serial killers and patriarchy

male serial killers typically…

rape, mutilate and dismember

many serial murders are _____ motivated

power/dominance

misogynsitic ideas about alleged female “inferiority” contributes to serial killing

-power-control

-neutralization theory (denial of victim)

-mission oriented

gynocide

systematic crippling, raping, and/or killing of women by men… the relentless violence perpetrated by the gender class men on the gender class women

how is patriarchy forcefully implemented in our society?

-rape: ritual enactment of male domination, a form of terror that functions to maintain the status quo

-sex murders: ultimate expression of sexuality as a form of power and gynocide

bundy: how many victims?

30-100 women. convicted of 3 murders in flordia but he confessed to 30 and is suspected of many more

bundy: location

washington, utah, colorado and florida. believed to have killed in oregon, california, and idaho

bundy’s known victims

had a type: women who are young and slender, with dark brown hair parted down the middle. very similar to his ex-fiance stephanie brooks

bundy’s gf at the time

tipped law enforcement 3 times:

-saw the composite pics of ted

-compared dates of crime with her calendar and found ted was never around

-became suspicious after the name “ted” was connected to crimes along with his VW bug after the lake sammamish abductions/attempted abductions

bundy apprehension

in august of 1975, a utah policeman spots ted driving around at 2:30am, he attempts to flee but is stopped. search revealed what were assumed to be burglary tools, actually “murder kit.” ted is arrested and charged with the aggravated kidnapping of carol daronch

ted per caputi

bundy was mythologized and turned into a folk hero. there is a recurrent and vivid pattern of ordinary male identification with sex killers (jokes, innuendoes, yelled threats) accompanying episodes of sensationalized sex murder

scapegoat

maleness and its socialization are vehemently discarded as causal. misogynist myths prevail and the finger of blame is pointed unswervingly at a woman (often mom)

pattern with murder of prestigeless women

-waiting an unreasonable amount of time before organizing a concentrated effort to catch a killer

-failing to warn a community or initiate community involvement

-prejudicially labeling victims

-ignoring community input

blame the victim

when police or press describe the murdered women as prostitutes, it lulls non-prostitute women into a false feeling of safety. it plays upon sexist and frequently racist prejudices to mute the seriousness of the murders, and most effectively - it diverts the blame to the victim

social changes of the 60s and 70s

people increasingly feel unconstrained by either conscience or social norms from offending other people. vietnam war encouraged americans at home to do their own thing. blended w individualism and more altruistic themes. inflation and repeated energy crises, altruism evaporated leaving just the selfish individualism.

yorkshire ripper

-peter william sutcliffe

-weakling as a child

-worked as a grave digger

-claimed to hear the voice of God telling him to kill prostitutes

-started killing non-prostitutes but claimed that God told him to kill those women because they were really prostitutes

-diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia

-mother’s adultery thought to have devastating - alleged genesis of his hatred of women

-loner, few friends

-crimes only become socially problematic when he turns on so called innocent girls

southside slayer in LA

-michael hughes

-victimized AA women in poorer neighborhoods

-victims were identified as prostitues or street women

-convicted in 2011 and received the death penalty