Crime history 101: What's the difference between psychotic and psychopathic killers?
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Dan Norder
By Dan Norder, crime historian
A man — or, occasionally, woman — who commits the most heinous types of murders is sometimes called a psycho killer. That term, like many of the words used by the public to refer to the mentally disturbed, has no specific legal or medical definition. In fact it is commonly used to describe two completely different kinds of killers.
The house from Psycho on a studio lot
(Photo by cliff1066/CreativeCommons)
Psychotic killers:
Following the example of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, many people use the term to describe someone who is stereotypically crazy: imagining things that aren't really there, hearing voices in his or her head, and so forth. The word in this usage is an abbreviation of psychotic, which describes a category of specific mental illnesses.
Killers suffering from a psychosis experience hallucinations, delusional beliefs and disordered thinking. They are, quite simply, cut off from reality in a major way. Some part of the fantasy world they are experiencing causes them to commit murder.
For example, the character of Norman Bates from Hitchcock's Psycho (as well as the original Robert Bloch novel it is based upon) imagines that his dead mother talks to him, demanding that he kill people.
Vincent Li in custody.
(AP Photo)
A recent real-world example of a psychotic killer is Vincent Li, who murdered and decapitated a total stranger while riding a bus in Canada on July 30, 2008. The attack happened in full view of the other passengers. Psychiatrists testified at Li's trial that he killed Tim McClean, 22, because he thought God had commanded him to destroy a demon. Li reportedly suffers a case of schizophrenia so severe that even strong anti-psychotic medication does not make the hallucinations go away.
Psychotics can become serial killers but are typically not very successful ones. Many take no steps to cover up their crimes, being too mentally ill to realize they are leaving evidence behind or even that they did anything wrong in the first place. This makes it much easier for police to identify and capture them before they have a chance to kill again.
Some, but not all, of these killers are found to be criminally insane and thus not legally responsible for their actions.
Psychopathic killers:
In many respects, psychopathic killers are the opposite of psychotics. Instead of being cut off from reality, psychopaths are emotionally and morally disconnected from society at large. They know exactly what they are doing when they murder someone but don't care. The motive for the crimes may be personal gain or just for the thrill of it.
Thanks to being keenly aware of the world around them and having no moral restraints, psychopaths are the most successful serial killers. They often plan ahead, identifying potential victims and readying weapons and restraints to make the actual killings run more smoothly. They also usually clean up the crime scenes to remove any potential clues. When they do get caught it is often due to DNA or other evidence that they missed or sometimes because their egos made them take risks that eventually trapped them.
Dennis Rader and attorney Sarah McKinnon in court
(AP Photo by Bo Rader / Pool)
Dennis Rader is one of many examples of a murderous psychopath. He committed his string of crimes in Wichita, Kansas, from 1974-1991 purely for the sexual thrill he received from binding, torturing and killing his victims. His love for these three actions led him to devise the nickname BTK, which he included in mocking letters sent to police and the news media. He was finally captured in 2005 after sending messages that unknowingly contained incriminating evidence.
Being diagnosed as a psychopath — or a sociopath or having Antisocial Personality Disorder, which are other terms the American Psychiatric Association has used over the years for the same condition — is not in any way a legal defense for crimes. Once caught, clever psychopaths will sometimes pretend to be psychotic in the hopes of helping their cases. Luckily, however, the conditions are so dramatically different from each other that this strategy is almost never successful.
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