Why does USA produce myriads of serial killers?

Initially, I think that more of them are reported than in other countries and our media is still free.  In countries like Russia or China, news is only what the government allows.

Secondly, just the number of people here in a country this large is going to have more serial killers than a smaller country.  

And in many third-world countries, tracking crime is not a priority, and people die of a whole host of other causes.

In the US, the FBI has a Behavioral Analysis Unit that focuses on serial killers and why they do what they do. According to them, there are four factors in determining human behavior: genetics, brain chemistry, psychology and environment. Two of those are "nature" and two of those are "nurture". Every serial killer has been formed by the unique combination of those factors in that person's life.  Of those who are abused in childhood, statistically one in eight goes on to be an abuser, and some of them go on to be killers.

There has been a lot of research done in this area, and it is complex. I think Wikipedia might be a place to start on understanding serial killers, and there may be a page on the Behavioral Analysis Unit, also.

"Evil is not a cultural phenomenon. It's a human one."

Link to information on the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit:


forensicpsych.umwblogs.org/fbi/history-of-the-fbi/behavioral-analysis-unit/

Same with the list of serial killers in my sweet ol' country of Canada. Wikipedia didn't even include them all.

Yep.....

good question Feologild Oakes


There were at least 5 active serial killers in the area while I was in college in that area. I was scared!


but..

Maybe all countries have this many, but they aren't discovered?

That is a definite possibility.

I knew somebody who was murdered, myself. Her killer has never been caught.


Simone Sandler

Five at the same area at the same time! Yikes! Statistically that is incredibly rare. Perhaps a college is a good hunting ground?

Aha, well, that makes some sense. I knew there were multiples in San Francisco but didn't realize there were 5! 

I think that places with moderate climates attract homeless people, many of whom should honestly be in a mental hospital, but since Reagan did away with those, they now just keep them a day or two and turn them loose. Helluva way to deal with mentally ill people who have no resources or family. I have no statistics to back that up, just my take on stories I have heard. 

I had a cousin, once removed, who was murdered by her husband. Although the police knew him to be guilty, they could never marshal enough evidence to charge him formally; karma finally caught up with him some years later when he was killed in a motorcycle accident.

My sister once dated a guy who was later charged and arrested for the murders of three women.

I've read that the odds are quite high that, during your lifetime, you've known or had acquaintance with at least one person who has committed a murder and never been caught. The stats on the number of unsolved murders in the US annually are kind of disturbing.


projectcoldcase.org/cold-case-homicide-stats/