Although Jeffrey Charles is a child, the motive behind his turn to a life of crime is similar to a lot of the unsubs on "Criminal Minds": he isn't inherently evil, he's responding to traumatic events in his life in a heinous way. After Jeffrey is caught by the BAU, Agent Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) asks the boy why he was hurting his classmates. Jeffrey looks him dead in the eye and bluntly replies, "Because I wanted to." But the BAU has already done their profiling and talked to Jeffrey's father, so they know it goes much deeper than that.
Several months prior to the events of the episode, Jeffrey's mother separated from his father, abandoning him in the process — and creating a huge void in his life. Without the attention of his mother, Jeffrey had to rely on his now-single father for all the emotional support a child needs, and his father's job as a school guidance counselor prevented him from giving his son the attention he required. Jealousy factored in, too, with other children getting support from his father due to the nature of his job. So Jeffrey lashed out, seeking to punish the other kids for occupying so much of his father's time. He would ultimately claim the lives of three of his classmates and forever change the atmosphere of his small town of Ozona, Texas, before being caught by the BAU — not that his capture is a happy ending to the story. His own life will be forever damaged, and all because of the violent response this 12-year-old had to his family's dissolution.
