to avoid potential confusion while the investigation progresses.

In multi-jurisdictional cases, variations in evidentiary standards, search warrant requirements, interview protocols, the quality of the evidence, and the ability to prosecute for capital murder may dictate the appropriate venue for prosecution. This consideration may take on greater significance when the crimes occur in different states.

Expert witnesses often play a significant role in high profile serial murder investigations, dealing with forensic and competency issues. In many investigations and prosecutions, the task of linking the defendant to the victim and the homicide scene(s) has been simplified because of physical, trace, and/or DNA evidence located at the scene. Expert forensic witnesses are utilized to explain the analysis and value of such evidence. Identifying and securing the services of forensic psychologists and psychiatrists will be important when addressing issues of competency, diminished capacity, and the insanity defense. Consideration should also be given for other collateral expert witnesses, who may be utilized to address issues outside of the customary topics, such as blood spatter.

Prosecution case vignette:

The Washington, D.C. Beltway sniper attacks serve as an excellent example of multi-jurisdictional prosecutorial considerations. The Beltway serial sniper attacks took place during three weeks of October 2002, in the Washington, D.C. metropolitian area. Ten people were killed and three others critically injured, in various locations throughout the metropolitan area. The killings actually began the month prior to the D.C. rampage, with these offenders committing a number of murders and robberies in several other states.

The D.C. area shootings began on October 2nd, with a series of five, fatal shootings over a fifteen-hour period in Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburban county north of Washington, D.C. The investigation was initially spearheaded from Montgomery County, and as the number of shootings mutiplied, the task force involved numerous local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The two men responsible for the homicides, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, were eventually captured at an interstate rest area in Western Maryland.

It was ultimately decided that Fairfax County, Virginia, would have the first opportunity to try one of the murders, despite the fact that Maryland had more cases. It was felt that the case in Fairfax was the strongest case. The Fairfax County homicide was the ninth in the Washington, D.C. area series and the third homicide in Virginia. A conviction for murder was secured in this case against Malvo, resulting in a life sentence.

Muhammad was tried next for Capital Murder in a case that occurred in Prince William County, Virginia, which resulted in a death sentence. Malvo, pursuant to a plea agreement, then plead guilty to one count of murder and one attempted murder in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and was sentenced to life without parole.

Prosecutors in Montgomery County, Maryland, subsequently tried and convicted Muhammad on six counts of murder, and he was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole. Malvo plead guilty and testified against Muhammad. During these trials, Malvo confessed to four other shootings in California, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. It is unknown whether these or several other jurisdictions, including Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, and Washington State plan to prosecute Muhammad and Malvo.

IX. Media Issues in Serial Murder Investigations

Serial murder cases are inherently newsworthy. Some investigations last for years. Many attract attention because of the type of victims involved, and in others the serial killers themselves are media-attractive. Media attention is exacerbated by the insatiable demands of the twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week news reporting industry. The constant news attention on the investigation inevitably results in conflicts with law enforcement.

Often the relationship between law enforcement and the media is not a close one. In some law enforcement agencies, there is a long history of distrust and resentment underpinning this relationship. From the law enforcement perspective, the media publishes unauthorized information from investigations, hypothesizes on investigative progress, and uses talking heads to critique the investigative efforts. From the media's standpoint, law enforcement withholds too much information and does not communicate adequately with the media. It is counterproductive for law enforcement to sustain contentious relationships with the media, while attempting to develop an overall strategy for a successful serial murder investigation. The only party who benefits from this negative relationship is the serial murderer, who may continue to avoid detection. A respectful, cooperative relationship between law enforcement and the media will serve the missions of both.

It becomes essential for law enforcement personnel involved in a serial murder investigation to design and implement an effective media plan. The plan should provide timely information on a regular basis, without compromising the investigative endeavors. It is essential for media releases to be closely coordinated with investigative strategies. This helps determine the best times to both educate and solicit information from the public concerning certain aspects of the investigation. Once a media plan is established, law enforcement can be more proactive than reactive in its media strategy.

Symposium attendees provided a number of suggestions regarding media issues:

* Identify one spokesperson as the Public Information Officer (PIO), to speak on behalf of the investigation. This person would, in conjunction with other members of the investigative effort, prepare releases, make statements, and update the media on behalf of all involved jurisdictions, including forensic laboratories and medical examiners' offices. To eliminate confusion and controversy, MOUs should include an agreement regarding the designation of a single PIO in multi-jurisdictional, serial murder investigations.

* The role of the PIO is extremely demanding and time consuming, and they should not be assigned any additional investigative responsibilities. In addition, the PIO should have limited access to sensitive case facts. This will help minimize the possibility of critical information being inadvertently released to the media.

* Press releases should always have very specific objectives. New releases should be reviewed by lead investigators and management, prior to dissemination. Investigators should consult with proven behavioral experts experienced in serial murder cases, before releasing any behavioral-based offender information.

* Press releases regarding the investigative effort should always have a positive tone. The PIO should continually remind the community that every available resource is being utilized in the investigation. A release can also include statements that discuss the impact of the case on the community, including the nature and scope of the threat to potential victims and the steps being taken by law enforcement to educate the community.

* Inaccurate information distributed by the media regarding a serial murder investigation should be identified and addressed by law enforcement as soon as possible. Such information may include statements made by talking heads solicited by the media. This may require daily monitoring of news broadcasts and print media by investigators, to identify the incorrect statements or misinformation.

* Contact should be made as soon as possible with media outlets to have erroneous information corrected or retracted. If the media outlet will not address the issue, corrective press releases should be quickly disseminated, either verbally or in written form. Regular meetings with owners and managers of media outlets during the course of a serial murder investigation may help alleviate these issues.

* In high profile serial murder cases, the media may attempt to interact with members of the victims' families. Victims' families suffer emotionally from their loss and may interact with the media in ways that could negatively impact the case. A victim's family's goals and objectives may not correspond with those of law enforcement. This can be exacerbated when the investigation continues for a long period of time without conclusion. Establishing liaison with each of the victims' families is the simplest way to counteract this. As was discussed previously in the investigative section, a single law enforcement officer should act as a liaison for each of the victims' families. Aside from the traditional liaison role, the officer also educates the family as to the tenacious demands for information by the media and the potential negative consequences that unauthorized releases of information bring to the investigation.

* Law enforcement should be creative in considering non-traditional methods of disseminating information to the public. This is particularly important if the media is editing information disseminated by law enforcement. One suggestion is to create an investigation web page that is updated regularly and provides the public with unedited versions of press releases, regular updates on the status of the investigation, and other information designed to appropriately inform the public.

* Law enforcement should anticipate the inevitable public reaction resulting from an announcement that the investigation involves a serial killer. Either the media will link the cases and proclaim a serial murderer is operating, or investigators will proactively release the information. The investigative team should be prepared for either situation. If the media makes the announcement, it is important for law enforcement to respond quickly, so they do not appear unprepared or defensive. If law enforcement plans on making the announcement, the release should be timed to gain an investigative advantage.

* There have been several serial killers who actively communicated with the police or the media. In these cases, investigators should consult with behavioral experts to assist with a proactive media strategy.

Media Strategy Case vignette:

The BTK case is an example of how a proactive media strategy contributed to the capture of a serial murderer. The BTK killer first emerged in 1974 and, over time, killed a total of ten victims. From 1974 until 1988, BTK sent a series of five communications to the media, citizens, and the police in which he not only named himself BTK (Bind them, Torture them, and Kill them) but also claimed credit for killing a number of the victims. He abruptly stopped communicating in 1988. He re-emerged in 2004 by sending a new communication to the media. The Wichita Police Department formed a task force with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and other agencies. The FBI's BAU-2 was contacted and provided a proactive media strategy that was utilized throughout the case. This strategy involved using the lieutenant in charge of the investigation to provide written press releases at critical times, which resulted in 15 press releases during the course of the investigation. BTK provided eleven communications to police and the media during the eleven-month investigation. The last communication BTK sent included a computer disk, containing information that eventually identified Dennis Rader as BTK. During Rader's interrogation, he commented positively on the press releases and his perceived relationship with the investigative lieutenant who issued the press statements.

X. Issues Regarding Talking Heads in the Media

The public's interest in serial murder cases makes serial murder an attractive storyline for the media. To further the public's interest in these cases, the media uses people who are willing to speak as experts on the topic of serial murder and more specifically, individuals willing to comment on the current, featured case. These commentators are commonly referred to as talking heads, and it appears that there is no shortage of people willing to do this.

Individuals utilized by the media to comment on serial murder cases include both experts and pseudoexperts. Experts are identified as academicians, researchers, retired law enforcement officials, mental health professionals, and retired law enforcement profilers who have developed specific knowledge and experience in serial murder investigations. Pseudoexperts are self-proclaimed profilers and others who profess to have an expertise in serial murder, when, in fact, their experience is limited or non-existent. The media will recruit talking heads, whether true experts or pseudoexperts, to offer their opinions on current cases, when they have no official role in the investigation and no access to any of the intimate facts of the case.

When individuals appear in the media and discuss ongoing cases, they have an enormous potential to negatively influence investigations and may even cause irreversible damage. They often speculate on the motive for the murders and the possible characteristics of the offender. Such statements can misinform the public and may heighten fears in a community. They may contribute to mistrust and a lack of confidence in law enforcement and, more importantly, may taint potential jury pools. These statements may also impact the behavior of the serial murderer, because it is unlikely that an offender discriminates between a talking head and a law enforcement official actively involved in the case. When offenders are challenged by statements or derogatory comments made in the media, they may destroy evidence, or more tragically, react violently.

Attendees of the Symposium were asked to discuss this issue and offer written comments. The following observations were made:

* Law enforcement is strongly encouraged to continue its release of information to the public during an investigation, in order to alert the community to a public safety issue or to solicit assistance in the identification and/or capture of an offender.

* There is a difference between law enforcement agencies proactively releasing information about an ongoing case and talking heads who comment on a case in which they have no investigative information.

* Members of the media are encouraged to closely examine the credentials of any experts whom they are considering utilizing, to ascertain if the qualifications and experience level they claim is accurate.

* When an expert is retained by the media, having the expert's qualifications listed on a public website would offer the community the opportunity to assess the expert's authenticity and credibility.

* Responsible, retired law enforcement officers, clinicians, academicians, and researchers who are asked to provide statements concerning ongoing cases should refrain from doing so, unless requested by, or with the permission of, the agency who has jurisdictional responsibility over the case.

* Individuals who have developed an expertise in a given field recognize that before an opinion can be rendered, complete and accurate information must be obtained and analyzed. Therefore, it is inappropriate, even for acknowledged experts in serial murder, to offer opinions regarding a specific case based solely upon incomplete and potentially inaccurate information available through the media.

If responsible professionals are requested to provide statements about ongoing cases, the following guidelines are suggested:

It was the opinion of the experts at the Symposium that it is not possible to regulate or officially censor comments made by talking heads during serial murder investigations. However, a policy statement issued by law enforcement to the media would be appropriate, and below is an example of such a statement:

The media's role in reporting the facts of a case is a major public service. However, providing a forum for speculative commentary can be counter-productive and potentially dangerous. Public comments on an active investigation with incomplete or incorrect information are merely speculation and can seriously jeopardize an ongoing case and place citizens at great risk. Accordingly, we respectfully request that restraint be exercised and comments withheld until after an arrest has been made.

Epilogue

We would once again like to recognize the individuals who attended and participated in the Serial Murder Symposium and thank them for their contributions. These individuals are among the world's most knowledgeable experts on serial murder. Many have been involved for years in the study of serial murder, and they have collectively published dozens of books and articles on a number of diverse topics related to serial murder. Their publications are recommended for anyone involved in investigating, prosecuting, or studying serial murder.

