Currently there is a ‘serial killer’ in the UK who has it looks like killed 5 women in Ipswich. This may or may not be more than one killer. The women killed are thought to have also been prostitutes – what is it about the UK and prostitute killers, we do have a bit of a history. As always though it means women in the area are being warned to not go out on their own.
The thing is the UK doesn’t in the scheme of things have a high number of serial killers. Our murder rate isn’t exactly low, but the repeating of high numbers of murder doesn’t happen very often. In the scheme of things also 5 people being killed isn’t on the scale of other countries serial killings – for the UK it is actually very high. A lot of people will have an opinion on these being prostitutes, my feelings is when it comes down to it these are women, humans and as such deserve to be justified by finding their murders. It’s a good idea to think that it’s for the grace no woman has to end up being a prostitute and they are no different from us, they just find themselves either having or choosing to do that job, it is a job after all. My opinion may be argued against but I honestly do feel no matter what ‘job’ a person does they deserve to be safe in doing that. Prostitution is one of the oldest professions and people in the industry deserve to not be just signed off as ‘oh well’ when killed in such numbers.
I guess, there are 2 main points in this post that come up from the news of these serial killings. One is the fact that I may not overly like the UK and in-fact have spent most of my adult life planning my escape from this country, but when it comes down to it day to day life in the Uk is vastly safer than in many other countries. In the UK life is relatively isolated. You aren’t subject to such serial killings or horrific news that other countries are. Maybe a bit more if you live in the cities, but even in our major cities, the crime that as a stand citizen going about their everyday life experiences is on the milder side – if any crime has a milder side.
Such serial killings in the UK are a bit of a shock to the system, our news goes into over drive and stops all the scheduled programming. Some readers from other countries may wander why the UK goes into shock about 5 serial killings, the thing you have to remember is we are a island and small in that sense and that such things are not a high frequency over here. We are not desensitized to the point other counties are about mass murders or violent crimes such as this. Some may find this odd, but growing up in the UK is actually fairly isolated, even when I grew up the doors were left unlocked on country properties – maybe not so much now, although I do still know of some places this happens still. As a child nothing was thought of me being out fields away playing, this is still the case in the UK for some parts (maybe less but we are a lot further behind than other countries). As a woman in the UK I never have felt I couldn’t walk about the streets of any place at night on my own. I don’t think I am being naive or on my own in this feeling.
The second point is that no matter what job someone does their life is of value. Of course this has it’s limits in many people ‘s minds, my own is that a prostitute is a person and deserves to not be killed just because of their profession. A prostitute isn’t there to be killed at a whim, they deserve respect for being human. World wide prostitutes seem to be fair game in minds when it comes to murder and abuse. This is something that appalls me and grates with my core. I do believe that being a prostitute doesn’t damn someone. I do also think it’s not a great leap from anyone’s life to be in a situation where prostitution is the only thing left open to you. I know not all are forced to enter prostitution as a last resort, some do choose and that is their right. I expect many are going to argue with me that prostitution shouldn’t be seen just as a job, but it is a service and a job when it comes down to it for all the extra weight such a job has. Society shouldn’t turn it’s back on these women and say ‘ah well it’s only prostitutes’.
As a woman this again raises the older point of the safety of women being seen as objects and that we are more disposable to some people’s mind. It always seems mass murders on the whole target the so-called weaker sections of society, children, the old and women. This angers me as a woman and as a human. We think we’ve come such a long way from the caveman primal days but such incidents as these prove that we haven’t evolved to the extent we think we have. A lot of other animal species never kill their own kind and certainly not in such numbers as we do. We don’t have any so-called natural predators anymore – we’ve seen that most of them have been made extinct. As such our main predators are our own kind, this is a unique evolutionary state. I’ve through my love of psychology always been interested in what makes as serial killer. What drives someone to the state where this kind of killing is an expectable state is something that has interested me. The line between not killing and killing is a thin psychological one. Criminal psychology is a very interesting field and one I’ve always had an interest in. The limits of psychological states are something I was interested in from my first studying of the subject. Many behaviorists argue that because of the lack of predators the event of serial killers has come about. It’s a valid point if you examine it.
I don’t often write about news items like this. I just felt this one was something I needed to comment on as raised such strong points in my mind. Whether there will be more killings or not remains to be seen, but it’s one situation that has raised a few points in the mind of the UK and brought back memories of such killers as the Yorkshire Ripper. Time will tell as to what the person / persons’ motives were for the murders and indeed whether they are truly connected – currently this is just being assumed. It does highlight a relatively unique isolation and safety that the UK still provides to it’s residents compared to other countries along with the value of a person based on their life choices and what makes us one of the few species that kills it’s own with such vast numbers.
To a greater extent I agree with most of what you say above. I do think however that the UK does tend to have a bit of knee jerk reaction to anything ‘out of the ordinary’ and for us, a serial killer is out of the ordinary.
I think perhaps the level of hysteria which tends to happen after such a event, and the media frenzy that comes with it is questionable – and for certain unbalanced sections of society could actually exercerbate the problem for those that are searching to make some kind of point (however distateful and morally wrong that point may be).
As for the the prostitutes, although I of course do not condone what has happened to them in any way, all sex workers live with, and have historically lived with, the threat of personal harm and as large sections of ‘society’ tend to find their profession morally objectionable, crimes against them seem to get brushed under the carpet becasue of this precedent. This is not right – all sections of society deserve a duty of care, but unless there is a massive shift in thinking by both the government and by society I somehow doubt this situation is going to change.
I do have to wonder however what a 19 year old was doing streetwalking, but then perhaps I live in a nice hazy middle class bubble.