Why were there so many high profile serial killers in the 70's?

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

Thats how it seems anyway. There seems to be a lot of very high profile cases from around then. Why the 70's?

I think opportunity always plays a part. There was no DNA lab work then. People tended to have cars and could live apart from their families, which didn't happen so much earlier on. Police computers were in their infancy. There were no mobile phones or CCTV cameras.

It gave serial killers the opportunity to do what they wanted in the knowledge they'd be unlikely to be caught.

I'm going to be completely unhelpful in that I remember reading why but can't remember the answer.

Did people hitchhike a lot in the 70s?

This article is quite interesting on it: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/serial-killers-1970s-2000s-murders-1121705/amp/

There’s a theory that a lot of the serial killers in the 70s were born during or just after the war, and were more likely to have had parents with PTSD from their own experiences. This in turn led them to have less than ideal childhoods which set them up for a predisposition to kill. It does say the theory is disputed, before anyone says I’m suggesting all victims of childhood trauma become serial killers!

I think read somewhere once that the serial killers were all young men (usually) of late 20's, early 30's which means they lived through the instability of WW2 in their early years, and that was a contributing factor.

Im not sure how much I believe this though, as that was a common experience amongst many and not unique to them.

Chances of getting caught were much lower. No cctv, no mobile phones, little forensic evidence, people had a bit more disposable income therefore could afford to buy a car. Computer systems were non existent, I watched a documentary about the Yorkshire ripper and they had to reinforce the floor all the paperwork was kept on because there was so much of it. He was caught purely by chance.

There are theories that it's the rise in lead due to petrol.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis

There are many factors though. Check out this article:
www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/serial-killers-1970s-2000s-murders-1121705/

I remember reading that the prevalence of lead paint in toys when these men were children could have had an effect.

Also as PP said parental PTSD.

The death penalty was banned in the UK in 1965.

DNA started to be used to identify individuals in the UK in the mid 1980s.

I suspect there was a window there where the risk of being caught didn't come with a noose around your neck.

Sorry, article has already been posted. Here's the lead one again:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis

I think it's just they got away with more murders than most killers do today. Like Lbnc2021 said there wasn't the same forensic techniques and police forces didn't generally share information. Plus hitch hiking, people were more trusting etc.

Sometimes a murder is committed and it seems like if they hadn't been caught they would have just kept going. Like Wayne Couzens - his whole MO was that of someone who could have turned into a serial killer if he wasn't caught.

I agree California in the 70's seemed to be rife with them!

I suspect really it’s a combination of factors, including personality and early experiences, which if a person has one or a few of don’t cause problems. But many mixed together become a lethal concoction.

Exactly. California was rife!

I think nowadays people are more likely to be caught quickly, so just don’t often have the chance to commit multiple murder. Back then it was harder to catch people, less dna and forensic work, so people were able to kill repeatedly.

It was a sweet spot where the dawning of technology meant cases could be identified and linked in ways they previously hadn't been but that technical wasn't yet harnessed in ways that aided quick detection. Even now crimes from the 70 and 80's are being solved as DNA profiles are added to the system that make familial links to the perpetrators.

@BaronessOfTheNorth

The death penalty was banned in the UK in 1965.

DNA started to be used to identify individuals in the UK in the mid 1980s.

I suspect there was a window there where the risk of being caught didn't come with a noose around your neck.

I think you've hit the nail on the head.

I think it’s like the programme Mindhunter suggests, in the US they only really even came up with the term ‘serial killer’ in the 1970s and started researching and connecting cases that probably otherwise were seen as random Murders in xx state.

In the UK, we had a few in the 50s and 60s didn’t we? Christie etc. Also the Whitechapel Murders of course.

I think I've read somewhere about it being linked to the development of the motorway network, which led to more jobs in haulage etc. People with sociopathic tendencies who found themselves doing this work (like Robert Black) were able to get to know parts of the country well away from where they lived, and if the opportunity to commit murder arose, they were sufficiently familiar with the area to kill and dispose of their victim, and then be hundreds of miles away (and beyond suspicion) by the time the victim's absence had been noted and investigations begun.

There was a fascinating five-part documentary from the victims of Ted Buny's point of view, awful but fascinating. It also included that the rise of women's rights and summer of '69 marches etc made many men very angry that women were getting 'above their station', which may have brought about a lot of mysogynistic rage and anger to the surface.

It's all very chilling.

Porn / extreme porn became more available

I'm not sure if they were more prevalent then, it's just that they started getting caught.
It's likely that many murderers before that time would have had multiple victims, but the instances wouldn't have been associated with each other, especially if committed in different policing areas. Police forces here (and US, as I recall from Ted Bundy documentary) used to not be so good at communicating with each other.

FBI reckons there are 25-50 active serial killers in the US, down from 300 in the 70s, which seems to be considered a peak.

Wow at those figures @EilonwyWithRedGoldHair !
I'm not sure what's more shocking: how many there used to be, how many there still are, or the huge difference between them!

There certainly seemed to be something about the 1970s.

@DoctorWoo I remembered reading something about the number of active serial killers and being quite shocked - this thread reminded me of it so I googled it.

A quick Google of why the reduction brings up better forensic and investigative technology, the removal of lead from petrol and the legalisation of abortion as some of the possible contributing factors.