Due in a large part to the efforts of the professionals who attended the Symposium, there has been significant progress over the past few years in understanding serial killers and the crimes they commit. However, there is still much work to be done. Continued research in the topic areas addressed in this monograph is vital to advancing the knowledge on this important subject.

The men and women of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit 2 look forward to continued partnerships in the collaborative efforts to better understand, and subsequently generate a more effective investigative response, to the serial killers that prey upon our citizens.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Thursday, September 1, 2005

Friday, September 2, 2005

Symposium Attendees

Ewa-Marie Aghede

Lee Rainbow
Senior Behavioural
Investigative Advisor
National Crime &
Operations Faculty
Bramshill Hook, Hampshire,
United Kingdom

Mark Young
Special Agent (Retired), FBI

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Serial Murder | Federal Bureau of Investigation

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Message from the Director National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime II. Definition of Serial Murder III. Causality and the Serial Murderer IV. Psychopathy and Serial Murder V. Motivations and Types of Serial Murder: The Symposium Model VI. Investigative Issues and Best Practices VII. Forensic Issues in Serial Murder Cases VIII.

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Anne Frank: a Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented life in hiding under Nazi persecution. 

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Anne Frank: a Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented life in hiding under Nazi persecution. 

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How Movies Have “Witnessed” the Holocaust Over the Decades

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How Movies Have “Witnessed” the Holocaust Over the Decades

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How Movies Have “Witnessed” the Holocaust Over the Decades

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Since cameras were first pointed at the concentration camps, filmmakers have faced challenges in how to respectfully and meaningfully depict atrocity.

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Representations of the Holocaust on screen

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Representations of the Holocaust on screen

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The National Holocaust Centre and Museum

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The Holocaust has become an ever more present subject on cinema screens. But the ways in which directors present the Holocaust - the type of stories they tell, the images they use, and genres they employ - have shifted considerably over the decades since the end of the war.

Süss Oppenheimer (Ferdinand Marian) and Levy (Werner Krauß) in the Nazi feature film Jud Süss (1940), directed by Veit Harlan. The film depicts the attempt by a Jew to take over the duchy of Württemberg in the 18th century (copyright: Deutsche Kinemathek)

The anti-Semitic images in Nazi films showed Jews as money-loving, manipulative, and as a sexual threat to German women. The Nazi "documentary" The Eternal Jew (1940) associated Jews with flies and rats to imply a link between Jews and disease. It claimed that Jews around the world were responsible for class warfare, civil unrest, violence, fraud and corruption.

The Nazi propaganda film, Terezin: A Documentary Film from the Jewish Settlement Area, was made in 1944. It was designed to dupe foreign Red Cross representatives and governments into thinking that Jews in German concentration camps and ghettos were being treated well.

A film crew takes motion pictures in the Theresienstadt ghetto during the filming of the Nazi propaganda film (copyright: European Holocaust Research Infrastructure)

Unbeknown to them, all indications of the camp's true purpose were hidden from view. Jewish prisoners at Theresienstadt sarcastically referred to the film as The Führer gives a City to the Jews. It depicts Jewish inmates as happy, well fed and enjoying cultural activities. The Jewish prisoners forced to make the film were subsequently all killed.

1945-1949: Initial Responses

Allied Films of the Camps

After liberation, the Allies made films of what they found in the Nazi concentration camps. These films were used as part of the Allied re-education programme. German viewers were confronted with images of the crimes committed by them and in their name. The films used footage shot by Allied army units in the hours, days, and weeks following the liberation of the camps. They were screened to both prisoners of war and German civilians.

Footage of the camps subsequently shaped how feature film directors depicted the Holocaust. But Allied "atrocity films" often failed to mention the Jewish victimhood of many of the prisoners. German audiences were usually hostile to the message of collective guilt which such Allied films conveyed.

Film clip from Death Mills (1945), an American film about the camps directed by Billy Wilder and Hanus Burger, confronting audiences with the Nazi perpetrators and their crimes (copyright: Department of Defense, Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer)

Actor Wladyslaw Brochwicz in a scene from The Last Stage

The film ends with the arrival of the Red Army to liberate the camp - but they are too late to save the heroine. The Last Stage is based on the director's own experiences at Auschwitz.

From the outset, German filmmakers sought to broach the subject of Jewish persecution under National Socialism. The very first post-war German film, The Murderers are among us from 1946 features the character of Susanne who has returned from a concentration camp. Likewise, Marriage in the Shadows (1947), In Those Days (1947), Between Yesterday and Today (1947) and Morituri (1948) all included Jewish victims of National Socialist crimes.

Posters for Marriage in the Shadows and Morituri (copyright DEFA Stiftung, CCC Film, Deutsches Filminstitut)

However, in these films the persecution of Jewish characters rarely serves as the main storyline. Instead the films tend to centre around Germans' own wartime suffering. At the same time, responsibility for Nazi crimes is displaced onto a select number of characters. The films rarely question the wider German population's complicity in the regime's crimes.

1950s: Onset of the Cold War

The past was also harnessed for political purposes in West Germany. In the 1950s, West German films set in the Third Reich often focused on army officers who resisted Hitler's orders. A "clean" military tradition was created upon which the new, West German army could be founded.

Falk Harnack's 20 July (copyright CCC Film, Deutsches Filminstitut)

Falk Harnack's 20 July and Georg Pabst's It Happened on 20 July (both 1955) depict the real-life attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944. Falk Harnack's film 20 July does feature one persecuted Jew, but almost as an aside. A Swiss critic commented sarcastically that the Germans were clearly unable to "take more than one Jew on the stage or on screen at any one time".

In 1955, French director Alain Resnais released his thirty-two minute documentary film, Night and Fog. The film depicts the horrors of the camps with footage shot immediately after liberation.

Night and Fog (copyright: Criterion Collection)

Night and Fog is often categorised as a Holocaust film, yet it has been criticised for not explicitly stating that it was the Jews who were killed in gas chambers. The film implies that all categories of prisoners were treated this way.

1960s: Entering the Mainstream

In the late 1950s and 1960s, films exploring the Nazi persecution of Jews began to enter the mainstream. A key example are the two American films about Anne Frank by George Stevens (1959) and Alex Segal (1967), both called The Diary of Anne Frank. The film by George Stevens won three Academy Awards in 1960. Neither film, however, directly confronts the Holocaust.

Still from the 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank

In the 1960s, victims of National Socialism were often imagined less in terms of their racial, social, or political identity. Their victimhood was represented in universal terms. At the same time, the crimes of the Holocaust were sometimes used to introduce the viewer to more contemporary human rights' abuses. For example, Sidney Lumet's 1964 film The Pawnbroker draws parallels between persecution in the Third Reich and the campaigns of the American Civil Rights' Movement.

1970s and 1980s: A Generational Shift

The 1970s saw the coming-of-age of a new postwar generation - one that had not personally experienced the Second World War. Filmmakers sought new ways to depict the effects of Nazi anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust. The result was often a more direct engagement with perpetration and victimhood, and with the mass killing of the Holocaust. Gradually, film - as other media did - came to portray the systematic murder of Jews as a defining event of the Second World War.

SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höß (1900-1947), Commandant of Auschwitz

Released in 1977, Theodor Kotulla's German-language feature film Death is My Trade followed the life of camp commandant Franz Lang - modelled on Rudolf Höß, the commandant at Auschwitz. It addresses in detail the genocidal policies and practices of the Nazis.

In 1978, the four-part miniseries Holocaust was broadcast by the American NBC network. It was directed by Marvin Chomsky. The series follows two fictional families, the Weiss family and the Dorf family, as a case study into victims and perpetrators in National Socialist Germany. It depicts the Nazi creation of ghettos and the use of gas chambers.

The now widespread use of the term "Holocaust" to describe the mass murder of Jews under National Socialism can be attributed to the impact of the series. When the series was screened in West Germany, telephone lines to the television station were inundated with viewers eager to discuss their reactions. However, the film also provoked controversy. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accused the filmmakers of trivialising the past by turning the Holocaust into a "soap opera".

Claude Lanzmann's Shoah

1990s: New Ways of Seeing the Past

Schindler's List (1993), a multi award-winning American feature film directed by Steven Spielberg, has possibly had the greatest impact of all Holocaust films.

The film follows the German industrialist, Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of over a thousand Polish Jews by employing them in his factories. With its black-and-white footage and carefully reconstructed sets, the film conveyed a level of realism and brutality rarely seen on film.

After the success of Schindler's List, Spielberg set up the Shoah Foundation. Schindler's List - like Lanzmann's Shoah - played a central role in the history of the collection of Holocaust testimony.

Aimée and Jaguar (1999) tells the story of a Lesbian relationship between Lilly (a German) and Felice (a Jew), which ends tragically when Felice is taken to Theresienstadt concentration camp.

The Holocaust provides the background to feature films that are love stories, family histories, resistance tales - and, recently, comedies...

In Roberto Benigni's Italian comedy-drama Life is Beautiful (1997), a father protects his son from the horrors of imprisonment in a concentration camp by turning the experience into a game.

But should the Holocaust be the subject of comedy?

In 2006, John Boyne published The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which quickly established itself as one of the most-read novels about the Holocaust.

John Boyne in Dublin (copyright: Barry O'Donovan. CC BY-SA 3.0)

The son of a Nazi perpetrator, Bruno, befriends a young Jewish prisoner, Shmuel. By accident, Bruno is pushed into a gas chamber along with Shmuel.

Mark Herman directed the 2008 British film of Boyne's novel. The film was a box office success and is often shown in schools. But, like the novel, it has provoked considerable criticism. At the end, audiences are invited to feel sorry for the son of a Nazi camp commandant, and even for his parents.

Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film, an American-German production, is an example of "alternate history" (what might have happened, but did not). It is a revenge fantasy in which a Jewish cinema-owner and a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers plan to assassinate Nazi leaders.

Here, the divide between fact and fiction in a Holocaust movie is wider than ever.

Is it simply too wide?

Do directors have a particular responsibility to keep to historical truth when making films about the Holocaust?

Why do you think the Holocaust in film is a particularly controversial topic?

Do you think that the theme of the Holocaust should only be presented in the form of documentaries? If so, why?

Is it unethical to show the gas chambers in a feature film?

Lawrence Baron, Projecting the Holocaust into the Present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema (Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, MD, 2005)

Robert Eaglestone and Barry Langford, Teaching Holocaust Literature and Film (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2008)

Annette Insdorf, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2002)

Aaron Kerner, Film and the Holocaust: New Perspectives on Dramas, Documentaries, and Experimental Films (Continuum: New York, 2011)

Yosefa Loshitzky, Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on Schindler's List (Indiana University Press: Bloomington, 1997)

Robert Rosenstone, History on Film/Film on History (Longman/Pearson: Harlow, 2006)

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The Holocaust has become an ever more present subject on cinema screens. But the ways in which directors present the Holocaust - the type of stories they tell, the images they use, and genres they employ - have shifted considerably over the decades since the end of the war.

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WW2: The Emergence of Nazism and the Holocaust | The Jewish Story | Unpacked

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https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust

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The Holocaust (1933-1945) was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum defines the years of the Holocaust as 1933-1945. The Holocaust era began in January 1933 when 1 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. It ended in May 1945, when the Allied Powers defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. The Holocaust is also sometimes referred to as "the Shoah," the Hebrew word for "catastrophe."

When they came to power in Germany, the Nazis did not immediately start to carry out mass murder. However, they quickly began using the government to target and exclude Jews from German society. Among other antisemitic measures, the Nazi German regime enacted discriminatory laws and organized violence targeting Germany's Jews. The Nazi persecution of Jews became increasingly radical between 1933 and 1945. This radicalization culminated in a plan that Nazi leaders referred to as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." The "Final Solution" was the organized and systematic mass murder of European Jews. The Nazi German regime implemented this genocide between 1941 and 1945.

