If, on a deserted road at night, a truck driver dressed in an ice cream vendor’s outfit offers you a ride, you know what to do! It turns out that serial killing is not a full-time occupation. In fact, most convicted serial killers had various professions, went to work, and paid taxes.
English criminologist Michael Arntfield conducted a study in which he calculated the fields where those later convicted of serial killings were most often employed. Based on this, Arntfield wrote the book “Murder on the Plain,” in which he proposed the theory that there is a certain correlation between one’s profession and the propensity to commit crimes.
This does not mean, of course, that if you happen to work as an entertainer at children’s parties, you will eventually feel compelled to arm yourself with a huge cleaver. Rather, it is the opposite: people with certain mental disorders (of which serial killing is one) are more likely to choose professions from the list compiled by Michael Arntfield.
The author of the book identifies 12 professions that attract serial killers more than others:
- Machinist.
- Cobbler.
- Auto mechanic.
- Lumberjack.
- Truck driver / long-haul driver.
- Warehouse worker.
- Laborer.
- Porter.
- Gas station attendant.
- Police officer.
- Military personnel.
- Priest.
In an interview with IFLScience, Michael Arntfield mentioned that serial killers are drawn to these professions for their mobility, the ability to work shifts (and therefore have free time when needed), working with machinery (in psychiatry, mechanophilia is often equated with necrophilia), and, in most cases, the opportunity to easily access vulnerable victims (for example, those involved in the sex industry) under the guise of employment.