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52 How. J. Crim. Just. 1 (2013)

handle is hein.journals/hjcj52 and id is 1 raw text is: The Howard Journal Vol 52 No 1. February 2013 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2311.2012.00731.x ISSN 0265-5527, pp. 1-18 African American Serial Killers: Over-Represented Yet Underacknowledged ALLAN L. BRANSON Adjunct Criminal justice Professor, Chestnut Hill College; Philadelphia Police Department Lieutenant, Philadelphia, USA Abstract: 'Can you name an African American (black) serial killer?' In the US, the answer is often silence. For those who can remember it might be Wayne Williams, the so-called 'Atlanta child murderer'. More astute individuals could mention the more recent D.C. Snipers who, while not comparable to the traditional media portrayals of serial killers, do qualify as such, based on the FBI's assessment. The existence of African American serial killers is a fact that appears to have escaped the attention of the American public. Previous research has identified 90 black serial killers beginning in 1945, yet their notoriety and celebrity are absent from America's popular cultural landscape. Despite the fact that numerous television shows, news reports and films address serial murder in fictional and non-fictional portrayals, there remains a dearth of information and portrayals regarding black serial killers. This is an interesting conundrum. The media show little reticence in portraying black males as low-level criminals, but rarely portray them as serial killers. This article suggests that the unquestioned ethnocentric profile of the serial killer as a white male in the US was created by the FBI, and subsequent media portrayals have reinforced this myth. Consequently, the predominant media portrayals of serial murderers are white male perpetrators. The impact of race- based assumptions among law enforcement agencies and the public regarding the crimi- nality of any group poses a danger to that whole society. Keywords: African Americans; blacks; celebrity; serial killers; serial murders The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe ... We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. (Berger 1972, p.8) The lack of visibility and public awareness regarding black serial killers in the US' was created by law enforcement agents and its symbiotic relation- ship with the media, and it continues to be reinforced, even if unwittingly. True crime books, movies and television shows rarely portray African Americans as serial killers.! Equally significant has been the dearth of scholarly literature on these murderers, save for work by a few social scientists (for example, Jenkins 1993; Hickey 2002; Walsh 2005), fur- ther reducing their visibility and, therefore, public awareness. While the 1 C 2012 The Author The Howard Journal of Criminaljustice C 2012 The Howard League and Blackwell Publishing Ltd Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ UK

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