Why did the Nazis target Jews?

The Nazis targeted Jews because the Nazis were radically antisemitic. This means that they were prejudiced against and hated Jews. In fact, antisemitism was a basic tenet of their ideology and at the foundation of their worldview.

The Nazis falsely accused Jews of causing Germany's social, economic, political, and cultural problems. In particular, they blamed them for Germany's defeat in World War I (1914-1918). Some Germans were receptive to these Nazi claims. Anger over the loss of the war and the economic and political crises that followed contributed to increasing antisemitism in German society. The instability of Germany under the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), the fear of communism, and the economic shocks of the Great Depression also made many Germans more open to Nazi ideas, including antisemitism.

However, the Nazis did not invent antisemitism. Antisemitism is an old and widespread prejudice that has taken many forms throughout history. In Europe, it dates back to ancient times. In the the myth that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. Suspicion and discrimination rooted in religious prejudices continued in legal restrictions on Jews. This, however, did not mean the end of antisemitism. In addition to religious antisemitism, Middle Ages (500-1400), prejudices against Jews were primarily based in early Christian belief and thought, particularly early modern Europe (1400-1800). At that time, leaders in much of Christian Europe isolated Jews from most aspects of economic, social, and political life. This exclusion contributed to stereotypes of Jews as outsiders. As Europe became more secular, many places lifted most other types of antisemitism

The Nazi Party promoted a particularly virulent form of racial antisemitism. It was central to the party's race-based worldview. The Nazis believed that the world was divided into distinct races and that some of these races were superior to others. They considered Germans to be members of the supposedly superior "Aryan" race. They asserted that "Aryans" were locked in a struggle for existence with other, inferior races. Further, the Nazis believed that the so-called "Jewish race" was the most inferior and dangerous of all. According to the Nazis, Jews were a threat that needed to be removed from German society. Otherwise, the Nazis insisted, the "Jewish race" would permanently corrupt and destroy the German people. The Nazis' race-based definition of Jews included many persons who identified as Christians or did not practice Judaism.

Where did the Holocaust take place?

The Holocaust was a Nazi German initiative that took place throughout German- and Axis-controlled Europe. It affected nearly all of Europe's Jewish population, which in 1933 numbered 9 million people.

The Holocaust began in Germany after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933. Almost immediately, the Nazi German regime (which called itself the Third Reich) excluded Jews from German economic, political, social, and cultural life. Throughout the 1930s, the regime increasingly pressured Jews to emigrate.

But the Nazi persecution of Jews spread beyond Germany. Throughout the 1930s, Nazi Germany pursued an aggressive foreign policy. This culminated in World War II, which began in Europe in 1939. Prewar and wartime territorial expansion eventually brought millions more Jewish people under German control.

Nazi Germany's territorial expansion began in 1938-1939. During this time, Germany annexed neighboring Austria and the Sudetenland and occupied the Czech lands. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany began World War II (1939-1945) by attacking Poland. Over the next two years, Germany invaded and occupied much of Europe, including western parts of the Soviet Union. Nazi Germany further extended its control by forming alliances with the governments of Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. It also created puppet states in Slovakia and Croatia. Together these countries made up the European members of the Axis alliance, which also included Japan.

By 1942-as a result of annexations, invasions, occupations, and alliances-Nazi Germany controlled most of Europe and parts of North Africa. Nazi control brought harsh policies and ultimately mass murder to Jewish civilians across Europe.

The Nazis and their allies and collaborators murdered six million Jews.

Geography of the Holocaust

How did Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators persecute Jewish people?

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators implemented a wide range of anti-Jewish policies and measures. These policies varied from place to place. Thus, not all Jews experienced the Holocaust in the same way. But in all instances, millions of people were persecuted simply because they were identified as Jewish.

Throughout German-controlled and aligned territories, the persecution of Jews took a variety of forms:

Legal discrimination in the form of antisemitic laws. These included the Nuremberg Race Laws and numerous other discriminatory laws.

These included Various forms of public identification and exclusion. antisemitic propaganda, boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses, public humiliation, and obligatory markings (such as the Jewish star badge worn as an armband or on clothing).

The most notable example is There were also isolated incidents and other Organized violence. Kristallnacht.pogroms (violent riots).

Physical Displacement. Perpetrators used forced emigration, resettlement, expulsion, deportation, and ghettoization to physically displace Jewish individuals and communities.

in overcrowded Internment. Perpetrators interned Jews ghettos, concentration camps, and forced-labor camps, where many died from starvation, disease, and other inhumane conditions.

Widespread theft and plunder. The confiscation of Jews' property, personal belongings, and valuables was a key part of the Holocaust.

Jews had to perform Forced labor. forced labor in service of the Axis war effort or for the enrichment of Nazi organizations, the military, and/or private businesses.

Many Jews died as a result of these policies. But before 1941, the systematic mass murder of all Jews was not Nazi policy. Beginning in 1941, however, Nazi leaders decided to implement the mass murder of Europe's Jews. They referred to this plan as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."

What was the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"?

The Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" (" Endlösung der Judenfrage ") was the deliberate and systematic mass murder of European Jews. It was the last stage of the Holocaust and took place from 1941 to 1945. Though many Jews were killed before the "Final Solution" began, the vast majority of Jewish victims were murdered during this period.

Nazi Germany committed mass murder on an unprecedented scale. There were two main methods of killing. One method was As part of the "Final Solution," mass shooting. German units carried out mass shootings on the outskirts of villages, towns, and cities throughout eastern Europe. The other method was asphyxiation with poison gas. Gassing operations were conducted at killing centers and with mobile gas vans.

Mass Shootings

The Nazi German regime perpetrated mass shootings of civilians on a scale never seen before. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, German units began to carry out mass shootings of local Jews. At first, these units targeted Jewish men of military age. But by August 1941, they had started massacring entire Jewish communities. These massacres were often conducted in broad daylight and in full view and earshot of local residents.

Mass shooting operations took place in more than 1,500 cities, towns, and villages across eastern Europe. German units tasked with murdering the local Jewish population moved throughout the region committing horrific massacres. Typically, these units would enter a town and round up the Jewish civilians. They would then take the Jewish residents to the outskirts of the town. Next, they would force them to dig a mass grave or take them to mass graves prepared in advance. Finally, German forces and/or local auxiliary units would shoot all of the men, women, and children into these pits. Sometimes, these massacres involved the use of specially designed mobile gas vans. Perpetrators would use these vans to suffocate victims with carbon monoxide exhaust.

at these killing sites. At Maly Trostenets, thousands of victims were also murdered in gas vans.

The German units that perpetrated the mass shootings in eastern Europe included (special task forces of the SS and police), units. The provided logistical support and manpower. Some Wehrmacht units also carried out massacres. In many places, local auxiliary units working with the Einsatzgruppen Order Police battalions, and Waffen-SS German military ( Wehrmacht ) SS and police participated in the mass shootings. These auxiliary units were made up of local civilian, military, and police officials.

As many as 2 million Jews were murdered in mass shootings or gas vans in territories seized from Soviet forces.

Killing Centers

In late 1941, the Nazi regime began building specially designed, stationary killing centers in German-occupied Poland. In English, killing centers are sometimes called "extermination camps" or "death camps." Nazi Germany operated five killing centers: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. They built these killing centers for the sole purpose of efficiently murdering Jews on a mass scale. The primary means of murder at the killing centers was poisonous gas released into sealed gas chambers or vans.

German authorities, with the help of their allies and collaborators, transported Jews from across Europe to these killing centers. They disguised their intentions by calling the transports to the killing centers "resettlement actions" or "evacuation transports." In English, they are often referred to as "deportations." Most of these deportations took place by train. In order to efficiently transport Jews to the killing centers, German authorities used the extensive European railroad system, as well as other means of transportation. In many cases the railcars on the trains were freight cars; in other instances they were passenger cars.

The conditions on deportation transports were horrific. German and collaborating local authorities forced Jews of all ages into overcrowded railcars. They often had to stand, sometimes for days, until the train reached its destination. The perpetrators deprived them of food, water, bathrooms, heat, and medical care. Jews frequently died en route from the inhumane conditions.

The vast majority of Jews deported to killing centers were gassed almost immediately after their arrival. Some Jews whom German officials believed to be healthy and strong enough were selected for forced labor.

My mother ran over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, and she told me "Leibele, I'm not going to see you no more. Take care of your brother."
- Leo Schneiderman describing arrival at Auschwitz, selection, and separation from his family

At all five killing centers, German officials forced some Jewish prisoners to assist in the killing process. Among other tasks, these prisoners had to sort through victims' belongings and remove victims' bodies from the gas chambers. Special units disposed of the millions of corpses through mass burial, in burning pits, or by burning them in large, specially designed crematoria.

Nearly 2.7 million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered at the five killing centers.

What were ghettos and why did German authorities create them during the Holocaust?

Ghettos were areas of cities or towns where German occupiers forced Jews to live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. German authorities often enclosed these areas by building walls or other barriers. Guards prevented Jews from leaving without permission. Some ghettos existed for years, but others existed only for months, weeks, or even days as holding sites prior to deportation or murder.

German officials first created ghettos in 1939-1940 in German-occupied Poland. The two largest were located in the occupied Polish cities of Warsaw and Lodz (Łódź). Beginning in June 1941, German officials also established them in newly conquered territories in eastern Europe following the German attack on the Soviet Union. German authorities and their allies and collaborators also established ghettos in other parts of Europe. Notably, in 1944, German and Hungarian authorities created temporary ghettos to centralize and control Jews prior to their deportation from Hungary.

The Purpose of the Ghettos

German authorities originally established the ghettos to isolate and control the large local Jewish populations in occupied eastern Europe. Initially, they concentrated Jewish residents from within a city and the surrounding area or region. However, beginning in 1941, German officials also deported Jews from other parts of Europe (including Germany) to some of these ghettos.

Jewish forced labor became a central feature of life in many ghettos. In theory, it was supposed to help pay for the administration of the ghetto as well as support the German war effort. Sometimes, factories and workshops were established nearby in order to exploit the imprisoned Jews for forced labor. The labor was often manual and grueling.

Life in the Ghettos

Life in the ghettos was miserable and dangerous. There was little food and limited sanitation or medical care. Hundreds of thousands of people died by starvation; rampant disease; exposure to extreme temperatures; as well as exhaustion from forced labor. Germans also murdered the imprisoned Jews through brutal beatings, torture, arbitrary shootings, and other forms of arbitrary violence.

Jews in the ghettos sought to maintain a sense of dignity and community. Schools, libraries, communal welfare services, and religious institutions provided some measure of connection among residents. Attempts to document life in the ghettos, such as the Many ghettos also had underground movements that carried out armed resistance. The most famous of these is the Oneg Shabbat archive and clandestine photography, are powerful examples of Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. spiritual resistance.

Liquidating the Ghettos

Beginning in 1941-1942, Germans and their allies and collaborators murdered ghetto residents en masse and dissolved ghetto administrative structures. They called this process "liquidation." It was part of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." The majority of Jews in the ghettos were murdered either in mass shootings at nearby killing sites or after deportation to killing centers. Most of the killing centers were deliberately located near the large ghettos of German-occupied Poland or on easily-accessible railway routes.

Who was responsible for carrying out the Holocaust and the Final Solution?

Many people were responsible for carrying out the Holocaust and the Final Solution.

At the highest level, inspired, ordered, approved, and supported the genocide of Europe's Jews. However, Hitler did not act alone. Nor did he lay out an exact plan for the implementation of the Final Solution. Other Nazi leaders were the ones who directly coordinated, planned, and implemented the mass murder. Among them were Adolf Hitler Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Adolf Eichmann.

