Chapter 4 - A Focus on the Context

Summary

A few serial killers act in pairs, each bringing a disturbed upbringing. Some report distress through lack of sexual opportunity. Attachments to others, engagements and commitments to work can offer some protection against following this toxic trajectory. The choice of victim reflects the killer’s sexual orientation and desirability of the target, and in some cases the perception of the victim’s guilt. Sex workers are the favoured victims, apparently reflecting the ease of access to them and their perceived immorality. Lust killing became most evident in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century it became disproportionately an American phenomenon, with a peak in the 1960-1980 period.It can be speculated that various factors contributed to this rise, such as breakup of the traditional family structure, the availability of cars and highways and an increased frequency of drug addiction amongst sex workers. Lust killers are almost without exception male.