You’re right - to press charges, they probably had to ID the corpse for the court, thus informing the family would be essential.
“Coarsening of the culture” doesn’t quite capture this trend; perhaps “rape of the culture” would be franker.
The phrase “downwhirl spiral” also comes to mind, as well as “morally bankrupt”.
That's getting close to it. My dearly loved grandmother died at 94 in a small Texas town, and no one doubted her body was treated with respect. Any low-life sick pervert that could possibly be tempted would know that his own life would be forfeit if he was caught even trying to molest her corpse.