The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [22]
Police departments, federal agencies, and criminal researchers have invested substantial resources in uncovering answers to questions just like these in pursuit of real serial killers. Why? Because answering questions that help investigators understand the method and motivation behind killings facilitates the apprehension and conviction of murderers. Clearly Dexter fans are not out to catch their serial killer. They are, however, out to understand the whole story behind the Dark Passenger, much of which is yet unanswered by the show. Why does Dexter use particular strategies and tools for his kills? What motivates him to kill? And certainly, what is with that cut he makes on his victims’ cheeks?
Some conclusions to these and other questions can be drawn using the same techniques used by recognized experts in criminal investigation. Authors, and authorities on the topic, John Douglas, Ann Burgess, Allen Burgess, and Robert Ressler, in their text Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes, and Robert D. Keppel in his, Signature Killers, discuss several aspects of crime scene investigation that we can apply to help understand the psychological underpinnings of Dexter the serial killer: modus operandi, signature, and victimology.
Modus Operandi
The modus operandi, often referred to as MO, are specific actions taken by a perpetrator in order to complete a crime. To be considered part of an MO, an action must be necessary and not superfluous to carrying out the crime. As a whole, the MO is a set of learned behaviors that are used because they work. An example of an MO for a rapist might be to hang out in shopping mall parking lots at night, force an unaccompanied woman into her car at gunpoint, and rape her. The MO may evolve over time as the criminal gets better and more efficient or suffers setbacks because of a particular method. The evolution of an MO is textbook operant conditioning, a form of learning. It describes a set of voluntarily learned behaviors that are modified as a result of the consequences created by the behaviors in the environment. Thus, as most criminals attempt to improve, we can expect to see their MO change gradually over time. All Dexter fans can describe their hero’s MO. But let’s learn more by taking a look back and identifying Dexter’s original MO, its evolution, and, finally, his current strategies.
We saw Dexter’s first kill in “Popping Cherry” (1-3). The victim, Mary, a.k.a., The Angel of Death, was a murderous nurse attending to Dexter’s foster father, Harry, in the hospital. Harry encouraged Dexter to commit the murder and Dexter did so in the victim’s own apartment home, while her cat looked on apathetically. Of his first kill, Dexter stated, “Things were a little messy in the beginning. Hey, perfecting a new craft takes time.” We saw that the entire room was covered in plastic, as was Dexter himself. Wearing what appeared to be a plastic hoodie and pants, Dexter waited for the nurse. When she arrived home, Mary walked into the prepared kill room calling for her cat. She was clearly bewildered by all the plastic, but alert; Mary spotted Dexter well in advance as he lunged toward her with a syringe of M-99, and foiled his initial attack. A physical struggle ensued. The two wrestled until Dexter got the upper hand and pinned Mary to the ground. She