Child socialization, or the way in which a child is raised (including home environment, parental interaction, and parent-child interaction), influences and shapes the individuals behavior (Akers, 1998), and has been used as a corollary to violent activity. If violence is used or exhibited in the home, whether among the parents (domestic abuse and violent arguments) or directed at the child (physical punishment or physically manifested child abuse), then the child will become violent when they get older, as the current ideology states. Current findings have shown that a number of violent criminals were raised in violent or abusive homes (Steadman, 1987), but what has not been found is that child abuse is directly linked to or is a cause of future violent behavior. This analysis, from a retrospective viewpoint, provides a false sense of hope for the prediction of violent criminal behavior. Unfortunately, current research can offer no better than one accurate prediction in three (Miller, 1987).

Several main theoretical approaches are used (though not outwardly stated as sociological) in an attempt to rationalize, explain and predict this type of behavior. Although these approaches work well for understanding individuals, they do not work on the wide scale of attempting to predict future events. They are better suited for a case-by-case analysis rather than for broad generalizations of the entire group. There are too many different factors that sociological explanations alone cannot capture within the whole realm of activities that contribute to the making of serial killers and the perpetuation of serial murder. Socialization theories, including social learning theory, are widely used to explain the existence of serial killers. They are the most commonly used rationalization for why it is some people can kill repeatedly. These theories take into consideration numerous social factors that may have a direct or indirect impact on a young child’s social and cognitive development. They are: child abuse (physical and psychological), parental treatment of the child, parental interaction (domestic violence) and the use of violence as solution in the home. The main focus for those scholars, which take this approach, is the development and reinforcement of violence as acceptable in the mind of a child, such as: were their thoughts, speech and behavior are influenced and shaped by parental interaction. A reciprocal model of behavior begins to form when the child internalizes the behavior of a parent, and then turns around and acts accordingly (Akers, 1998). In a “normal” parent-child relationship, these actions of internalization and reinforcement, allow the child to learn what is considered proper behavior and what is not. “The probability that an act will be committed or repeated is increased directly by rewarding outcomes or reactions to it” (Akers, 1998). This learning by action and consequence (either negative or positive) is important for a child to determine right from wrong. After a while, one begins to learn “how to control their own behavior without directly or consistently applied social sanctions” (Akers, 1998). If this type of learning is skewed, where all actions are wrong or prohibited, then the aforementioned loss of power can occur. If a child is always told or made to believe that everything they say or do is wrong, group interaction may cease all together. A child in this situation may tend to turn their actions inward in order to avoid negative confrontations regarding their behavior. They tend to play only by themselves, develop imaginary friends instead of playing with real ones and talk to themselves more. By controlling their actions in this way, messages of power loss and a negative self-image are reinforced rather than more healthy messages for a child. Unfortunately this theoretical perspective only works at the individual level for the study of serial murderers. We are neglecting

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