Why are there so many serial killers in the United States?

Answer 1

Answer

Most experts on criminal behavior agree with this one basic concept: After the second world war there was a shift in family dynamics. People that once lived in small communities were now relocating to larger urban areas. Gone was the tight circle of neighbors and neighborhoods. People were surrounded by strangers. The old saying 'it takes a village to raise a child' sums it up well.

For the first time in the history of mankind, humans had little support. With the added burden of working women, children were being raised by a care-giver that had no emotional investment in the child, and latchkey children that spent a good deal of their time alone. In other words, we were working without a net.

Without that sense of family and community to keep behavior in check, we should not be surprised with an increase in crime and especially murder.

Answer

The first answer is only half of the story. A factor to keep in mind is, that today, many more criminals can be identified more readily through better investigative techniques, forensic sciences, and a greater body of knowledge accessible to investigators. Another factor is modern communication systems; systems that give investigators information from all over the country and all over the world. and systems that put the information about crimes and criminals into the hands of anyone looking for it. The public is much better informed.

In days gone by, many serial killers were not identified when they moved from one place to another. Even cases in a neighboring country, much less state, were not connected up but were investigated as stand alone incidents. In centuries gone by, it is my opinion that the legends of werewolves, Zombies, and vampires were simpler explanations for people than to believe that "Uncle Joe" may have grotesquely murdered a series of their townsfolk.

This is not to say that many investigators of the past were not very good detectives, but today's detectives have so many more tools and are able to acquire information so quickly. I once heard a detective say about an arrogant serial killer, "He thought that he was smarter than me, but he wasn't smarter than all of us".

Answer 2

A combination of factors make the United States unique in the number of serial killers it has produced. There has always been serial killers, history tells us that much. It's not new. But we need to look at America's history, post-WWII. With the end of the war in Europe, America's economy was booming. More than ever before people were mobile due to the ablity to purchase a car. We are a nation of car lovers. There was also a continued migration of the population from rural to urban. As people left small farming towns to live and work in larger cities the support structure of the family underwent drastic changes.

So the mix of booming economy, or a larger portion of 'spendable money', people becoming mobile in the cars, the rural to uban migration of the workforce and the weakening infrastructure of the middle class family's support system, left the country ripe for increasing crime.