3 ms·
New article this week documents it https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-explains-the-decline-of-serial-killers https://www.discovermagazine.com/t
by peter303 6y ago
New article this week documents it
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-explains-the-decline-of-serial-killers https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-explains-...
- mchusma 6y agoOnly 60% of homicides are solved? I would have guessed like 99%. This is sort of crazy to me.
- 14 6y agoI read that in Mexico that number is less then 10%. https://www.animalpolitico.com/kill-murder-mexico/homicides-unpunished-mexico.php https://www.animalpolitico.com/kill-murder-mexico/homicides-...
- Synaesthesia 6y agoSame in South Africa
- LgWoodenBadger 6y agoTry watching a show called “the First 48” on A&E sometime. Their murder cases are only solved because a suspect confesses. If the suspect doesn’t confess, or lawyers up, then forget about solving it.
- jmnicolas 6y agoI watched a few episodes, but this show is depressing. I noticed that most of the time they get their suspect because someone "snitches".
- ALittleLight 6y agoMy own personal speculation is that TV shows have a lot to do with it. People watching TV get used to the idea of an elite crew of colorful personalities inevitably hunting down their man, and they think murder is a guaranteed jail sentence, so they murder less often. In reality, probably pretty easy to get away with murder. Also: video games. Young men, who commit most of the murders, spend more time playing video games and therefore less time murdering.
- thinkingemote 6y agoThe main reason is that most homicides are not the fancy middle class pre meditated murder type of crime as seen on TV but are often related to other criminal activities and with low evidence. This means that any witnesses are likely going to be within that world of not speaking to the police and any evidence in a gang killing for example, will be of low quality. But it also matters what we mean by "solved" too.
- whimsicalism 6y agoAnd there are less resources devoted to poor people getting murdered
- monadic3 6y agoYup, and this doesn't even include all the disappearances that never get called homicides. You're disincentivized against calling a case a homicide if you can't bring a case—your clearance rate will drop. It also doesn't cover all the clearances which involved an innocent person pleading guilty to avoid heinous sentencing.