Compulsion to Kill

Book excerpt: In the twisted minds of men who murder again and again, life, sex, pain, and death are fashioned into a terrible compulsion to kill. Otherwise rather ordinary men, serial killers turn to violence and death in search of power over others and to explore their own monstrous sexual identity. That is what their killing is really all about, although it takes many different forms. While their behaviour has been insane, however, they are rarely locked away in mental institutions. To be judged legally insane, one cannot understand the wrongness or consequences of one's crimes. But these men plan and commit not one but a series of premeditated murders and then skillfully elude capture. They may indeed be compelled to kill, but they are not insane in the eyes of the law. When society finally sweeps up such predators, their very cunning ensures them a life behind bars - or a place on death row.