Society is fascinated with the phenomenon of serial killers, with true crime shows and podcasts having surged in recent years.
In 2022, Dateline NBC a popular true crime show averaged 3 million viewers per episode, and the podcast Serial, which brought mainstream attention to true crime podcasts, has had over 300 million downloads since it debuted in 2014.
In the U.S, the rates of known and recorded serial killers differs in each state. The period between 1979 and 2000 marked the peak of these crimes, with the likes of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffery Dahmer shocking the nation with their crimes.
Newsweek spoke with David Wilson, a professor emeritus of criminology at Birmingham City University in the U.K. He said that, “Less than 1 percent of all American murders are committed by serial murderers, and by serial murderer, someone who kills three or more victims in a period of greater than 30 days.”
“The phenomenon of a murder in the United States has got very little to do with serial murder and yet we’re fascinated by serial murder and why that should be, so it is in itself an interesting question to try and answer,” he said.
The top three states with the most recorded serial killers are:
- New York
- California
- Texas
New York tops the list with 18 recorded serial killers. In the mid-1970s, David Berkowitz, known as the “Son of Sam,” murdered six people and injured 11 more. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Joel Rifkin murdered 17 women.
California is home to a number of infamous serial killer cases, including the Zodiac Killer, the Golden State Killer and Richard Ramirez. Texas, has a total of eight recorded serial killers, including Dean Croll, Angel Maturino Reséndiz and Charles Albright.
Wilson told Newsweek that the vastness of the U.S. can influence this, with serial killers like Ted Bundy travelling across state lines and committing crimes in multiple locations.
Why do the rates of serial killers differ from state to state? “There’s a socioeconomic pattern to the distribution of serial murder,” Wilson said. “If I think about the states which have high concentrations of serial murder victims, they would be places like California, Texas.”
“Those states have historically had patterns of indigent workers, immigrant workers coming into the state and not really having roots in the state and therefore if they are murdered, if they disappear, it is often the case that they won’t be reported, their disappearance won’t be reported to the police,” Wilson said.
“Often serial murderers will prey on those people who are somehow for whatever reason seen as living outside of the norms, the moral norms of mainstream culture. So for example there are high percentages of sex workers who are predated by serial killers, high numbers of gay men.”
“Again, these are cultural phenomena rather than anything to do with, you know, serial killers. What serial killers do is expose vulnerabilities in our culture because it’s those people who are vulnerable to attack by serial killers that tell us about our social organization,” Wilson said.
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