The bulk of data on serial killers and violent serial offenders more generally suggested that most were made, not born. In the vast majority of cases, people who killed or raped or maimed others had themselves suffered brutal trauma as children. Sometimes it was abuse. Sometimes it was being a victim of or witness to a single violent incident that resonated with them. Sometimes it was being in a perpetually violent environment. Often it was all of those things. But that wasn’t determinative. Millions of kids grow up in violent or abusive circumstances and never go on to hurt anyone. Jessie was
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