Creating Cultural Monsters: Serial Murder in America

Creating Cultural Monsters: Serial Murder in America

A unique and comprehensive explanation of serial murder, this book draws on the years of dedicated research of Dr. Julie B. Wiest. The book examines connections between American culture and the incidence of serial murder and draws clear and well supported conclusions. Dr. Wiest presents six empirically supported arguments that have the potential to revolutionize how serial murder is understood, studied, investigated, and brought to light, including a sociological context as to why most identified serial murderers are white males. This text is suitable as a reference as well as a textbook for serial murder, serial violence, and criminal profiling courses. " … well thought out and scholarly …." ―Heith Copes, University of Alabama at Birmingham "Using an interdisciplinary framework that takes into account culture, gender, and race, the book provides a critical analysis of serial murders in the United States and makes an important contribution to knowledge in culture, gender, race/ethnicity and criminology." ―Hoan N. Bui, University of Tennessee, Knoxville "I will be adopting this book as a primary source for additional insight and information for teaching an upper division course on Serial Killers … . The author’s sociocultural approach to understanding serial murder is a much needed theoretical conceptualization" ―Jacquelyn L. Sandifer, Campbellsville University, Kentucky, USA "The author has written a fascinating, creative, and enlightening examination of our cultural monsters. Anyone who seeks to understand this horrific phenomenon will want to read Wiest's excellent work." ―Jack Levin, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts and author of Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers: Up Close and Personal. Dr. Julie B. Wiest is an assistant professor of communication and sociology at High Point University in High Point, North Carolina. She earned a doctorate in sociology from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Georgia. Wiest also has nearly a decade of experience in print and electronic journalism and published a book in 2006 titled We Were There , a compilation of the World War II narratives of 30 veterans.