However, millions of Germans and other Europeans participated in the Holocaust. Without their involvement, the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe would not have been possible. Nazi leaders relied upon German institutions and organizations; other Axis powers; local bureaucracies and institutions; and individuals.

German Institutions, Organizations, and Individuals

(the SD), the the Nazi leaders relied on many German institutions and organizations to help them carry out the Holocaust. Members of Nazi organizations initiated and carried out many anti-Jewish actions before and during World War II. These organizations Schutzstaffel , Protection Squadron). Once the war began, the SS and its police affiliates became especially deadly. Members of the Sicherheitsdienst Gestapo ,Criminal Police (Kripo), and the Order Police played particularly active and deadly roles in the mass murder of Europe's Jews. Other German institutions involved in carrying out the Final Solution included the German military; the German national railway and healthcare systems; the German civil service and criminal justice systems; and German businesses, insurance companies, and banks.

chose to implement the regime's policies. Ordinary Germans also participated in the Holocaust in a variety of ways. Some Germans cheered as Jews were beaten or humiliated. Others denounced Jews for disobeying racist laws and regulations. Many Germans bought, took, or looted their Jewish neighbors' belongings and property. These Germans' participation in the Holocaust was motivated by enthusiasm, careerism, fear, greed, self-interest, antisemitism, and political ideals, among other factors.

Non-German Governments and Institutions

Nazi Germany did not perpetrate the Holocaust alone. It relied on the help of its allies and collaborators. In this context, "allies" refers to Axis countries officially allied with Nazi Germany. "Collaborators" refers to regimes and organizations that cooperated with German authorities in an official or semi-official capacity. Nazi Germany's allies and collaborators included:

The European Axis Powers and other collaborationist regimes (such as Vichy France). These governments passed their own antisemitic legislation and cooperated with German goals.

These organizations helped round up, intern, and deport Jews even in countries not allied with Germany, such as German-backed local bureaucracies, especially local police forces. the Netherlands.

Local auxiliary units made up of military and police officials and civilians. These German-backed units participated in massacres of Jews in eastern Europe (often voluntarily).

The terms "allies" and "collaborators" can also refer to individuals affiliated with these governments and organizations.

Individuals across Europe

Throughout Europe, individuals who had no governmental or institutional affiliation and did not directly participate in murdering Jews also contributed to the Holocaust.

One of the deadliest things that neighbors, acquaintances, colleagues, and even friends could do was denounce Jews to Nazi German authorities. An unknown number chose to do so. They revealed Jews' hiding places, unmasked false Christian identities, and otherwise identified Jews to Nazi officials. In doing so, they brought about their deaths. These individuals' motivations were wide-ranging: fear, self-interest, greed, revenge, antisemitism, and political and ideological beliefs.

Individuals also profited from the Holocaust. Non-Jews sometimes moved into Jews' homes, took over Jewish-owned businesses, and stole Jews' possessions and valuables. This was part of the widespread theft and plunder that accompanied the genocide.

Most often individuals contributed to the Holocaust through inaction and indifference to the plight of their Jewish neighbors. Sometimes these individuals are called bystanders.

Who were the other victims of Nazi persecution and mass murder?

The Holocaust specifically refers to the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews. However, there were also millions of other victims of Nazi persecution and murder. In the 1930s, the regime targeted a variety of alleged domestic enemies within German society. As the Nazis extended their reach during World War II, millions of other Europeans were also subjected to Nazi brutality.

The Nazi regime also targeted Germans whose activities were deemed harmful to German society. These included men accused of homosexuality, persons accused of being professional or habitual criminals, and so-called asocials (such as people identified as vagabonds, beggars, prostitutes, pimps, and alcoholics). Tens of thousands of these victims were incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps. The regime also forcibly sterilized and persecuted Afro-Germans.

People with disabilities were also victimized by the Nazi regime. Before World War II, Germans considered to have supposedly unhealthy hereditary conditions were forcibly sterilized. Once the war began, Nazi policy radicalized. People with disabilities, especially those living in institutions, were considered both a genetic and a financial burden on Germany. These people were targeted for murder in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

The Nazi regime employed extreme measures against groups considered to be racial, civilizational, or ideological enemies. This included Roma (Gypsies),

How did the Holocaust end?

so-called The Holocaust ended in May 1945 when the major Allied Powers (Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union) defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives, they overran concentration camps. There they liberated the surviving prisoners, many of whom were Jews. The Allies also encountered and liberated the survivors of death marches. These forced marches consisted of groups of Jewish and non-Jewish concentration camp inmates who had been evacuated on foot from camps under SS guard.

But liberation did not bring closure. Many Holocaust survivors faced ongoing threats of violent antisemitism and displacement as they sought to build new lives. Many had lost family members, while others searched for years to locate missing parents, children, and siblings.

How did some Jews survive the Holocaust?

Despite Nazi Germany's efforts to murder all the Jews of Europe, some Jews survived the Holocaust. Survival took a variety of forms. But, in every case, survival was only possible because of an extraordinary confluence of circumstances, choices, help from others (both Jewish and non-Jewish), and sheer luck.

Survival outside of German-Controlled Europe

Some Jews survived the Holocaust by escaping German-controlled Europe. Before World War II began, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated from Nazi Germany despite significant immigration barriers. Those who immigrated to the United States, Great Britain, and other areas that remained beyond German control were safe from Nazi violence. Even after World War II began, some Jews managed to escape German-controlled Europe. For example, approximately 200,000 Polish Jews fled the German occupation of Poland. These Jews survived the war under harsh conditions after Soviet authorities deported them further east into the interior of the Soviet Union.

Survival in German-Controlled Europe

A smaller number of Jews survived inside German-controlled Europe. They often did so with the help of rescuers. Rescue efforts ranged from the isolated actions of individuals to organized networks, both small and large. Throughout Europe, there were non-Jews who took grave risks to help their Jewish neighbors, friends, and strangers survive. For example, they found hiding places for Jews, procured false papers that offered protective Christian identities, or provided them with food and supplies. Other Jews survived as members of partisan resistance movements. Finally, some Jews managed, against enormous odds, to survive imprisonment in concentration camps, ghettos, and even killing centers.

Aftermath

While the Holocaust ended with the war, the legacy of terror and genocide did not. By the end of World War II, six million Jews and millions of others were dead. Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators had devastated or completely destroyed thousands of Jewish communities across Europe.

In the those Jews who survived were often confronted with the traumatic reality of having lost their entire families and communities. Some were able to go home and chose to rebuild their lives in Europe. Many others were afraid to do so because of aftermath of the Holocaust, postwar violence and antisemitism. In the immediate postwar period, those who could not or would not return home often found themselves living in displaced persons camps. There, many had to wait years before they were able to immigrate to new homes.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the world has struggled to come to terms with the horrors of the genocide, to remember the victims, and to hold perpetrators responsible. These important efforts remain ongoing.

Last Edited: Nov 5, 2021

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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Introduction to the Holocaust: What was the Holocaust?

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Learn about the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

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Who are the Amish People ? Are they a religious cult?

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‘Our faith will be lost if we adopt technology’: can the Amish resist the modern world?

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‘Our faith will be lost if we adopt technology’: can the Amish resist the modern world?

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aniel Weaver does not vote, drive a car, read a paper, listen to music, watch sport of any kind, own a mobile phone or use a computer. But as we eat the food grown in his garden outside the window, he confesses that he did once see a film. He refuses to disclose what, brushing aside my questions as we sit talking around the dining table with his wife, five of his eight children and one grandson. "I am not proud of that," he says. "I went against my parents' wishes."

But this one-off incident, many years ago, speaks to the reasons why this 52-year-old sold his thriving Ohio clothing business, one that supplied hundreds of stores across North America, and moved his family to this idyllic farm in upstate New York three years ago. Daniel is Amish - a member of a community famed worldwide for their plain clothes and use of horse-drawn buggies - and he fears the impact of modernity and the temptations of technology on his children, his church and his traditional Christian world. "Our values are different and we chose to safeguard them," he says. "But if our people get lax and rub elbows too much with the world, then the world may not look too different - we become like the people outside."

Instead, he has returned to the Amish tradition of farming, enjoying a homespun lifestyle that eschews things the rest of us take for granted - from televisions to trouser belts, in case they distract from a devotion to God. This German-speaking sect, which demands simple lives of self-reliance based on the Bible, may be at odds with the rest of today's society - yet surprisingly, it is booming, rather than being swamped by a fast-evolving world of smartphones and social media.

In 1989, there were some 100,000 Amish scattered in 179 settlements across North America. Recent analysis by academics at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania found numbers have surged to 330,265 Amish in 546 settlements. It is the fastest-growing faith group on the continent, with predictions that there might be more than 1 million adherents by 2050. This marks an extraordinary turnaround: there were only 5,000 Amish in America a century ago.

I've heard a lot about Facebook, but it seems a waste of time

Perhaps most remarkably, the reason for this population explosion is not just the traditional big Amish families. Children are actively choosing to stay in communities, resisting the lure of clubs, sport, music and technology. "I've heard a lot about Facebook, but it seems a waste of time," says Michael, 15, one of Daniel's four sons, over fresh tomato soup. "I can be doing things a lot more beneficial than going to bars or spending time looking at a phone." Children can choose to be baptised into the church in their late teens - and researchers say retention rates appear to have risen in recent decades.

It is not just computers and cars that families turn their backs on. Many Amish reject mains electricity and some refuse indoor plumbing, while wives must follow the decisions of their husbands; divorce is an impermissible sin. Children carry out chores from infancy. Yet behind those distinctive long beards for men and white bonnets for women, there are some smart business brains, with soaring numbers of multimillionaires. I speak to one man running a firm with 500 employees that he started aged 50 in his barn, while others have become wealthy from land ownership as their population expands, driving up land values.

Most Amish people live in small communities of about 20 households, clustered around churches that set their own rules; they can now be found in 30 states, as well as Canada, Argentina and Bolivia. "When you have families of 13 people and most stay with the faith, then you end up with lots of people," says Karen Johnson-Weiner, an anthropology professor and author of books on the Amish (though she is not Amish herself). "For the most part, I have seen shared labour and a sense of working together that we do not have any more. What I have always most admired is the strength of their families."

A range of factors, from ending the draft in 1973, which forced young Amish men (as conscientious objectors) to carry out community work, through to a more recent trend towards educating Amish children in their own schools, has meant less interaction with the outside world. This has reinforced a sense of separatism and fuelled higher retention rates than in the years before the second world war, when differences with wider society were less stark.

New York's Amish community is among the fastest-growing, with 58 settlements, mainly in the north of the state. Settlers are lured by land cheaper than in the Amish heartlands of Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania - the photogenic backdrop for the film Witness, starring Harrison Ford as a police officer hiding in the community. In the small market town of Morris, where the Weavers now live, there are seven Amish households in an area that has seen scores of small farms go out of business.

But their neighbours seem to welcome them, not least because they have revived derelict farms. "They are well liked here," says Leslie Stroh, a publisher who worked on Daniel's fields as a boy. "They don't integrate, and why should they? But they are still very open to us." There have been tensions in other places, however, over issues such as horse droppings on roads, and refusing to install hazard lights on buggies.

Stopping in the centre of this quiet town, I meet an elderly Amish man visiting the post office on his bicycle, who turns out to be Daniel's father, Roy. A widower who moved here a year ago, following his son, he politely answers my questions and talks me through some of the Amish community's basic beliefs - about following "the old ways" as set out in the Bible. Later I learn the family was driven to move by cheaper land, tensions over technology in their previous church, and Daniel's desire to spend more time with his family. He is building a store to sell local produce, while Sam, his eldest son, runs a dairy farm.

That evening, Daniel asks me to join his household for dinner, an unusual invitation. But the meal is punctuated by laughter, as the Weavers describe a way of life that revolves around faith, family and work. "I feel you can be trusted, so you are sitting at my table," Daniel says. "But on a friendship level, our values are very different. We would not want to mix with you, because if our children came to your home, they might sit and watch television."

