Criminologist reveals eerie reason why there’s ‘less’ serial killers around

A leading criminologist has revealed why there are seemingly ‘fewer’ serial killers around today - and how recent developments have changed the game for nailing down murderers.

In February, the Office for National Statistics confirmed that 570 people had become victims of homicide in the year ending March 2024 - 1.5 percent fewer than the year before.

While the number of homicides did decrease in most regions across England, there were increases in the East Midlands (from 34 to 58), the South West (from 47 to 52), and Wales (from 22 to 27).

In the past, the UK has seen some horrific serial killers operating across the country, with Lucy Letby and Southport killer Axel Rudakubana being some of the latest criminals to be put behind bars.

Professor David Wilson, a Scottish emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, has recently revealed that serial killers’ behaviour is changing, making it appear as if there are ‘fewer’ than ever.

However, it appears that’s not quite the case, with the 68-year-old telling BBC Sounds that there are probably two serial murderers acting in the United Kingdom in any given year.

“We don’t necessarily know who they will be until many years in the future,” he eerily continued.

“I think what’s tending to happen at the moment is that serial killers are being caught much earlier in their killing cycle.

“It used to be years before they were caught but because of the development of forensic science, CCTV, an awareness of the victim groups that get targeted by serial killers, we tend to catch serial killers much earlier.”

Professor Wilson claimed this was why murderers aren’t courting the media’s attention like Harold Shipman, Peter Sutcliffe, and Ted Bundy did in the past.

However, he doubled down on the fact that serial killers do still exist, but that they’ve probably realised they need to target ‘different groups of people’ to get away with their crimes.

The criminology expert claimed this was why he’d recently become ‘so concerned’ about homeless people whose deaths are ‘simply being attributed to underlying mental health or physical health issues or addiction’.

Earlier this year, Professor Wilson took part in a question-and-answer session with LADbible Stories where he revealed he believes the main reason people commit murder is just ‘five minutes of madness’.

“The most common murder that will take place in Britain is a young man falling out with a young man on a Friday or Saturday night when that young man feels he isn’t being given the respect that he deserves.

“When he feels that, and he’s in the company of his friends…and he’s been drinking too much or using other kinds of substances, he wants to lash out because he wants to regain a sense of who he is in that five minutes of madness.”