Reduction
Das and I have been talking about reductionism, well he's been talking mostly I've been listening. Today for some odd reason I started thinking about serial killers. No reason why other than my head goes strange places. I've heard it said several times that most (nearly all) serial killers in the US are white males. When it's been black people stating that statistic it's sometimes said with an attitude of superiority like "hey we have our issues but at least we're not serial killers". I starting thinking about why that is both why that is a true statistic and why it's cited in that manner and I came back to people's penchant for reduction.
Why are most serial killers white males? Could it be the fact that minority murder suspects tend to be invested more harshly up front therefore cutting into the ability of someone to amass multiple victims in a way that a white male would? Could it be that women being smaller and not as strong as men in general use methods that don't rely on strength. Stealthy methods like slow poisons are not as red flagged so can more often go longer without being discovered. When no one knows you're murdering people you don't make the statics now do you? Is there simply a wider victim pool available to white men to choose from as opposed to women or men of other groups because given the assumption that all things being equal white men in the US are given a greater benefit of the doubt than men from minority groups by both the public at large and law enforcement?
My point is that there are undoubtedly a variety of factors that go into creating an atmosphere where the fact is true that most of the serial killers are white males but it's definitely more complicated than one group being more likely to kill just on virtue of being born into that group. As usual my brain is jumping around providing more questions than answers which is cool. I guess I'm basically reminded with these thoughts that while simplicity can be a good thing but being overly simplistic in thinking rarely is.
Why are most serial killers white males? Could it be the fact that minority murder suspects tend to be invested more harshly up front therefore cutting into the ability of someone to amass multiple victims in a way that a white male would? Could it be that women being smaller and not as strong as men in general use methods that don't rely on strength. Stealthy methods like slow poisons are not as red flagged so can more often go longer without being discovered. When no one knows you're murdering people you don't make the statics now do you? Is there simply a wider victim pool available to white men to choose from as opposed to women or men of other groups because given the assumption that all things being equal white men in the US are given a greater benefit of the doubt than men from minority groups by both the public at large and law enforcement?
My point is that there are undoubtedly a variety of factors that go into creating an atmosphere where the fact is true that most of the serial killers are white males but it's definitely more complicated than one group being more likely to kill just on virtue of being born into that group. As usual my brain is jumping around providing more questions than answers which is cool. I guess I'm basically reminded with these thoughts that while simplicity can be a good thing but being overly simplistic in thinking rarely is.
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