The Bible says a husband must love his wife and if a wife follows his lead then you will have a happy family

We discuss their attitudes to issues such as girls' and women's rights, the conversation carrying on into the following day. "The Bible says a husband must love his wife and if a wife follows his lead then you will have a happy family," says Sam, 28, a father of four. "If God's ways are followed, then a contented family will result under our culture." When I press him on the fairness of this, he argues they are all - men and women alike - following divine command. While the family insist all key decisions are shared, it is noticeable that the women are reticent in these male-dominated discussions. They are also more likely to carry out the traditional tasks of cleaning and cooking. Ira, Daniel's wife, describes her day to me: "quiet time praying", then "the girls help with breakfast and we are done by seven so the men can go out." Her husband tells me Ira is not a "women's libber".

The couple's lively one-year-old grandson, Nathan, joins us at the table, along with his father, Josh. His wife - Daniel and Ira's oldest daughter - died of Hodgkin lymphoma when she was just 23, soon after the boy's birth. They tell me this was deeply painful and that they miss her profoundly, but believe there is a higher purpose to such loss. "To us, death is not God's punishment. God is in control of life and death," Daniel says.

he Amish are followers of Jacob Amman, a hardline Swiss bishop who broke with the Mennonite faith in 1693. The Amish began emigrating to America in the 18th century, mostly settling in Pennsylvania. In the 1930s, they came to wider attention and were romanticised for resisting moves to shut down the small schools their children attended. Later generations have found other aspects of their lifestyle to admire: in the 60s, counterculture rebels looked to them as off-grid pioneers; in the 80s, they were celebrated for their traditional craft skills; more recently, it's been their long tradition of organic farming, with branded grocers opening in New York City.

Outsiders are allowed to join the community - though only an estimated one in three stick with the creed; they are encouraged to spend time living the Amish lifestyle for several months before baptism into the church.

Converts include Marlene Miller, a former high school majorette who joined half a century ago, after marrying an Amish man. In a memoir, she wrote that the hardest things were learning to speak German and to sew; just three of her 10 children are still in the faith.

Although clearly devout, with hymn sheets stuck to his own kitchen table for the family to sing together, Sam admits to me the day after our dinner that, as a teenager, he questioned his belief - if it "was a learned thing rather than the truth". He has friends who have left to join "the English" - the Amish term for outsiders. He also confesses that, as a bird-watcher, he would love to have a camera. "But our values are down to our connection to a faith that will be discarded if we adopt technology."

Sam, who has travelled abroad, says he is old enough to remember a pre-digital era, before computers and smartphones. "I can see the big changes they have brought to society, which my children will never see. There is more independence on the individual level, but people have become more selfish - everything is for themselves. We value the idea of working for the betterment of everyone. Christ said we are to be a light to the world. We are not saying we want everyone to be Amish, or that we are better, but our goal in a selfish society is to show people that it works if we are honest in our dealings, respect people and go the extra mile."

Watching him lead one of his young sons around the lush fields and milking his cows, assisted by a younger brother and automated machinery, it's clear this thoughtful man loves the rural way of life, with his 800 cows and renovated old buildings. He is scathing, however, about industrialised farming, with tens of thousands of cattle in one place. "In America, we are so driven by capitalism that everything has to get bigger and bigger all the time," he says.

They may use a horse and buggy for trips into town, clip-clopping along the roads alongside thundering trucks, but the Amish will take taxis and trains when needed. I am surprised to learn that both Sam and Daniel have flown abroad, to places such as Guatemala and Haiti for charity work. Daniel explains that the Amish reject many modern items for fear of assimilation. So they do not own cars, for instance, because the machines detach people from their extended families too easily and can create envy, not because they are deemed "sinful" in themselves.

Daniel does not buy a newspaper, because he does not want his children becoming interested in sport - "sport seems to be the God of America, so competitive and with so much money" - yet they play volleyball and he will happily read a paper if he finds one on a train. So they know about their disruptive president, despite opting out of the electoral process. Yet when I mention Donald Trump's bellicose language on North Korea, one young adult asks me if his country has gone to war.

Given the world's political turbulence, such ignorance might sound almost blissful. But some who leave the Amish community have spoken about a dark side to the peaceable Amish facade; people who leave the church can be shunned by their families for the rest of their lives. I am told of one person, for instance, who was recently barred from attending her own mother's funeral, having walked out of the sect.

Former church member Ira Wagler wrote a bestseller called Growing Up Amish, the story of how he stole away in the middle of the night, aged 17 - finally quitting the church nine years later, on his fifth attempt. "People put the Amish on a pedestal but they are just people," he tells me. "There are some very good things about their culture that I respect, now I have joined the real world. I was taken to the top of our house, given a goose wing and made to sweep steps as my job when I was only three. The message is you do not deserve anything unless it's earned. But if someone's barn burns down, you help rebuild it."

Wagler tells me that Amish children have little sense of the outside world. "My childhood had great security, with black-and-white boundaries in a very warm community. It was on a farm, so we worked and played - out in the fields or fishing in the creeks. I have very warm memories." But he points out the flipside of such isolation, and the intense pressure to stay loyal to the church. "It is mind control. You knew that if you stepped outside the culture you'd go to hell. It was only in my mid-20s that I realised: you don't have to be Amish."

Like others, he talks about the impact of technology, which many Amish recognise has confronted them with existential dilemmas. Some already use mobile phones; children are secretly using social media; and those with businesses often need email and a website. Meanwhile, firms and retailers are using notes and coins less; a cashless society could ultimately force even the most conservative groups to adopt technology.

"The smartphone is a threat to the Amish not only for the darker aspects of the internet, such as access to pornography, but also for the way it can change the way we behave," says Erik Wesner, founder of the authoritative Amish America website. "We have all got quickly used to finding instant solutions online. These can erode traditional values that the Amish revere, such as patience and dependence upon their community. And unlike a car or pickup truck, a smartphone is easily hidden."

Yet Wesner believes the Amish will adapt, with more conservative groups resisting the digital age for as long as possible, just as some still resist electricity and modern plumbing while the majority retain defining markers such as austere clothing and a ban on car ownership. "They do gradually change, although at slower pace."

One comparatively recent adaptation has been the shift from farming to business. One study found more than 10,000 Amish-owned firms across the US - with lower failure rates than average, despite the fact that most Amish leave school at 14, making them unlikely entrepreneurs.

One of the biggest is a kitchen cabinet business started by Ola Yoder in his barn two decades ago. It now churns out 6,000 units a day from an industrial park in Indiana, employing 500 staff. Unusually, Yoder, now 72, spent seven years outside the Amish in his early 20s. "I saw how other people lived and decided it was not for me or my kids," he says, although he still has many "English" friends. He also spent time working for a major company. "They had rules about drugs and swearing, but no one enforced them," he says. "In corporate America, it is all about climbing up the ladder."

Yoder bans mobile phones at work, asking why you would want to employ someone who is always texting, and says he sticks to Amish values in business. "Success is about finding peace within yourself and your family. For the Amish, money is just a tool to enable you to live your faith. What good would it do, to have smart cars and fly all over the world?"

Before I leave Morris, with its rolling farmland and warning signs urging drivers to beware of horse-drawn buggies, Daniel tells me he knows outsiders think their approach to life looks outdated and tough. "But all those seeking freedom seem to have more traps than ever - all their cars, computers and televisions seem to make their lives more morose," he says. "I think our lifestyle is actually easier."

That may be true. But only time will tell, as their numbers continue to rise, whether they can hold out against what Sam Weaver calls "the glitz and glamour" of the modern world.

If you would like a comment on this piece to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazine's letters page in print, please email weekend@theguardian.com, including your name and address (not for publication).

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'Our faith will be lost if we adopt technology': can the Amish resist the modern world?

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Theirs is a traditional life of faith, family and work, without cars or smartphones - and their community is growing

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7 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about the Amish

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7 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about the Amish

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Q: What is Rumspringa?
A: Rumspringa means "running around" in the Pennsylvania German dialect. It is the time, beginning at about age 16, when youth socialize with their friends on weekends. Rumspringa ends with marriage. (For those who don't marry, Rumspringa ends in their mid to late twenties.) This period is an important time when Amish youth need to decide if they will be baptized and join the church or leave the Amish community.

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Cultural Resources for Community Nursing

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Q: What is Rumspringa? A: Rumspringa means "running around" in the Pennsylvania German dialect. It is the time, beginning at about age 16, when youth socialize with their friends on weekends. Rumspringa ends with marriage. (For those who don't marry, Rumspringa ends in their mid to late twenties.)

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The Amish

Introduction

The Amish (pronounced 'Aahmish') are an American Protestant group with around 200,000 members descended from European Anabaptists who came to the USA more than two centuries ago to escape persecution.

They are best known for their 19th century way of life that was portrayed in the 1985 Harrison Ford film Witness, in which violent crime clashed with their peaceful existence.

Their old-fashioned traditions are not what is now called a 'lifestyle choice'. Amish believe that their religious faith and the way they live are inseparable and interdependent.

The Amish originated in Europe after splitting from Mennonite Swiss Brethren in 1692 over the treatment of members who had been found guilty of breaches of doctrine.

The first Amish arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1730s to escape persecution in Europe.

Basic features of Amish life

Amish believe that the community is at the heart of their life and faith, and that the way to salvation is to live as a loving community apart from the world. Individualism is avoided.

Self-help

Members of the community help each other, and the whole community will work together to help a member in trouble. They do not accept state benefits or use insurance, but rely on community support instead.

Separate

The Amish believe that it's essential to keep themselves separate from the 'world', so they live in their own small communities and differ from other Americans in their dress, language, work, travel and education.

Not exclusive

The Amish are not exclusive, and have many contacts with outsiders, who they call 'English'.

Amish groups

Each Amish district is fully independent and lives by its own set of unwritten rules, or Ordnung. The Old Order is the strictest of these groups. There is no central authority.

Simplicity and humility

The Amish stress simplicity and humility. They avoid anything associated with self-exaltation, pride of position or enjoyment of power.

Harmony with nature

Amish believe that God is pleased when people work in harmony with nature, the soil, the weather, and care for animals and plants. Amish always live in rural communities.

Technology

Some modern 'conveniences', such as cars, electricity and telephones are avoided. They only avoid technology where it might damage the community, not because they are Luddites or think technology is inherently evil.

Non-confrontation

Amish are pacifists and conscientious objectors. They avoid all violence - including angry words or going to law.

Discipline

The Amish community governs itself strictly. Baptised members are morally committed to church rules. Erring members may be shunned until there is repentance, forgiveness and restoration to full fellowship.

Language

Amish use three languages, a German dialect called Pennsylvania Dutch at home, High German for worship and English with outsiders.

Family

Amish only marry other Amish and don't divorce. They have large families averaging 7-8 children.

Education

Amish children are educated in their own schools. Schooling stops at 14 after which they learn practical skills on the job.

Holy days

Amish celebrate the same holy days as other Christians.

Growing up

After 16 Amish children can experience life outside the community for a few years to decide whether they wish to become full baptised members of the community. 90% decide to do so.
Partially based on The Amish In Northern Indiana, by Samuel L. Yoder
Amish customs

Separation

The Amish keep themselves separate, but not exclusive, following the Biblical text "be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2).

Amish live like this not because they dislike or fear other human beings but because they believe that salvation comes from the redeeming power of living a loving life in a pure community of believers who live in separation from the world.

