The Potential Causes of Serial Offenders Research Paper

The Potential Causes of Serial Offenders
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Introduction
Serial crimes have been on the rise in the last couple of years. The number of reported cases of people found to have been murdered in mysterious ways has dominated news headlines across the world. Serial offenders have a tendency of repetition of same crimes. There are certain factors which are believed to be the motivating factor of serial offenses. In this discussion, some of the factors that are seen to significantly contribute to serial offenses have been discussed. To help put this issue into perspective the Green River Killer is the center of the discussion.
Description of Serial Offender
Gary Leon Ridge who is better known as the Green River Killer is an American convicted serial offender. It is presumed that Gary could have killed more than 90 women, most of whom were prostitutes that he had sexual relations with. However, he only confessed to having murdered 71 but the actual conviction was for 48 victims.
The killings are believed to have begun in 1982 when prostitutes were reported to disappear every so often in King Country, a town in Washington. It is believed that Gary would woo prostitutes into his house where he would have sexual intercourse with them after which he would strangle them. The very first bodies of prostitutes who had disappeared would later be found at Green-River and hence the name Green River Killer (Drury, 2012).
Despite having been suspected of being involved with murders, he managed to remain elusive from authorities until the year 2001 when he was apprehended. The then Sheriff of King County ordered for re-examination of earlier presented evidence (Welsh &Farring ton, 2003). This was after introduction of a new innovation for testing DNA. When the analysis was done, the results were positive with Ridgway’s DNA being a match with that found on the bodies of the victim. He was arrested and charged with serial murders, where he confessed to have killed 71 women (Hanson &Bourgon, 2005). Other reports indicate that he could have killed more than this number given and that he could have lost the count. From the evidence given, the prosecution managed to secure conviction of 48 counts of murder.