American Evil : The Psychology of Serial Killers

Based on clinical experience of killers. Includes a selection of USA/UK serial killer studies. Exposes police and other failings and shortcomings and the perversity of 'defences', 'excuses', etc. Strongly critical of USA gun laws and attitudes making for an unhealthy environment, moral vacuum and lack of awareness and responsibility.

American Evil deals with the 'sordid' world of serial killers, their calculating methods and distorted thinking, based around the author's ground-breaking work as a prison psychologist, government advisor and consultant to three TV series including Voice of a Serial Killer. The book describes how the author was 'so profoundly moved' by his inescapable conclusions about how serial killers are 'made' that he was compelled to set out his findings. Bemoaning the serial killer 'growth industry', 'unhealthy interest' and ill-informed comment he sets the record straight. Serial killers are made not born. But his central polemic is that serial killers are one of several malign human by-products of a dysfunctional modern permissive society, overwhelmingly American, brought about by modern-day culture in the USA, lax moral standards as also reflected in other countries to the extent that they pursue a comparable way of life. From the Introduction: 'The simple fact upon which much of my argument is based is that the USA has only 4.25% of the world's population yet over two-thirds of all the world's known serial killers to date. I believe this is a direct result of the environment in which they are raised.'