I think another part of this is how human brains love a story with archetypes like good guys and bad guys. So we sort of fixate on these unknown "criminals" that are other and bad then we can reassure ourselves that we are good, everyone we know is good, etc. The reality is that every single person put in the right set of circumstances would commit a heinous crime. Also, crime is a social construct. So we don't want to stop and think of the environmental influences and get into the complexity so we stick to good guys/bad guys thinking.
It is shocking how few murders there are. Here in SF we only have around 50 a year. One guy with a gun could double our murder rate. But it usually doesn't happen. It's the safest city I've ever lived! If one rich guy gets murdered, the whole town talks about it for six months--that's how rare it is.
I think another part of this is how human brains love a story with archetypes like good guys and bad guys. So we sort of fixate on these unknown "criminals" that are other and bad then we can reassure ourselves that we are good, everyone we know is good, etc. The reality is that every single person put in the right set of circumstances would commit a heinous crime. Also, crime is a social construct. So we don't want to stop and think of the environmental influences and get into the complexity so we stick to good guys/bad guys thinking.
Absolutely fascinating
It is shocking how few murders there are. Here in SF we only have around 50 a year. One guy with a gun could double our murder rate. But it usually doesn't happen. It's the safest city I've ever lived! If one rich guy gets murdered, the whole town talks about it for six months--that's how rare it is.