The Matter of Images

In Italy, it is assumed that there is next to no serial killers.There isn't even an Italian word for it (they use the term "serial killer"). Italian readily admit that theirs is a violent culture, quite possibly the most violent in Europe. But they understand their violence under two headings : the Mafia and hot blooded Latin passion. As the authors of a recent Italian study point out, in fact Italy comes behind only the USA, the UK, Germany and France in the league table of numbers of serial killers per head of the population. As they say, this gives the lie to the idea that serial killing is a kind of brutality "typically Anglo-Saxon and, in general, Nordic". However, what interests me is that this is the perception, including in Anglo-Saxon and Nordic Countries − which really means those countries perceived as white countries. Whatever the facts, serial killing is white men killing white women. It's a white thing.
Serial Killing does not simply accord with the idea that white men are cold and unfeeling. It elaborates upon it. Killing, to be understandably human, should be visceral and bloody. In the hands of serial killers, it is cerebral and clean, two of the master values of whiteness. This produces one of the dominant images of the serial killer : the cold genius of death.