Are Serial Killers Born or Made? What Psychology Reveals About the Origins of Violence

With the rising media creation and consumption of serial killers true-crime documentaries, the discussion about serial killers and what makes serial killers has resurfaced.

On large, we love the idea that serial killers are born different. This idea is neat, it is clean, and it makes us feel secure as if they are “just evil,” then they are the problem, as they are contrary to the values and beliefs of our society. But the truth is far less comforting. Research and case studies suggest that serial killers are not simply born but are made.

What stands out in retrospective study of serial killers is that their genesis is not mysterious but shows a distinct pattern of abuse, isolation, addiction, early aggression, unstable homes, emotional neglect; elements that show up repeatedly. Most people will never become violent, even with a traumatic childhood, but criminality is correlated with adverse childhood experiences.

Biology is not irrelevant in this story, but it is not destiny either. Some people are born more impulsive, emotionally reactive, or detached than others. However, personality is shaped by the environment just as much as it is by DNA. A difficult child raised in a loving home may grow into an adult who manages emotions well. The same child raised in violence may grow into someone who.

This does not excuse murder, as nothing does. But it does explain it. And explanation matters because punishment alone has never prevented violence; understanding does. Prevention begins long before the crime scene. It starts in classrooms, homes, hospitals, and social services. It starts with believing that trauma is powerful—and that ignoring it is dangerous.

The most uncomfortable truth of all is this: serial killers are not monsters among us. They are extreme outcomes of childhood trauma and abuse. And the more we insist they are inhuman, the less willing we are to confront the conditions that shape them.

The question, then, is not whether killers are born or made. The real question is this: how can early childhood interventions reduce the risk of such criminal trajectories later in life?