The Amish keep themselves apart from the communities around them in several ways:

they wear distinctive clothes; straw hats, dark shirts and trousers with braces for men and plain and modest dresses with bonnets or caps for women.

they are pacifists and don't serve in the military -- guns are used only for hunting

they don't swear oaths or hold elective office, and usually don't vote

they don't go to law because that is seen as too confrontational

they don't own modern technology

they don't accept any state benefits or use insurance

they have their own education system

they speak a German dialect among themselves

they marry among their community

Although the Amish separate themselves from the mainstream communities around them, they aren't exclusive and do business with their neighbours. The ideal Amish occupation is to be a farmer, but Amish men also do factory work.

Pragmatism

The Amish interpret their beliefs pragmatically. They adapt to the world in order to be able to continue to continue their redeeming life in a pure community separate from the world.

The doctrine of separation is regarded as an ideal, but is interpreted in a practical rather than a rigid way. This permits the Amish to build productive working relationships with the outside world, and to establish a network of contacts that they can use for the benefit of their community.

Stephen A Marglin gives an example of how the Amish rejection of one modern practice, insurance, is entirely in line with the preservation of the community:

In the last 50 years the Amish have become more pragmatic in their approach to technology, while perhaps becoming more separate as a community:

Limits on technology

Amish own horse-drawn buggies, not cars (but they can take a ride in someone else's car).

Farm machinery is generally horse-drawn, although some communities permit tractors with steel wheels as such tractors can't be used on the road.

They don't allow telephones or electricity in their houses, because both of these technologies would literally connect them to the world through their wires. Electricity and petrol/diesel power are used in barns for work purposes. Shared telephones are available outside houses in business premises or telephone booths.

Televisions, radios and stereos are not used, which helps keep the Amish unpolluted by the values advanced by the mass media. One Old Order Amish told the scholar Donald B Kraybill that "television is the sewer line that connects you directly to the cesspool of Hollywood". As with other technologies there is a compromise - listening to someone else's radio or watching the TV in a hotel might well be accepted.

For similar reasons, computers with internet access are banned, although Amish can use a computer at an outside workplace.

They don't use cameras because photos break the biblical ban on making 'graven images' (Exodus 20:4)

Why technology is limited

The Amish avoid modern technology not because they want to live ascetic and uncomfortable lives but to preserve the uniqueness of their way of life.

New conveniences are assessed to see how they would affect the social patterns and cohesiveness of the Amish community, and anything that might damage their way of life is rejected. Less dangerous technology may be adapted to fit.

Hostetler and Kidder point out that conveniences are accepted when it is necessary to do so - electricity is barred in the home, but accepted in farm buildings because if the Amish did not comply with regulations to refrigerate milk at the farm, they would not be able to continue as dairy farmers and the community would suffer economic damage.

Language

Most Amish speak three languages: a German dialect called Pennsylvania Dutch at home, High German at their worship services, and English when talking to non-Amish (whom they call 'English').

Gender roles

Amish adopt traditional gender roles in which wives are subordinate to their husbands.

Men are in charge of the spiritual life of the family and are responsible for providing sustenance. Women do domestic tasks, look after the children and take on light farm work such as feeding chickens and milking cows.

Dress

Amish dress is a highly distinctive outward symbol of membership in the group, but through its plainness and simplicity rather than through any eccentricities.

The idea is that a person's clothes should reflect humility and avoid individual distinctiveness. Breaches of the Amish dress code may lead to a reproof from a community leader.

Old Order Amish women wear modest dresses with long sleeves and a full skirt, a cape and an apron. They usually wear their hair in a bun on the back of the head, often covered with a bonnet or a white organza prayer cap. Amish women don't use makeup.

Men and boys wear dark trousers, braces, straight-cut coats and broad-brimmed straw hats. Their clothes don't have stripes or checks. Amish men grow beards only after they marry and don't grow moustaches because 19th century generals wore beards and moustaches and anything military is shunned.

Dark blue, green, purple, brown and black are the most common clothing colours.

Although the dress code is partly intended to prevent visual statements of individuality, there is scope for individual taste, as this anecdote demonstrates:

Conflict

The Amish are pacifists who refuse military service and who try to live peacefully with each other and with outsiders.

They have a policy of 'non-resistance', which means that when governments instruct them to do things that are against their faith, they refuse to do them, but accept the consequences of their refusal without argument.

They don't go to law, regarding this as confrontational, although they have used lawyers to defend themselves if they are involved in a lawsuit started by someone else. In the famous case of Wisconsin v Yoder the Amish got round the issue of not going to law by letting a committee of non-Amish defend the case pro bono.

Internal disagreements are usually resolved by the community as a whole.

Although the Amish present a unified face to outsiders, communities are sometimes troubled by disputes which may lead a family to join another community or found a new one.

Education

The Amish have their own private education system of around 1,200 schools which stresses the 'four Rs' of reading, writing, arithmetic and religion.

A typical school has between 25 and 35 pupils, with only one room and one teacher to cover all ages. Teaching is in English. Teachers are usually younger women without specialist training. Children will often do farm work before and after school.

Amish children are educated in schools until they're 14 (eighth grade). This exemption from US law which generally requires schooling until age 16 is the result of a Supreme Court Case (Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), see related links), in which the Amish successfully argued that education beyond aged 14 exposed their children to modern values that clashed with their beliefs and might put their salvation at risk.

Amish education has some unique strengths, described by Donald Kraybill, a senior fellow in the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County.

After they leave school Amish boys learn work skills such as farming and carpentry on the job, while Amish girls concentrate on practical domestic matters.

State benefits

The Amish will not accept any form of state benefit because they believe that the community should care for its members.

They don't use public or private health insurance, and join together to pay for outside medical treatment.

Rumspringa

At the age of 16 Amish children are given a great deal of freedom which they can use to experience the outside world. Some may even choose to 'live English', as it's known. This practice is called rumspringa, which means 'running around'.

After this period, most children prefer to return to the full Amish lifestyle with both its restrictions and rewards, and are baptised into full membership.

Moving community

Some Amish decide to move to another Amish community rather than remain in the one where they were brought up. The main reasons for doing this are to acquire less expensive farm land or to live in a community that is either more or less strict.

Marriage

Amish only marry other Amish, although not necessarily from their own community. They may not marry a first cousin, and are discouraged from marrying a second cousin.

Amish beliefs

Beliefs

The Amish are closest to the Anabaptists: Protestant Christians who believe in adult baptism, pacifism, the separation of church and state and the importance of the community to faith. The denomination is closely related to the Mennonites.

They base their daily life and religious practice on a literal interpretation of the Biblical instruction "be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2). Their separateness may also have been a reaction to the persecution they has suffered in Europe.

Belief as a way of life

Although the Amish are sometimes painted as people who live an old-fashioned life because they are welded to their traditions or because they fear the modern world, those are both misunderstandings.

The Amish way of life grows out of the belief that salvation comes from the redeeming strength of living a loving life in a pure community of believers who live in separation from the world.

Amish are less concerned with achieving individual salvation through a personal belief in Jesus Christ. It's said that they regard any claim by an individual to be 'saved' as an expression of pride, and something to be avoided.

Gelassenheit

One important principle is Gelassenheit. This is the idea that a believer should surrender to God by living in a way that pleases God and by obeying legitimate religious authority.

Amish see self-denial and obedience to church authority as important virtues.

Farming

Amish believe that they should farm as stewards of God's creation, and that this is a spiritual activity.

Discipline

Because of the emphasis on community, members are expected to believe the same things and follow the same code of behaviour (called the Ordnung). The purpose of the ordnung is to help the community lead a godly life.

This unanimity of belief and behaviour is maintained by strong discipline; if a person breaks the rules they may be 'shunned', which means that no-one (including their family) will eat with them or talk to them.

Shunning ( meidung) is not done to hurt the rule-breaker but to give them an experience that may redeem them and bring them back into the community.

If a person persists in rule-breaking they may be excommunicated. If a person repents they are accepted back into the community.

Shunning is based on two Bible verses, I Corinthians 5:11 and Romans 16:17.

However, if someone brought up in the Amish community decides that they do not wish to join the community and obey its rules they are not punished in any way. They often remain in the area and join similar but less strict denominations, and maintain contact with their former community.

Conversion

Amish do not seek to attract new believers. Although it is possible for an outsider to join an Amish community, it would be difficult.

Ethics

The Amish have a traditional code of ethics that rejects sex outside of marriage, divorce, homosexuality and public nakedness as sins forbidden by the Bible. Modesty and purity are vital virtues.

The Amish are pacifists, basing this on Jesus' instruction that one should love one's enemy. They reject all forms of violence.

The Amish admire large families and tend not to use birth control other than to control the spacing of children.

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About the American Protestant group known as the Amish, their history and descent from European Anabaptists and their 19th century way of life.

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The recent abduction and return of two New York Amish girls has once more brought focus on America's "Plain People," whose shunning of technology and seemingly simple lives have long fascinated outsiders. For instance, in the New York case, police had to use a sketch artist to produce an image of one of the girls because of the sect's prohibition on photos. Here are 10 things to know about the fascinating lives of these Americans, also known as the Pennsylvania Dutch.

History
The Amish have been in America for a long time. The first ones arrived in the early 18 th century to escape religious persecution in Europe and to find land to farm. The sect arose from a late-17 th century schism in the Anabaptist church by followers of Jakob Amman, a Swiss minister who believed that adherents should "conform to the teachings of Christ and His apostles" and "forsake the world" in their daily lives. The word "Amish" derives from his name.

Language
The Pennsylvania Dutch are not Dutch at all. The word Dutch is a corruption of "Deutsch" or German, of which they speak an ancient dialect. Because of its isolation, the language has a very different pronunciation than current German and has been influenced by the English of surrounding populations. Some Amish, notably in Indiana, speak a version closer to Swiss-German.
Where they live
With farming at the center of their lives and their population rapidly expanding due to large families, the Amish, anxious not be influenced by modern ways, are always seeking out new land away from urban areas. After initially settling in Ohio, they are nowfound in 30 states as well as Canada. Ohio has the largest Amish population, followed by Pennsylvania and Indiana.

Growth
The Amish are one of the fastest-growing population groups in America. According to the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster, Pa., their population has risen from about 5,000 in 1920 to almost 300,000 today. And much of that growth has occurred in the last three decades. The center estimates there were just 84,000 Amish in 1984, meaning the population has more than tripled during that time. The population explosion is due to a belief in large families, seen as a blessing from God. The large number of children also provide labor for their farming enterprises.

Work, taxes and military service
Traditionally, farming of all kinds has been at the center of Amish work life. However, in the past century, according to the Young Center, increasing numbers have become involved in business enterprises, most notably in carpentry and sales of farm products. They also form construction crews that build houses and other buildings for non-Amish and sometimes work at "English"-owned factories and workshops, such as those in Indiana that manufacture recreational vehicles.

They are taxed on their earnings. According to the Young Center, "They pay all the taxes - income, property, sales, estate, corporate, school - that other people do. In fact many of them pay school taxes twice - for both public and private Amish schools." They do not, however, pay - or collect - Social Security, having been exempted by Congress in 1965 because the Amish viewed it as a form of commercial insurance. Instead, they believe that members of the church should care for one another's physical and material needs. In some states, according to the Young Center, the Amish have also been exempted from workers compensation for the same reason. Amish also are exempt from military service due to their belief in non-resistance, a term they prefer over pacifism. This applies not only to war, but also law-enforcement, politics and legal actions.

Technology
Amish life is governed by the "Ordnung," a German word for order. The rules vary from community to community. According to the Young Center, "Most Amish groups forbid owning automobiles, tapping electricity from public utility lines, using self-propelled farm machinery, owning a television, radio, and computer, attending high school and college, joining the military, and initiating divorce." Photos are banned because they might cultivate personal vanity, which runs against the church's prohibition of "hochmut," a word meaning pride, arrogance and/or haughtiness.

