Social factors for JTR murders

[HelenaWojtczak]

Would it be fair to say from the last two posts that the surprise is not so much that a serial killer rose out of such an environment, but that only one rose out of that environment?

Sorry to be pedantic Errata, but we don't know that it was "only one".

[Cuervo]

Hi to all,
I agree with Helena.The concept od serial killer didnīt even existed at the times of JTR so there may have been more, even before.
Also, if women (prostitutes) are blamed for everything...that is a social factor already. We all heard of cases of killings of prostitutes in an attempt to punish the unmorals or the morally ill. Wether this is the first time such social factor appeared or not...Iīm not sure. But Iīm sure it is a social factor that may have influenced in JTR.

[Phil H]

I don't think the impact of the popular, or "yellow" press has yet been mentioned.

WT Stead and his ilk relished sensationalism - hence the recent claims that the press "created" the "Ripper" by fomenting panic, collating cases (by which I mean suggesting that murders perhaps by various hands were part of a series by one murderer) and even by imitating or imagining letters from the killer and giving him a nom-de-sang (Jack the Ripper) - all aimed to achieve higher circulation and their own agendas.

This was a social phenomena as new as the concept of a "serial" killer.

Further, the older Ripper books used to speculate a lot about the motive of the killer being to bring about social change. I see less discussion of this these days, but perhaps the growth of social reform groups was a factor direct or indirect?

But I keep coming back to alienation as a cause of, and a sustainer of the murders.

In the pre-industrial, rural communities, the outsider would have been spotted and treated suspiciously from the outset. individual members of the community would have felt supported and sustained, they would have been known to all from infancy. If one became a killer they would have been dealt with accordingly.

In the indutrial slum cities, by contrast, men and women could wholly lack a support network, be anonymous, uncared for, nurse their grievances and lusts in isolation. They might be shut out (alienated) by society because of class, linguistic, cultural or other reasons. They could strike anonymously, in the dark and hide away without anyone knowing their proclivities, and their victims were woman equally outcast and alienated, equally uncared for and it seems uncaring in the main (Tabram, Nichols, Chapman).

The East End was indeed a terrible abyss.

Phil

[ChrisGeorge]

All of the 'canonical' murders were commited in the 'Evil Quarter Mile' identified abd nicknamed by contemporaneous social reformers; the abyss within the abyss.

Is that just a co-incidence?

Hello Jonathan

Isn't it more the labyrinthine quality of the neighborhood and the numerous available poor potential victims that made the area conducive to the operations of the serial killer named Jack the Ripper?

All the best

Chris

[Phil H]

Isn't it more the labyrinthine quality of the neighborhood and the numerous available poor potential victims that made the area conducive to the operations of the serial killer named Jack the Ripper?

Or is it that a man, living within this terrible, tangled "void", surrounded by others caught in the same web, struck out, and the shadows shielded him?

In other words, the environment both produced and sheltered the killer and gave him his prey.

Phil

[ChrisGeorge]

Isn't it more the labyrinthine quality of the neighborhood and the numerous available poor potential victims that made the area conducive to the operations of the serial killer named Jack the Ripper?

Or is it that a man, living within this terrible, tangled "void", surrounded by others caught in the same web, struck out, and the shadows shielded him?

In other words, the environment both produced and sheltered the killer and gave him his prey.

Phil

Was he produced by the environment where he found his victims or did he come from elsewhere and just found the area a fertile killing field?

[Phil H]

Was he produced by the environment where he found his victims or did he come from elsewhere and just found the area a fertile killing field?

That of course is the question - a Kosminski or a Druitt?

Even a Kosminski could be looked at two ways:

- was he murderous when he arrived and London gave him his killing ground;

- or was he fragile, and London tipped him over the edge.

In some ways I find the latter more plausible.

Phil

[Errata]

Hi to all,
I agree with Helena.The concept od serial killer didnīt even existed at the times of JTR so there may have been more, even before.
Also, if women (prostitutes) are blamed for everything...that is a social factor already. We all heard of cases of killings of prostitutes in an attempt to punish the unmorals or the morally ill. Wether this is the first time such social factor appeared or not...Iīm not sure. But Iīm sure it is a social factor that may have influenced in JTR.

There were certainly serial killers previous. Some (especially here in the US) had the law on their side, but that doesn't change what these people were.

I thought you were looking for unique social factors that gave rise to JtR. Sort of something that had never been before and created a monster. Thus my confusion. Mea Culpa.

Although there may be unique factor in this time frame not seen before. Industrial poisoning.

[Cuervo]

Itīs ok Errata.
It is interesting what you say about industrial poisoning. I would like to read your opinion about it (if you donīt mind)

[Errata]

Itīs ok Errata.
It is interesting what you say about industrial poisoning. I would like to read your opinion about it (if you donīt mind)

Well, I don't know how likely it is, given that we don't know who Jack the Ripper was. We know that childhood lead poisoning can cause violent instability in an adult. But the dosage is tricky. We also know that some elements or chemicals can block neurotransmitters from getting to the appropriate receptors. It has resulted in mental illness. But to the best of my knowledge no one has ever killed anyone because of this.

I don't think industrial poisoning (which was rampant at the time) would have caused him to kill. It might have made him a little less stable, a little more prone to lashing out. However, there are certain commonalities in the childhoods of most serial killers, and that's where I think it is most likely to be a factor. If his mother was working in a factory, and given what the usual jobs were for women in factories, she would have had a better than average chance of suffering lead poisoning, maybe mercury poisoning, or carbon monoxide poisoning. All of these have severe mental or neurological problems associated with them, as well as causing a wasting death. It was not uncommon for women to be violently unstable before their death, and toll that takes on a child is significant to say the least.

I don't know if it happened. I just know it could have happened. But if it did, it would have been the first time in history that it would have been a factor.

[Cuervo]

Thank you Errata,
Sorry I didnīt reply before, Iīve been traveling and without any acces to the internet.
What you say, has lots of sense to me. It reminds me of Moffit theory when she talks about long term criminals. Do you know it?

[Errata]

Thank you Errata,
Sorry I didnīt reply before, Iīve been traveling and without any acces to the internet.
What you say, has lots of sense to me. It reminds me of Moffit theory when she talks about long term criminals. Do you know it?

Only a criminology 101 reduction of it.