Serial Killer: Extrinsic Motivation

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Mr. Tramm Period 3 SERIAL KILLER RESEARCH PAPER A serial killer is typically defined as a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification (Princeton University). Every serial killer has either an intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation occurs when we are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an activity in order to earn a reward or avoid a punishment such as studying for a test to get a highscore unlike a Intrinsic motivation where it involves engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding for example going to your favorite…show more content…
He claimed he murdered little girls because he enjoyed hearing their cries.(Prezi.com) This shows the extrinsic motivates of Daniel since the cries of the little girls were basically the reward that Daniel was receiving. Another reward Daniel received was taking the virginity on a female. He loved Esperanza and planned on marrying her but he didn’t because of her one flaw which happened to be her not being a virgin. (Prezi.com) Since he wasn’t able to take his love's virginity Daniel wasn’t rewarded and couldn’t marry her but instead just us her to make him happy, which was a reward that wasn't really looked…show more content…
His murderous mindset all started at a young age. He was the seventh child of thirteen of a prostitute in the village of Tolima, Colombia, and was later kicked out of his family at the age of eight when he was caught fondling his younger sister. He was then picked up by a man, taken to a deserted house and repeatedly sodomized . So him living off the streets, sleeping in alleyways, traveling from place to place and not being able to trust anyone had lethal damage to his mind. While living on the streets he was adopted by an American family who supported him, and gave him shelter. After a few years he ran away because a teacher molested him at the school he attended. At 18, he says, he was gang-raped in prison and, he claimed, killed three of the rapists while still incarcerated. After his jail term he started preying on young girls in Peru. In an interview when he was incarcerated he described how he would commit his murders "I would take her to a secret hideaway where prepared graves waited. Sometimes there were bodies of earlier victims there. I cuddled them and then raped them at sunrise. At the first sign of light I would get excited. I forced the girl into sex and put my hands around her throat. When the sun rose I would strangle her." He later on describes "It was only good if I could see her eyes, it would have been wasted in the dark — I had to

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