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So I watched the Netflix Docu-series on the Yorkshire Ripper & now Im watching their series on the Night Stalker & the question occurs to me: why was there such a preponderance of serial-killers, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the 1970s & the 1980s in particular?
The vast majority of famous serial killers arose in those two decades in particular. Why?
Yes we’ve probably always had serial-killers but did we have them to the same extent as we did in the era I cite? No. So if your answer is: well, we’ve always had serial killers thats really a non-answer that doesn't explain the increase in murders in this era.
Serial-killers before then? Yes. Before then? Yes. But as many as then? No. So why so many in that era? What was different about that era than before or since?
This is a good answer. I think this is part of the puzzle a lot of ppl miss. https://twitter.com/ghostofchristo1/status/1349845449507823620?s=20
Japan has the lowest homicide rate in the world apparently. 0.3 murders per 100k inhabitants. Japan is the oldest country in the world too, co-incidence? Remember that in the 1950s Japan had the second highest homicide rate in the world, secondly only to the USA.
Now, is the baby boom sufficient to explain all this? No, there was obviously more going on than just that but its an important part of the puzzle that ppl usually miss. Most murders are committed by young-ish men. So, if there are more young-ish men in your population? Well....
Baby-boom = more young men + those young men were more untethered than ever before due to the social & sexual revolutions of the 1960s
+ there was no CCTV, there was no DNA finger-printing + lead in petrol + no doubt, a host of other factors.
This is a factor that ppl tend to miss or, at least, underplay. So its worth re-iterating.
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/sampson/files/2006_criminology_laubwimer_1.pdf
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/sampson/files/2006_criminology_laubwimer_1.pdf
Between 1960 & 1980 the divorce rates doubled in America, was that a factor?
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-evolution-of-divorce
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-evolution-of-divorce
