Serial Killers Have Rapidly Declined Since The 1980s
Since a dramatic peak in the 1980s, serial killers in the U.S. like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer have been in decline for three decades. Experts have a few theories that can help explain why.
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In the book Freakonomics they made the argument that the sudden decline in crime in the late 90's appeared to be tied to Roe v. Wade. I wonder if this is similar.
A large percentage of serial killers suffered from childhood abuse and trauma. Kids in the foster system are often abused and traumatized. I can see it.
I thought you were being sarcastic but there is a book called Freakonomics and it does suggest as you said. Check the "Criticism" section for details.
It's the same quality of scholarship as a Malcolm Gladwell book - namely, none. On the one hand it's a shame these kinds of books are bestsellers, but I guess it's good that people are reading books at all. Most of the people I know stopped reading in their mid-20s except for poorly written "news" articles online that can be completed in a couple minutes or less.
Weird most people I know read fiction for fun.
Maybe most written content is written in jest and we just missed the memo? One can dream.
Seems to have been debunked: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/03/21/why-freakonomics-failed-to-transform-economics
Later researchers found a coding error and pointed out that Mr Levitt had used the total number of arrests, which depends on the size of a population, and not the arrest rate, which does not. Others pointed out that the fall in homicide started among women. No-fault divorce, rather than legalised abortion, may have played a bigger role.