According to the Young Center, the Amish do not consider technology evil in itself, but believe that it has the potential to bring about assimilation into the surrounding society. "Mass media technology in particular, they fear, would introduce foreign values into their culture," says an article on the Young Center's website. "By bringing greater mobility, cars would pull the community apart, eroding local ties. Horse-and-buggy transportation keeps the community anchored in its local geographical base." Some of the rules are seemingly contradictory - for instance, 12-volt car batteries are permitted by many communities while 120-volt electricity is not. In addition, most Amish are not permitted to drive motor vehicles but are allowed to hire outsiders - known as "English" - to drive them.

Schooling
Amish children typically only attend school through eighth grade, mostly at private schools, but about 10% in public schools, according to the Young Center. Their right to end school at age 14 was confirmed by a 1972 ruling of the United States Supreme Court. Instruction is in both English and their German dialect.

Diversity
The Amish are not a single unit. There are four main groups - the Old Order, the New Order, the Beachy Amish and Amish Mennonites - with many subgroups and different rules within these categories. For instance, the Beachy Amish and Amish Mennonites often drive cars and use electricity while the others use horse-drawn buggies.

Dress
Plainness is the governor of Amish clothing. Some groups are restricted to black and white while others allow muted colors. Buttons are frowned upon because of their potential for ostentation, and such things as Velcro and zippers are banned. Instead, clothes are fastened by pins or hook-and-eye closures. Slightly smarter clothes, such as capes, are used for religious services.

Dating
Perhaps the most famous aspect of Amish social life is "Rumspringa," which means "running around" in the Pennsylvania German dialect. According to the Young Center, it is the time, beginning at about age 16, when youth socialize with their friends on weekends. Rumspringa ends with marriage. Apart from introducing young men and women to one another, this period is an important time when Amish youth need to decide if they will be baptized and join the church, which usually occurs between 18 and 21, or leave the Amish community.

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Fascinating facts about the lives of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

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Location. Nearly 250,000 Amish live in closely knit communities that are concentrated in rural Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and surrounding areas of the United States and Canada. According to a scholarly study completed in 2012, their numbers are growing at a rate of 3.1 percent per year, far higher than the rest of the U.S., which is growing at a rate of less than 1 percent.

Economy. Their economy has traditionally consisted of farming, though many have branched out into rural businesses, such as their bed and breakfast operations in Lancaster County, PA. Amish business people interact easily with non-Amish customers and business associates, understand the competitive, market-driven, profit system, and can formulate effective strategies for managing their operations. However, they cannot grow too large because of potential criticism from within their communities that they're abandoning traditional values. As a news story put it in 2010, they have to cope with religious issues that outsiders don't face. However, because they like to work hard and don't spend money on consumer goods, their non-Amish competitors tend to resent them.

Beliefs that Foster Peacefulness. The key to understanding Amish culture is the German word Gelassenheit, "submission," a belief that includes simplicity, humility, thrift, obedience, and accepting the will of higher authorities. The Amish ideal is humility, in contrast to the modern ideal of personal fulfillment. The Amish person serves others, is guided by the will of the group, and talks, acts, and dresses modestly. Gelassenheit implies abandoning one's will in favor of following divine will, as the Amish perceive Christ to have done. It suggests loving one's enemies, praying for them, and never taking revenge-as Christ commanded. They adhere to Christ's command to not resist evil, which prevents them from employing force in any human relationship. They cannot file lawsuits, a belief that puts them at a serious disadvantage when trying to sign contracts with unscrupulous businesses such as those in the fracking industry. Also, they cannot serve on a police force or a jury, hold a political office, or engage in competition. They also believe in volunteering to help those outside their own community when they feel they can be of assistance.

Avoiding and Resolving Conflict. The Amish continue to use older technologies such as the buggy that serve to define them and separate them from the dominant culture, but they are sometimes bothered by conflicts over whether or not to adopt new technologies. Any new device or convenience that some members desire is carefully examined by the entire community to see if it would foster differences between families, create tensions, or produce undue dependence on the outside world. As they consider proposals for change in the light of their historic values, they resolve the conflicts and try to preserve unity in their congregations.

Gender Relations. The Amish marry for life and form close, cooperative unions. The man is the head of the family and responsible for all the heavier farm work; the woman follows his leadership in major decisions and is responsible for child-raising, cooking, cleaning, washing, and housekeeping. Their relationship is more one of mutual respect than romantic love: they rarely express affection openly. When a spouse is irritated about something, he or she will express feelings by gesture, tone of voice, or just by being silent-perhaps for several days.

Raising Children. Children learn to respect the authority of their parents and older people. Parents teach through firmness and consistency-they may use corporal punishment, though not harshly. Children are expected to work at tasks that are within their capability, and young children of both sexes may help (or accompany) their fathers and mothers around the farm and perform useful errands. The young children are sheltered from the outside world and raised in a protective community of people who know and care for them. Traditional Amish schools try to fuse religion, morality and education as their one goal.

Social Practices. The leaders of the Amish churches, their ministers, are chosen by a process that combines nomination and lot. In some Amish communities, at the end of a communion service, men and women file past a deacon and each whispers the name of a nominee. Any man who is nominated by three or more people is included in the drawing. Each of the nominees is then handed a song book, one of which contains a slip of paper bearing a Bible verse. The man who opens his book to discover the verse is overwhelmed to realize that the Lord has chosen him for a life-long added responsibility of service to the community. While the details of the procedures may vary in different congregations, the process of having divine choice of their leaders prevents quarreling with the leadership selection process and reaffirms the unity, stability and authority of their community.

Sense of Self. If modern people are preoccupied with finding themselves, the Amish focus on losing themselves. They demonstrate proper humility in various subtle ways: an un-aggressive handshake, a thoughtful, deliberate way of speaking, a refined smile, and a gentle chuckle rather than cocky laughter. They are highly conscious of the danger of pride, the manifestation of individualism, and they try not to call attention to themselves. They are as eager to avoid taking personal credit for achievements as outsiders are eager to take credit. Their distinctive, plain clothing is designed to diminish pride, though traces of it can be seen at times in fancy harnesses on their buggies or trimmings around their homes.

Cooperation and Competition. Cooperative barn-raisings exemplify the importance of mutual assistance in their communities. The competition that exists in the Amish schools is group-centered and not individually oriented. Children will compete against their group's previous records-to have a better spelling score than the previous month, for instance-and they thus encourage one another to perform well so that the whole class or school will do better.

Social Control. When informal social control techniques such as gossip are not effective in keeping individuals in line, more formal control measures are used. The deacon and a minister will visit the individual, and if the offense is minor and he or she is properly penitent, the matter will be dropped. If the offense was more serious and more public, the deviant may be asked to confess in front of the congregation. The most severe level of punishment involves a six-week ban, when everyone shuns the individual. If the foretaste of ostracism does not prompt the individual into correct behavior, then full excommunication will follow. The process of subordination to the group, confession, and catharsis of guilt feelings helps hold the community together.

Strategies for Avoiding Warfare and Violence. The Amish are forbidden, they believe, by Christ to become involved in any warfare or violence. They do not defend themselves if attacked, and when faced with hostile neighbors or governments they simply abandon their farms and move. Military service is an absolute contradiction to the spirit of Amish Gelassenheit.

But How Much Violence Do They Really Experience? Young people sometimes get in trouble with the law, but otherwise the Amish experience almost no violence or crime. They live in a society, according to Donald Kraybill, "where harmony, passivity, and quiet discipline are the norm rather than aggression and hostility." An exceptional case of violence did occur in 2011 in Ohio, attacks that made headlines for months.
More Resources in this Website:

A news story in 2015, retelling a famous incident from 50 years earlier, showed how the Amish use nonresistance to handle conflicts.

Amish "reality" TV shows are often inaccurate and create false impressions about the Amish.

Attitudes of the general public toward the Amish vary from one community to another in Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and Maine.

Birdwatching has become an important hobby for a lot of Amish in Ohio.

Some Amish farmers are firmly committed to protecting the land, though others have sold the development rights to energy companies to allow fracking on their property.

Singing hymns during church services reinforces their feelings of yielding to God and to their fellow human beings, and it helps maintain firm feeling of harmony among the worshippers.

Their uses of English loanwords in their spoken Pennsylvania German serve as markers of their feelings of humility.

Sources in Print: Cong 1992; Hostetler 1993; Hostetler and Huntington 1971; Kidder and Hostetler 1990; Kraybill 1989; Kraybill, Nolt, and Weaver-Zercher 2007

Sources on the Web: Wikipedia (English Version); Amish Studies; Amish FAQ; Another Amish FAQ; The Anabaptist Network (includes a section of links to Amish materials)
Updates-News and Reviews:
Selected Recent Stories

January 7, 2016. A Successful Amish Enterprise

November 12, 2015. The Amish Project Performed Once Again

October 29, 2015. The Study of Amish Women

September 24, 2015. Positive Attitudes about the Amish in Wisconsin

All Stories

All stories in this website about the Amish are listed in the News and Reviews Subject Listing

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Location. Nearly 250,000 Amish live in closely knit communities that are concentrated in rural Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and surrounding areas of the United States and Canada. According to a scholarly study completed in 2012, their numbers are growing at a rate of 3.1 percent per year, far higher than the rest of the U.S., which is growing at a rate of less than 1 percent.

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One of the famous figures associated with ancient Rome was the gladiator. The image of brawny warriors battling to death in gigantic marble amphitheaters for the amusement of a rabidly cheering crowd was indeed powerful. Learn more about the origin and varieties of gladiators and the various forms they took.

Desire to become a gladiator involved a great deal of regress training, starting with a general one and graduating to the toughest one where practice weapons were twice as heavy as the real ones. (Image: BrunoGarridoMacias/Shutterstock)

Roman Tradition and Entertainment

Romans were fond of spectacular public entertainments, and gladiator games were one of those. However, they were not the only violent public spectacle. In ancient Rome, it was a tradition for the state, to provide entertainment, with two broad categories of ludi, meaning games, including theatrical performances, dances, and chariot races and munera, or spectacle, such as gladiator combats, wild animal shows, and other unusual exhibitions. The Romans' concept of entertainment was that, most of those events had a religious component, held on religious holidays, accompanied by prayers and sacrifices, a way of paying homage to the gods.

Origin of Gladiator Games

The notion of gladiators originated with the Etruscans, who preceded the Romans in central Italy. Among the Etruscans, when a leader died, as part of the funeral ceremony, a pair of warriors sometimes fought to the death to honor his warlike spirit. Over time, the practice became institutionalized, and the Romans subsequently imitated it. Throughout the next 800 years of the Roman Republic, gladiator games remained infrequent, on a small scale, held as part of a funeral service.

Learn more about the gladiator combat, one of many popular entertainments in the Roman empire.

Rare Gladiator Events

That practice began to change in the late Republic. Julius Caesar put on a gladiatorial show that featured 320 pairs of gladiators in honor of his father, despite the fact that the elder Caesar was dead for over 20 years. Those games made the younger Caesar popular with the people of Rome. During the empire, by law, the senate could sponsor no more than two gladiator shows per year. But there was no limit to the quantity that the emperor could hold. Despite that, they always remained rare and unusual events. For example, over the course of his 60-plus-year reign, the emperor Augustus put on gladiator shows only eight times.

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Spike in Gladiator Games

There was a steady increase in both the number of games days held at Rome and regularly scheduled gladiator games. By 354 A.D., spectacular games were held for half of the year, including 102 days with theatrical entertainments, 64 with chariot racing, 10 with gladiator shows and beast hunts.

There were different types of people chosen to become gladiators, which included the ones who themselves volunteered to participate in the game. (Image: José Moreno Carbonero/Public domain)

There were three typical sources for gladiators, including the slaves who were assigned to be gladiators because they seemed to be good fighters. That category incorporated prisoners of war seized in Rome's campaigns. Criminals were sometimes condemned to be gladiators. The rarest type, were free people, volunteering to become gladiators for fame and money.

