Teaching grace and mercy through an interterm class on serial killers

Published: January 29, 2024

Author: Dave Bell

It’s not a class for the faint of heart.

Even the class title – “A Social Survey of Serial Killers” – doesn’t reveal the challenging material that students will encounter. Or the spiritual questions they’ll wrestle with.

But wrestling with those questions of evil, redemption and grace is precisely what Professor Shawn Foles intends the class to promote. Criminal Justice 199 was one of 10 classes offered during the two-week interterm between the fall and spring semesters.

“Outside of some theology classes, this is one of the most religiously introspective classes on campus,” said Foles, pictured above. “It asks the students if grace is available to even serial killers. And, as Christians, how should we view serial killers?

“It’s important to deal with these difficult questions as we strive to follow Christ,” he added. “These people have done horrible things. We talk about forgiveness and grace, but can we offer those to serial killers?”

After discussing some of the most notorious serial killers the first week, students spend the next week learning some of the forensic techniques used to apprehend them. They also get hands-on experience collecting fingerprints, making casts of footprints, and interpreting blood spatters.

During the class, students write two papers – one on the topic of faith, evil, and redemption and a second on a specific serial killer. Foles said it’s not a class just for Criminal Justice majors. In fact, five different majors were represented among the nine students taking the class this year.

Foles, the University’s Director of Community Standards and Campus Safety, has an extensive background in law enforcement. The Mississippi native holds a bachelor’s degree in forensics and a master’s degree in criminal justice and is currently working on a doctorate in criminal justice. He also teaches three classes at GU – crime scene investigation, criminal justice, and criminal law. Before coming to Greenville University four years ago, he was a fingerprint technician for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

“The serial killer class can be challenging to students,” Foles said. “But our goal is not to shock them. Instead, we want to challenge them to think about evil and depravity in the light of God’s grace. That grace falls on the just and the unjust alike. And that should change the way we view serial killers – and ourselves.”