While serial killers often grab the headlines, Dr. Jack Levin said they do not account for a large percentage of violence nationwide.
“I try to emphasize that we are not having an epidemic of serial murder, in fact the real problem in this country is domestic violence, friends that kill one another in a bar,” Levin said.
Levin co-directs Northwestern University’s Brudnick Center of Violence and Conflict. He spoke Tuesday night at Tennessee Tech. Levin said he tries to help people understand what motivates a serial killer.
Some 15-thousand murders take place in America annually. Levin said about 200 are the victims of serial killers. That number, Levin said, has decreased dramatically since the 1970s and 80s when cases like Charles Manson and Ted Bundy grabbed the nation’s attention.
“We should do our best to reduce that number, but it pales by comparison with the single-victim killings that go on everyday,” Levin said.
An author on some 30 books and hundreds of articles, Levin began studying the culture of mass murder during the 1980s. He has interviewed serial killers and studied the things that made them act.
“I think trying to understand this enigma is very important,” Levin said.
Levin said most people have some sort of sadistic tendencies, but they are able to use socially-accepted means to deal with them, such as a salesperson who wheels and deals to get the sale. In one article, Levin pointed to television reality shows as an example of that tendency, where one contestant will go behind another’s back to get the win.
The serial killer, Levin said, has the same sort of thoughts but cannot satisfy them in an acceptable way.