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Making of a Gladiator

Someone wanting to be a gladiator, was sent to the training school, where many adopted stage names because those sounded menacing or implied something about the martial skills of the gladiator; for instance, one renowned gladiator was called Flamma, or 'the Flame'. During the Republic, most schools were privately owned businesses, but under control of emperor and the state. The staff included weapon-makers, guards, masseurs, doctors, and, most importantly, the trainer, called a lanista.

A prospective gladiator first underwent general training with wooden weapons until he became familiar with basic fighting techniques. The lanista evaluated and assigned him to a program of specialized instruction depending on his abilities. There were at least 14 varieties of gladiator, divided up according to their weapons and tactics. Their practice weapons were twice as heavy as the real ones in order to increase muscle mass and endurance.

'Barley Boys'

Gladiators ate a carbohydrate-rich diet to bulk up, due to which, nickname for gladiators was 'barley boys'. The reason for building up layers of fat and muscle was to provide extra protection from stab wounds that might prove fatal if they penetrated vital organs or internal cavities.

Battle of Contrast

There was a fascination of contrast battles where heavily armored were matched with lightly equipped ones. Secutor was one of the heavily armored gladiators. (Image: Kleuske/CC BY-SA 3.0/Public domain)

The Romans liked a battle of contrasts, and often matched a heavily armed and armored man against a lightly equipped and more mobile opponent. The heavily armored varieties of gladiators included, Gauls, Hoplites, Samnites, and a popular type called the Secutor.

All of them carried a sword and wore a helmet that completely covered the face. Some were sheathed in armor, while others wore lighter armor but carried huge, five-foot-tall shields. In all those cases, the gladiators were well-protected but slow-moving.

Light-Armed Thracian

Among the best known lighter-armed, more agile gladiator was the Thracian. He wore little or no armor, held a small shield made of wood or wicker in one hand, and a short, curved sword in the other. The Thracian darted back and forth, looking for a gap in his enemy's defenses. His heavily armed enemy pursued, trying to trap him against a wall, where he was not able to use his greater quickness to escape.

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Different Variety of Gladiators

Another famous, less armed was the Retiarius, who was naked, except for a loincloth, holding a net with weights at the corners in one hand, and a trident in another. His strategy was to dance around an opponent and try entangling him in the net, to be skewered by the trident. More exotic varieties of gladiators included men fighting with lassos, others careened around the arena in light chariots, and a fighter called a scissor, had one arm encased in a metal tube tipped with a semicircular cutting blade.

Female Gladiators

In the final stages of his training, the gladiator switched from wooden weapons to real, steel ones. The vast majority of gladiators were men, although there were instances of some female gladiators. One of those apparently dressed up as the goddess Venus, and others fought under the guise of renowned martial women from myth such as the Amazons. One woman creatively called herself Achillia, a female version of the greatest Greek warrior, Achilles.

Renting Variety of Gladiators

Someone wishing to put on a gladiatorial show, rented the desired gladiator from one of the schools. The prices ranged from 1,000 sesterces for a first-time or not very talented gladiator to around 15,000 for an experienced combat veteran. The most famous gladiators commanded gigantic fees, believed to have been 100,000 sesterces per appearance. An odd part of the rituals was that, on the night before the fight, all the opponent gladiators ate dinner together. Curious or morbid fans paid to come and watch those meals.

Common Questions about Gladiators in Ancient Rome

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Public Entertainment in Ancient Rome and the Origin of Gladiator Games

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Romans were fond of spectacular public entertainments, and gladiator games were one of those. However, they were not the only violent public spectacle. In ancient Rome, it was a tradition for the state, to provide entertainment, with two broad categories of ludi, meaning games, including theatrical performances, dances, and chariot races and munera, or spectacle, such as gladiator combats, wild animal shows, and other unusual exhibitions.

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HISTORY CRUNCH - History Articles, Biographies, Infographics, Resources and More

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Every Roman city and town had an amphitheater, which was a large stadium where entertainment would occur for the citizens. The largest amphitheater was the Colosseum in Rome. The Romans called their entertainment "games" but it generally consisted of fights between gladiators and the public execution of criminals. Roman citizens often enjoyed entertainment that was violent and bloody. The fights between the opposing gladiators were often brutal. Most gladiators were slaves, including prisoners of war and criminals. While the lives of gladiators were usually short, a successful gladiator could potentially win his freedom.

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Every Roman city and town had an amphitheater, which was a large stadium where entertainment would occur for the citizens. The largest amphitheater was the Colosseum in Rome. The Romans called their entertainment "games" but it generally consisted of fights between gladiators and the public execution of criminals.

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1. They weren't always enslaved.

Not all gladiators were brought to the arena in chains. While most early combatants were enslaved peoples and people who had committed crimes, grave inscriptions show that by the 1st century A.D. the demographics had started to change. Lured by the thrill of battle and the roar of the crowds, scores of free men began voluntarily signing contracts with gladiator schools in the hope of winning glory and prize money. These freelance warriors were often desperate men or ex-soldiers skilled in fighting, but some were upper-class patricians, knights and even senators eager to demonstrate their warrior pedigree.
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2. Gladiatorial bouts were originally part of funeral ceremonies.

Many ancient chroniclers described the Roman games as an import from the Etruscans, but most historians now argue that gladiator fights got their start as a blood rite staged at the funerals of wealthy nobles. When distinguished aristocrats died, their families would hold graveside bouts between enslaved people or condemned prisoners as a kind of macabre eulogy for the virtues the person had demonstrated in life. According to the Roman writers Tertullian and Festus, since the Romans believed that human blood helped purify the deceased person's soul, these contests may have also acted as a crude substitute for human sacrifice. The funeral games later increased in scope during the reign of Julius Caesar, who staged bouts between hundreds of gladiators in honor of his deceased father and daughter. The spectacles proved hugely popular, and by the end of the 1st century B.C., government officials began hosting state-funded games as a way of currying favor with the masses.

3. They didn't always fight to the death.

Hollywood movies and television shows often depict gladiatorial bouts as a bloody free-for-all, but most fights operated under fairly strict rules and regulations. Contests were typically single combat between two men of similar size and experience. Referees oversaw the action, and probably stopped the fight as soon as one of the participants was seriously wounded. A match could even end in a stalemate if the crowd became bored by a long and drawn out battle, and in rare cases, both warriors were allowed to leave the arena with honor if they had put on an exciting show for the crowd.

Since gladiators were expensive to house, feed and train, their promoters were loath to see them needlessly killed. Trainers may have taught their fighters to wound, not kill, and the combatants may have taken it upon themselves to avoid seriously hurting their brothers-in-arms. Nevertheless, the life of a gladiator was usually brutal and short. Most only lived to their mid-20s, and historians have estimated that somewhere between one in five or one in 10 bouts left one of its participants dead.

4. The famous "thumbs down" gesture probably didn't mean death.

If a gladiator was seriously wounded or threw down his weapon in defeat, his fate was left in the hands of the spectators. In contests held at the Colosseum, the emperor had the final say in whether the felled warrior lived or died, but rulers and fight organizers often let the people make the decision. Paintings and films often show the throngs giving a "thumbs down" gesture when they wanted a disgraced gladiator to be finished off, but this may not be accurate. Some historians think the sign for death may have actually been the thumbs up, while a closed fist with two fingers extended, a thumbs down, or even a waved handkerchief might have signaled mercy. Whatever gesture was used, it was typically accompanied by ear-piercing cries of either "let him go!" or "slay him!" If the crowd willed it, the victorious gladiator would deliver a grisly coup de grace by stabbing his opponent between the shoulder blades or through the neck and into the heart.

5. They were organized into different classes and types.

By the time the Colosseum opened in 80 A.D., gladiator games had evolved from freewheeling battles to the death into a well-organized blood sport. Fighters were placed in classes based on their record, skill level and experience, and most specialized in a particular fighting style and set of weaponry. Most popular were the "thraeces" and "murmillones," who fought with sword and shield, but there were also the "equites," who entered the arena on horseback; the "essedarii," who battled from chariots; and the "dimachaerus," who may have wielded two swords at once. Of all the popular gladiator types, perhaps the most unusual was the "retiarius," who was armed with only a net and a trident. These warriors tried to ensnare their opponents with their net before moving in for the kill, but if they failed, they were left almost entirely defenseless.

6. They only rarely fought against animals.

The Colosseum and other Roman arenas are often associated with gruesome animal hunts, but it was uncommon for the gladiators to be involved. Tangling with wild beasts was reserved for the "venatores" and "bestiarii," special classes of warrior who squared off against everything from deer and ostriches to lions, crocodiles, bears and even elephants. Animal hunts were typically the opening event at the games, and it wasn't unusual for scores of unfortunate creatures to be slaughtered in a single exhibition. Nine thousand animals were slain during a 100-day ceremony to mark the opening of the Colosseum, and another 11,000 were later killed as part of a 123-day festival held by the Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century A.D. While most animals were merely slaughtered for sport, others were trained to do tricks or even pitted against one another in fights. Wild animals also served as a popular form of execution. Convicted criminals and Christians were often thrown to ravenous dogs, lions and bears as part of the day's entertainment.

7. Women also fought as gladiators.

Historians are not sure when women first suited up to fight as gladiators, but by the 1st century A.D. they had become a common fixture at the games. These warriors may not have been taken seriously in the patriarchal Roman culture, but a few appear to have proven themselves in single combat. A marble relief dating to around the 2nd century A.D. depicts a bout between two women dubbed "Amazon" and "Achillia," whom the inscription says fought to an honorable draw. Women also joined in the animal hunts, but their stint in the arena may have come to an end around 200 A.D., when the Emperor Septimius Severus banned their participation in the games.

8. Some gladiators organized themselves into trade unions.

Though they were regularly forced to come to blows in life-or-death combat, gladiators viewed themselves as a kind of brotherhood, and some even organized into unions, or "collegia," with their own elected leaders and protector deities. When a warrior fell in battle, these groups would ensure that their comrade received a proper funeral and grave inscription honoring his achievements in the arena. If the deceased had a wife and children, they would also see that the family received monetary compensation for their loss.

9. Several Roman emperors participated in staged gladiatorial bouts.

Hosting gladiator games was an easy way for Roman emperors to win the love of the people, but a few took it a step further and actually participated in combat. Several rulers performed in the arena including Caligula, Titus and Hadrian-though most likely under highly controlled conditions or with dull blades. A deadeye with a spear, the deranged Emperor Commodus often tried to wow the crowds by killing bears and panthers from the safety of a raised platform. He also competed in a few gladiator fights, though usually against inexperienced fighters or even terrified and poorly armed members of the audience. When he inevitably won the contests, Commodus made sure to reward himself with the massive sum of one million Roman sesterces.

10. Gladiators often became celebrities and sex symbols.

Though often dismissed as uncivilized brutes by Roman historians, the gladiators won massive fame among the lower classes. Their portraits graced the walls of many public places; children played with gladiator action figures made of clay; and the most successful fighters even endorsed products just like the top athletes of today. They were also renowned for their ability to make Roman women swoon. Graffiti from Pompeii describes one fighter who "catches the girls at night in his net" and another who is "the delight of all the girls." Many women wore hairpins and other jewelry dipped in gladiator blood, and some even mixed gladiator sweat-then considered an aphrodisiac-into facial creams and other cosmetics.

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Not all gladiators were brought to the arena in chains. While most early combatants were enslaved peoples and people who had committed crimes, grave inscriptions show that by the 1st century A.D. the demographics had started to change.

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"The Gladiator Mosaic is a famous set of 5 large mosaics of gladiators and venators and two smaller ones. The mosaics are dated to the first half of the 4th century and are now installed in the Salone of the Galleria Borghese in Rome." Source: Wikipedia

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