Serial Killers' Body Count May Be Higher than Thought

According to research from a criminologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, serial killers in the US might be responsible for more than 10 times as many murders than they have been thought to be.

Kenna Quinet who is an associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI conducted the research and states that one of the reasons why is that there is a lack of reliable data concerning what she calls the "missing missing", which refers to groups such as prostitutes, transients, gay street hustlers, foster children and "thrown-away" teens.

Recent estimates concerning the average number of serial killer victims range from 67 to 180 annually, but this new analysis, which she based on conservative estimates from already existing date, would add on at the minimum 182 on up to 1,832 unaccounted for victims each year.

In research published in 1990, she debunked wildly inflated claims about the number of serial killer victims that had been circulated by special interest and advocacy groups and in the news media. But the much more conservative calculations of victim numbers that followed were also inaccurate, she said, because they were based on incomplete data.

Some of the data that has not been added into the previous estimates includes: how many murder victims are never found, of if found are not identified as victims of a serial killer, the members of the different groups who disappear, but are never reported missing and the number of people who are reported a dying from natural causes, such as hospital patients and nursing home residents

She used the information that is already known about serial murderers and the victims in conjunction with any data that is available concerning missing persons, the overall death reports in the U.S., census figures on hospital residents, and information on those who were never reported missing. This is how she came to the conclusion that the estimates may be off by as much as 182 to 1,832