What do experts know about serial killers, and what remains a mystery?
STOCKTON – Stockton police arrested the man they believe is responsible for a string of killings that claimed the lives of six people. And as the Stockton community breathes a sigh of relief that an alleged serial killer is now off the streets, the question of why someone would commit these crimes still remains.
CBS13 spoke to Dr. Robert Schug, a forensic psychologist who teaches a class on serial killers at California State University Long Beach. He says that, despite their popularity in pop culture, serial killers are a rare phenomenon.
He conducts research on incarcerated serial killers but knowledge about this group is limited.
"It's not like there are many many serial killers to study so that makes it hard when we come across a new individual — it makes it hard to generalize based on previous cases," he said.
This means evaluating each case is a learn-as-you-go basis.
"We can think about serial killing as the maybe extreme end of the violence continuum where you have anything from assaults up to murders and then multiple murders up to serial killings," Schug said. "Maybe the things that drive serial killers to kill are the same things that drive other people to become aggressive and violent."
Schug operates where the criminal justice system and psychology intersect. He does psychological evaluations for the court when mental health issues may be at play. These evaluations are a labor-intensive process requiring data such as information from the subject, records from the jail, medical records, school records, and insight from their peers, he says.
"We all certainly are capable of aggression or even violence," Schug said. "I often tell my students that asking why serial killers are serial killers is the wrong question. The real question is why the rest of us are not. Because, for some reason, the rest of us are able to go through life and not harm people like this."
Schug says rather than sensationalizing these killers, it is important to continue studying them and researching their behavior; this can help officials develop the capabilities of spotting patterns in behavior before it's too late.
"We have to move beyond just a fascination or interest in this just because it seems to be popular right now," Schug said. "Think about this in terms of: how can we help potential victims in the future and put an end to this if possible?"
The alleged Stockton serial killer, Wesley Brownlee, is set to be arraigned in court on Tuesday.