“Shooting for you and all humanity, I have lost my mind. Psychotic, rabid dementia, I won't be okay. – Avenged Sevenfold While the members of Avenged Sevenfold, a heavy metal band, are not psychotic killers, their lyrics do refer to the destruction of other humans. Many people have a morbid curiosity about the mind of a psychopathic killer. The criminal justice system has a number of specialists trained to study the minds of psychotic killers. Psychopathic killers usually grow up in similar, unstable homes. However, they usually have completely different crime scenes. Most of these killers have different motivations for killing their victims. Psychopaths are stereotyped. They are shown as vicious and violent people, but in reality they may seem nice. Their common characteristic is a lack of empathy. They lie and manipulate and don't regret or care about what they do. Honestly, they don't care. They hide their shortcomings with a charming attitude, so no one knows how they really behave sometimes. Outwardly they show no mental disorders and do not hear voices or have hallucinations. They are not confused, anxious, or driven by overwhelming compulsions. They are usually quite sociable and have an above-average intellect. Indeed, evidence suggests that one or two areas of the brain are not enough to produce profound impairments in psychopaths. Psychopaths are misunderstood. Researchers have estimated that approximately 500,000 psychopaths are in the U.S. prison system. Chances are, everyone knows a psychopath. Psychopathy makes up 0.5% to 1% of the general population, which is close to 250,000 people who live freely, commit no crimes but still take advantage of the people around them. They are notorious…half of paper…they know exactly what goes on in the mind of a psychopath (Jadczyk). Psychopathic killers usually grow up in similar, unstable homes. However, they usually have completely different crime scenes. Most of these killers have different motivations for killing their victims. Work Cited Jadczyk, Arkodiusz and Laura Jadczyk, “What is a Psychopath” Cassiopaea.com, 1997-2009. Network. November 15, 2011. Kiehl, Kent A. and Joshua W. Buckholtz “Inside the Mind of a Psychopath.” Scientific American Mind 21.4 (September/October 2010): 22-29. EBSCO. October 14, 2011.LaBrode, Rebecca Taylor. “Briefly Treatment and Crisis Intervention” Boston College, 7.2 (2007): 151-160. EBSCO. October 12, 2011.Philbin, Tom. I, Monster: Serial killer in their own words. Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2010. Print.Woods, Paul Anthony, and Errol Morris. “Serial Killers” Fortunecity.com, Web.10 November 2011.