The Golden State Killer case perfectly illustrates a lot of the major issues with criminal investigations in the 1970\u2019s. In the case, the East Area Rapist (aka Golden State Killer) committed 50 rapes and 10 murders and yet wasn\u2019t caught for over 40 years. There were many problems that led to him eluding capture for so long, one of the most prominent being the way that he planned his crimes. One of the main ways that criminals at this point in time were caught was if they were caught in the act of the crime. However, the Golden State Killer meticulously planned his attacks with lots of setup like taking bullets out of guns and hiding ways to tie people up in their own house so he could catch his victims off guard and quickly and easily capture\/detain them. This prevented them from having a chance to escape or call the police, preventing his capture at the scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another major reason for him not getting caught is the lack of technology available at the time. Because there was no way to identify DNA evidence back in the 1970\u2019s and 1980\u2019s, it was very difficult to catch criminals who weren\u2019t at the scene of the crime. It was way harder for police to find distinctive evidence to identify a suspect without DNA, mostly relying on fingerprint analysis. This shortcoming was so major that they didn\u2019t even realize the EAR and Golden State Killer were the same person until 2001 when they could use DNA to connect them, and if they didn’t even know what crimes he committed, how could he be caught? Had he committed these murders and rapes now, he would be much easier to catch as especially with something like sexual assaults, there would likely be a lot of DNA evidence to find and then catch the killer with. This is likely the reason that there are a lot less serial killers currently. Serial killers can only become serial killers if they are not caught many times and have the chance to commit more murders, but now with forensic evidence, it is much easier to find even tiny bits of DNA at a crime scene and match it to a perpetrator. This causes a lot more killers to be caught before they have a chance to become a serial killer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Golden State Killer case perfectly illustrates a lot of the major issues with criminal investigations in the 1970\u2019s. In the case, the East Area Rapist (aka Golden State Killer) committed 50 rapes and 10 murders and yet wasn\u2019t caught … Continue reading