Since a dramatic peak in the 1980s, serial killers in the U.S. like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer have been in decline for three decades. Experts have a few theories that can help explain why.
Murder "clearance" rates in the US have been declining for decades, meaning police are solving fewer and fewer murders. Unsolved killings were at record highs in 2023.
Seems to me that there are probably just less serial killers being suspected, investigated, and caught, as police continue to do less and less, rather than there being less serial killers. The United States is now basically the least effective country at solving murders in the industrialized world.
It's absurd trying to spin police incompetence as a positive thing. Roughly 27% of murders in Oakland, CA are solved for instance. Who knows if there is a serial killer at work with that kind of solve rate?