ext_19235 ([identity profile] gsyh.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] criminalxminds2011-12-20 02:35 pm
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Cross-Racial Serial Predators / woc victims

What do you make of Criminal Minds's repeated assertions that the serial killer in question have to be in the same race as that of his(/her) victims, to the point of completely ignoring other possibilities, like in "Fear and Loathing"? I haven't seen all the episodes yet (is there one or more that featured a cross racial serial sex killer?)

Trigger Warning: real cases of sexual assault and murder being discussed, also colonialism

I've always thought that it was outdated, and very dangerous, considering the reality of colonialism and the fetishization of minority women as prey*. In show, a majority of the victims are white, but IRL, there is a serial killer on the Highway of Tears preying predominantly on Aboriginal women, and gods, if the police are sticking to the same-race-serial-killer theory...they are going to miss Jeffrey Dahmer.

I think this was in "There's No Place Like Home" (or another episode that reaired recently), Spencer quoted Jeffrey Dahmer as a part of his long argument about how serial killers usually hunt within their own race (Dahmer being included because he hunted within his own orientation). Ummmmmm, Jeffrey Dahmer is pretty significant in that a LOT of Dahmer's victims were men of colour while he himself was white! It could be a matter of geographic availability - or, Easier Victim - one time, a 13 yr old Asian boy almost got away from him, but the police chose to believe the blond Dahmer's word that 13 was actually 18 and he was Dahmer's boyfriends being high, Dahmer's words over the 13 yr old Asian boy AND two black women who keep trying to get the police to intervene (it ends with that kid being killed right after the police left).

Then there is Gary Heidnik, who was white, but all the women he kept as captives in his basement were African American.

Robert Pickton, the Vancouver pig farmer, many of his victims were also aboriginal women even though he himself was white.

Race Flip example: Carlton Gray - The Columbus, Georgia Stocking Strangler, Gray was a young black man who targeted elderly white women.

.....and I wish I could find the article I read a while ago, which stipulates that any assumption that the perp will be the same race as the victim is an outdated assumption due to the retirement of segregation and increased population density - mainly that a prevalence of same-race (and class) predation was a matter of availability.

It just bothers me, that CM, which was otherwise progressive in so many ways, in shattering myths and giving agency and voice to female victims, to the homeless, prostitutes, geeks and queers, would be well, missing out on this one.

Overall, I'll really like more episodes where the victims are marginalized people please - especially women of colour, but only if we are written with as much agency as the other female victims. CM got me hooked on episode one with the chained up woman who kicked at her captor.


* when fetish isn't harmless:
- For Asian women, 'fetish' is less than benign
BY SALLIE KIM, SHANNON STOCKDALE
Thursday, April 14, 2005
" For example, in 2000, two Japanese college women were abducted, raped, videotaped and told that if they told anybody what had happened, the videotapes would be sent to their fathers. The three white assailants admitted targeting Asian women precisely because they had a sexual fetish for "submissive" Asian women, but also because they believed that this same submissiveness and cultural shame would prevent the women from reporting the assaults. "

* Missing Aboriginal Women prompt UN letter



[identity profile] limpycsiwombat.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I agree with you that yes it is possible for cross-racial serial sex killers. And yes women tend to look more like victims on the show even though in real life the most likely to be victimized are white males.

On the flip side it is also true that killers tend to kill within their own race. I took a Crime and Society class this past quarter where we discussed this issue and the stats that were given were that the majority of the time whites kill whites, blacks kill blacks, etc etc etc. Do they kill other races? Absolutely but the majority of the time it happens within a specific race.

As far as a cross racial killer in Season One there was an episode entitled "The Fox" and he was a white male and a family inhalator. One of the families he killed was a black family with a white stepfather. Also in Season 6 there was an episode entitled "Big Sea" and there were many different races and genders within the pile of bones they found. I know there is at least one more with a sexual sadist that crossed racial boundaries but I don't recall which one it was.

So in conclusion yes, I think they tend to stick to serial killers targeting within their own race but they do not completely ignore it all together.

[identity profile] hippediva.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Anything is possible. The allegation is based on criminal history. Anything else is a waste of time---it's a fictional tv show. If you really want reality shows, watch INDIS or History channel.

