Serial killers remain fixtures of popular culture, but the historical numbers tell a different story. In the United States, known serial murder peaked in the late twentieth century and has declined substantially since. So what changed?

In this episode of The Forensic Lens Podcast, I examine the changing ecology of serial murder—from demographic shifts, childhood adversity, lead exposure, mobility, and vulnerable victims to the investigative limitations that once allowed offenders to remain invisible across jurisdictions. I then explore how DNA profiling, investigative genetic genealogy, CCTV, mobile-phone records, digital footprints, and better information sharing have tightened the forensic net around repeat offenders.

But extreme violence has not disappeared. As serial murder became harder to sustain undetected, public mass violence has become increasingly visible in different settings around the world. These are distinct forms of homicide, not interchangeable categories—but their changing prominence raises a larger question: how do social environments, technology, opportunity, and detection shape the forms extreme violence takes?

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