Date of Conferral

4-15-2026

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Jerrod Brown

Abstract

Although adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known to influence criminal behavior in adulthood, their potential influence on serial killer actions has not been scrutinized. This study was an investigation of how ACEs might affect serial killer actions later in life. The trauma-control model provided a conceptual framework for the investigation. Marono et al.’s research featuring behavior sequence analysis (BSA) was broadened to examine the impact of psychological abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, violence against animals, head injury, and bullying serial killer behaviors like stalking or sexual assault. The participants were 364 anonymized male serial killers from the Radford/Florida Gulf Coast University Serial Killer Database who were drawn using nonprobability sampling. The cases were coded for the presence of ACEs and serial killer behaviors. The BSA transition frequency matrix was completed before performing chi-square analysis to determine the significance, if any, of each pair. Many significant connections between ACEs were found (e.g., between head injury, bullying, violence against animals, and sexual assault). The study may promote positive social change by furthering identification of early risk factors for the development of violence, which might allow professionals to recognize these ACEs and be more proactive about treatment. By highlighting the strong correlations between certain factors, this study also pinpoints imperative areas of study in a field that has many gaps in the literature.

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