Brutalization and Serial Killers

Brutalization and Serial Killers

In what is likely to be a fairly controversial article, here &full scholarly report here, researchers have concluded that certain societal factors, including whether a state retains the death penalty, contributes to the creation of serial killers. Although the study appears to support the brutalization theory (that is state killing leads to more killing by society’s members), the work appears to be a starting point in the conversation, not an ending point, with additional research needing to be done. The data sets underlying the paper are not publicly available for peer-scrutiny & until such time as they are, the work, while interesting and potentially ground-breaking, still remains an interesting read.