[identity profile] define-serenity.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
in episode 4 of season 1 the team briefly argues this point, because they arrest a young black guy for the rape and murder of white surburban housewives (but he does turn out to be a rapist). one of them (Morgan I think) says that this being their UnSub is highly unlikely, because that would be cross-racial, but then Reid argues that there have been examples of this happening. i do believe Hotch or Gideon quickly puts this conversation to an end.

[identity profile] emploding.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
As someone up there said, it's a fictional show and although they take real things into account, they make up whatever they want for the sake of a fictional TV show.

They also use overly simplified versions of things for their "profiles".

In the end, they probably aren't too interested in spending a lot of time on minor details like that.

[identity profile] derangedfangirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
You bring up a lot of really good points. Fundamentally, I think that CM occasionally.. makes problematic assumptions about race, unintentionally. Likely it's related to the fact that the majority of the writers (or perhaps all? I can't remember) are white. I object to the idea that we, as fans, shouldn't be analyzing this shit because it's a fictional TV show or whatever- this stuff impacts us, and it impacts the way we view race and how we view crime and victimhood in real life. This stuff is important. The fact that it's not intentional doesn't make it less problematic. Thanks for your thoughts!
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[identity profile] rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
During the Altanta child murders, I believe a lot of people assumed the killer was white. If I recall correctly -- I read a book about it a few years ago, but I can't remember everything -- black children were more likely to trust another black person than a white person.

[identity profile] kwerkee.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
I wish I have a name and links to go with this but maybe, someone knows who I'm talking about.

I think I read it from a compilation book of serial killers. It was interesting because it was the first case where I read that real life experts got a race profile wrong.

A serial killer was on the loose in a middle class white neighbourhood. Nobody saw anything unusual on their streets. Profilers said they were looking for a white guy because he seemed to know and blend in with the neighbourhood. Surprise, surprise, it was a young black male. Nobody found him suspicious because he used to come around and help fix things.
Edited 2011-12-21 01:18 (UTC)
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[identity profile] kwerkee.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I was agreeing with you! Most unsubs choose what's available to them and whether they could get away with it.

[identity profile] kwerkee.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Dahmer's the most 'colour-blind' serial killer (whites, blacks, asians, even a hispanic iirc). Even then, it was not about race to him. His neighbourhood was not predominantly white. Not only were non-whites readily available, he had non-suspicious access to them. (ps: I think it was about physical attributes. He had a thing for lean torsos and limbs).

So again, it's more of availability of victims and whether they can get away with it.

[identity profile] rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I think the reason for the large number of aboriginal women being victimized is that due to the inherent racism and colonialism present in Canadian society, especially when it comes to First Nations people, aboriginal women are often extremely vulnerable and this makes them easy targets.

Re: Probably a combo hitter

[identity profile] full-metal-ox.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
Mind if I link to this discussion on [livejournal.com profile] racebending?

A project that might interest you...

[identity profile] full-metal-ox.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 12:52 am (UTC)(link)
The same problem in the U.S. is one theme in the upcoming film Road to Paloma (http://texanbeauty.activeboard.com/t41413527/road-to-paloma/), directed by and starring Jason Momoa of Stargate: Atlantis fame.
ext_197473: kanzeon bosatsu from saiyuki reload blast (cm: spencer with gun)

[identity profile] lawless523.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
I don't see anyone on this thread who has statistics on cross-racial serial killing. I know, as mentioned above, that crime in general predominantly occurs within one race, not across races.

I'm sure someone has the statistics, but I don't know where they are. In the absence of those and an analysis of how they were gathered, we're all blowing smoke and no conclusions should be drawn.

P.S. - I'm female, half-Asian and half-white, and identify as Asian. This is the statistics geek and former lawyer talking.
ext_197473: kanzeon bosatsu from saiyuki reload blast (cm: spencer with gun)

[identity profile] lawless523.livejournal.com 2011-12-23 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
While the results support the thesis that crime is mostly aimed at those of the same race as the offender, not much can be gleaned from them with respect to the kinds of crimes the actual BAU investigates, not all of which are sexual assault murders.

Thank you for making an attempt at statistical analysis, but isn't serial killing what dominates the BAU's caseload? Without statistics on those kinds of crimes, we're still just speculating.
Edited 2011-12-23 02:32 (UTC)
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