Why were/are there so many serial killers in the US?
I know the population is high but the number is still unproportional. Just look at the table here. Internet also gives reason as "poor mental health care" and "bad police" which are both not exclusive to the US.
Posted Dec 12, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC
16
I think the dispersed nature of our population, combined with the vastness of our rural areas plays a significant part. It's just far more fertile hunting ground and easier to blend and disappear here than anywhere else. So they feel safer.
Also, I think our law enforcement actually recognizes the patterns better so we find more of them. I don't think other nations find as many. But they still have them.
And easier to disappear bodies. Definitely a ton of Russian serial killers too. It’s really hard to quantify the amount of serial killers a country has because so many are active and so many victims go unnoticed until it’s too late.
I think we, as the country that came up with the definition and term, are also uniquely obsessed with it to the point we see it and classify it more. Where many other countries catch someone for a single murder, don't dig further and thus don't uncover how many of the people they catch for one have done more.
I don't think I really agree with you on the last point. In my country with the population of 40 milion there has been 2230 murders in total in years 2013-2020. We don't have huge national parks or deserts where bodies could be hidden so effectively. Even if you assume the true number to be 5000 it is such a low number that finding a pattern would not be very challenging.