We often ask how people commit acts of murder — against individuals, groups, even entire nations. But perhaps the better question is what does it take? What must a person endure, believe, feel, or suppress to take another life — sometimes many?
The answer lies in a grim mix of trauma, conditioning, fear, belief, and the slow corrosion of empathy.
Emotionally: numbness, rage, and justification
Murder doesn’t always stem from fiery anger. Sometimes it arises from a chilling absence of feeling. Numbness is a dissociation from emotion, often cultivated by repeated exposure to violence. Rage or hatred, often misdirected and fuelled by fear or humiliation, can lead to aggression. Revenge — whether personal or collective — can feel like justice when pain is left to fester.
Psychologically: dehumanisation and obedience
One of the most disturbing truths is that many murders — especially on a mass scale — are carried out not by sadists, but by “ordinary” people. Dehumanisation allows victims to be seen as less than human — vermin, threats, "the enemy." Obedience to authority, as Stanley Milgram’s experiments showed, can make people inflict harm simply because they’re told to. Moral disengagement — using language like “collateral damage” or “cleansing” — further distances perpetrators from the reality of their actions.
Spiritually: dogma, emptiness, or righteous mission
Spiritual drivers can be just as lethal as psychological ones—especially when belief becomes weaponised. Dogmatic certainty — “We are right. They are evil” — has fuelled countless atrocities. A spiritual void, a lack of connection or meaning, makes people susceptible to cult-like ideologies. Righteous violence can feel sanctified when cloaked in divine or ideological purpose.
Past experiences: trauma, indoctrination, and cycles of harm
No one emerges from nowhere. Our past carves pathways in our psyche — some leading to empathy, others to destruction. Childhood abuse or violence often distorts one’s moral compass. Combat or militarisation doesn’t just condition the body — it rewires the conscience. Intergenerational trauma, passed down through silence or pain, can become a legacy of harm.
When murder becomes a system: genocide and mass killing
Murder becomes machinery through systemic dehumanisation. Scapegoating blames certain groups for broader problems. Othering draws lines between “us” and “them.” Organisation allows bureaucracy to mask brutality with paperwork and planning. Erasure turns people into numbers and stories into silence. What enables this? Often, it's silence. Indifference. Fear. Convenience.
The real horror: anyone can do it
It’s tempting to see murderers as aberrations. Monsters. But that’s a comforting myth. The truth is harder to face: under certain conditions — fear, control, isolation, ideology — many people can be made to kill.
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men.”
—Primo Levi
The work, then, is not just to punish killers but to understand what makes killing possible. So we can stop it—not just after it starts, but before it ever seems like a choice.
References
- Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371–378.
- Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. Random House.
- Browning, C. R. (1992). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. HarperCollins.
- Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193–209.
- Staub, E. (1989). The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence. Cambridge University Press.
- Levi, P. (1986). The Drowned and the Saved. Abacus.
- United Nations. Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes. UN Office on Genocide Prevention.
- Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence. Basic Books.