The presence of serial killers in a society doesn’t just require the killer him- or herself, it also requires a particular set of circumstances that University of Alberta professor of sociology and criminology Kevin Haggerty argues (via the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies) have only appeared in modern times. One of his requirements for the birth — and success — of serial killers is one that should sound familiar in 21st century America: a “society of strangers.”

Haggerty says that for centuries, people were born in, lived in, and died in the same area, surrounded by the same people that they’d known their entire lives. (And that’s still the case in some countries.) More recently, the rise of city centers has caused a few things to happen, including the mass movement of people to urban areas, and the faceless anonymity that comes with being surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of strangers on a daily basis.

Imagine, for a minute, the big cities of the US. New York City in particular lauds itself on the hustle and bustle of thinly veiled chaos, where literally millions of people shove their way past each other every day. Serial killers thrive on what Haggerty calls “routinized impersonal encounters,” and the fact that these encounters happen all the time, every day, in cities — and towns, and villages — across the US make for prime hunting grounds where serial killers can pick and choose their victims.

Author and historian Peter Vronsky has been studying the cultural and environmental factors that contribute to the development of serial killers since his own literal brush with one: he walked past Richard Cottingham, the Butcher of Times Square, as he was leaving a motel where he’d committed a double murder.

Vronsky suggests (via CrimeReads) that there were several periods in American history that were perfect for laying the groundwork — and the troubled childhoods — of future serial killers. The first was the Great Depression, and he points to the sheer number of killers who were born at the tail end of it, including John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson (pictured), and Henry Lee Lucas.

Vronsky says that there’s two parts to the story, and first, there’s the complete disintegration of the social structure that America had been built on. For generations, men had been the breadwinners of the family, there had been clear divides between the haves and the have-nots, and everyone knew just what place they occupied. But then, World War I sent broken soldiers suffering from countless undiagnosed and untreated mental issues back to America, where they tried to build something resembling a family… and it was just in time for the Great Depression to take it all away. Men like Gacy and Manson were born into those families thrown completely in turmoil… and they were surrounded by the newly homeless, poor, and transient. In other words, victims.

It’s easy to brush aside the traumatic, cumulative effects that the Great Depression and two world wars might have on someone born in the years after World War II, but Vronsky has some compelling evidence: including the fact that he told Vice that 82 percent of US serial killers were active during that so-called “golden age.” Vronsky took some of these serial killers and backtracked into their formative years. While most didn’t start killing until they were approaching their 30s, he found that many would have been starting down their path much earlier — for golden age killers, that would have been in the 1940s and 1950s.

At that time, Vronsky (via CBC) says they would have grown up reading magazines called “sweats,” so named because they featured a style that graphically depicted pain, torture, and abuse. Within the pages of these magazines — which were readily available everywhere from the corner store to the local barber shop — were stories of mutilation, murder, sexual assault, and bondage porn.

While it might sound like a knee-jerk reaction of blaming pop culture for creating monsters, it’s worth noting that these magazines were frequent finds in the homes and apartments of serial killers that were finally brought to justice. One — Harvey Glatman — was active in the 1950s, and photographed his victims as the women on the covers of True Detective magazine. He kidnapped them, posed them, then killed them.

Here’s a not-so-fun fact that’s the stuff of nightmares: according to The Atlantic, about 40 percent of serial killers get away with it. That’s not a statistic from the 1980s, either; that’s from 2019. So, how on earth — in the modern America, which is filled with social media, camera phones, and surveillance — is that possible?

They say there’s a few things at work here, from the fact that serial killers are getting smarter and learning from their predecessors, to the idea that law enforcement is getting increasingly underfunded. There’s also the fact that America has a massive industry that’s perfect for serial killers: long haul trucking.

Between 2009 and 2019, the FBI identified 750 victims left along the nation’s highways. Most of the suspects ended up being truck drivers, who were employed in a job that not only took them across state lines and made it easier to avoid law enforcement by crossing jurisdictions, but also presented a wealth of potential victims at places like truck stops and gas stations. Serial killers need opportunity, and America’s trucking industry gives plenty.

When it comes to states, which one has the most serial killers per capita, and why? (In other words, in which state are you most likely to become the victim of a serial killer?) California and New York might seem like logical choices, but it’s neither of those — it’s Alaska. According to Crime Capsule, Alaska’s stats are staggering: for every one million people, there’s 15.65 serial murders. 

It’s believed that there’s a number of reasons why Alaska might be so attractive to serial killers, and it starts with the sheer remoteness of it. Not only are there vast expanses of wilderness that are perfect for disposing of a body, but the likelihood of being interrupted is slim, and law enforcement is forced to cover a huge amount of territory — which is difficult.

There’s also a high percentage of seasonal workers that head to Alaska only briefly, then go off to greener pastures while the seasons change and the suspicion lessens. People who disappear from an ever-changing pool of workers are less likely to be noticed as missing, and the state also has a large percentage of sex workers — who are generally high-risk individuals and favored targets. All of that makes Alaska prime hunting grounds for serial killers.