Killer Among Us: Public Reactions to Serial Murder - Couverture rigide

Fisher, Joseph C.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0275955583 ISBN 13 : 9780275955588

Editeur : Praeger Publishers Inc, 1997

Synopsis

What effects does the presence of a serial killer have on the collective health of a community? What strategies do people adopt to manage the fear and anxiety that accompany news of a serial killer's predations? And why do citizens and the media respond as they do to serial killers, who usually account for only a small portion of the homicides in the communities in which they are active? ^IKiller Among Us^R examines serial murder from this fresh perspective: an exploration of the ways people react when a killer is at large in their community. Drawing on 19th-century tabloid accounts of the predations of Jack the Ripper and on 20th-century media coverage of such villains as The Son of Sam and Jeffrey Dahmer, the author constructs vivid and provocative retellings of many of the most infamous cases of serial murder.

In 1973, teenage girls began disappearing from Folly Beach, a small town on a barrier island in South Carolina. Initially thought by police to be a spate of runaways, the real story emerged when a police officer on patrol heard a cry for help and found three girls bound and gagged in an abandoned beach cottage. Further investigation turned up bodies buried in the dunes nearby. The police reacted quickly and closed off the only bridge to the mainland, thereby trapping the townspeople with the certain knowledge that one among them was a serial killer. Everyone became a suspect, as neighbor turned against neighbor in an atmosphere of rapidly growing hysteria.

What effects does the presence of a serial killer have on the collective health of a community? What strategies do people adopt to manage the fear and anxiety that accompany news of a serial killer's predations? And why do citizens and the media respond as they do to serial killers, who usually account for only a small portion of the homicides in the communities in which they are active? Killer Among Us addresses these questions by examining serial murder from this fresh perspective: an exploration of the ways people react when a killer is at large in their community. Drawing on 19th-century tabloid accounts of the predations of Jack the Ripper and on 20th-century media coverage of such villains as The Son of Sam and Jeffrey Dahmer, the author constructs vivid and provocative retellings of many of the most infamous cases of serial murder.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

JOSEPH C. FISHER is President of InterData, Inc., a research firm specializing in advertising evaluation studies and marketing investment analysis. His previous books include Advertising, Alcohol Consumption and Abuse (Greenwood, 1993) and Advertising, Alcohol Consumption and Mortality (Greenwood, 1995). He is also the author of several works in criminology including a study of the relationship between the availability of firearms and homicide rates.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Praeger Publishers Inc
• Date d'édition: 1997
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0275955583
• ISBN 13: 9780275955588
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible