Factor in the steady stream of gratuitous sex and violence that we call entertainment and you have the recipe for social decline. We have created a whole class of youth who think their lives are screwed up and they have nothing to lose. And they desperately want to be noticed. We emulate those in our society who get noticed. Those who have fame.
Problem is, many times the fame is really infamy.
But it still gets you noticed. I was on the Internet the other day and stumbled across this site where they sell Killer Fonts. What they did was take samples of the handwriting of infamous murderers and created typefaces. My guess is these typeface guys will get rich. So if you kill enough people in the most heinous fashion, you get your own typeface.