Why Are Folks Shocked When Crime Happens in Small Towns?

Did y’all not read In Cold Blood? Don’t you have the ID channel? Or is it racism that makes you think it “doesn’t happen here?”

The Clutter home (scene of an infamous multiple murder in 1959), Holcomb, KS. Image: Lorie Shaull, Flickr, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

I have a confession.

I watch a lot of True Crime and have always been fascinated with the psychology of criminal offending, particularly that of serial killers and others whose offenses stem from profound mental and emotional disorders.

Ever since I snuck my parents’ paperback copy of Helter Skelter off their bookshelf when I was 11 — far too young to be reading about the Manson cult — I’ve been interested in why people kill, especially in such horrific ways.

But what’s even more fascinating than the psychology of murderers is the psychology of people in small towns or rural areas who always seem shocked when one of those awful crimes happens where they live.

A few nights ago, I was watching a show about some grisly crime out in the so-called “heartland.” And, as always happens in these cases, they interviewed someone who looked utterly confused by the whole thing.

As she put it, wide-eyed with amazement:

These kinds of things just don’t happen here.