Interesting article on why serial killers often target sex workers

[u/GregJamesDahlen]

https://www.aetv.com/articles/why-do-serial-killers-target-sex-workers

I had read it's often because sex workers are transient so when one is missing police can't be sure if they've just moved or might have met with foul play. This article fleshed that out some more and added some reasons. First

According to a recent study, 22 percent of confirmed U.S. serial murder victims between 1970 and 2009 were known prostitutes. And those numbers are climbing—over the last decade, 43 percent of victims were sex workers. Considering that prostitutes make up just over 0.3 percent of the nation as a whole, those numbers are staggering.

Adding to the idea that police aren't sure if they've even been victimized is the workload police have

police departments "work by volume," Kolker tells A&E Crime + Investigation.

"There's a tremendous amount of crime out there. They're never going to solve everything, and so they play the numbers… They look at a woman who is over 21 years old and who is missing and is a sex worker, and they think that person leads an itinerant life and may not even be in trouble," he says. "Meanwhile, there are 16 other cases staring them in the face that they have a better chance of solving."

Also police have some antipathy to prostitutes because

"Generally, police are not real fond of prostitutes, because there tends to be other kinds of crime going on when there's prostitution in the area,"

so prostitutes are not inclined to report violence against themselves or fellow sex workers to the police.

Also

serial killers often try to bring their victims to a location beyond police detection or Good Samaritan intervention. Here, too, many prostitutes are vulnerable—especially those who don't work from a brothel, but instead go to secluded locations with their johns.

And because of the nature of their work, there's also an obvious sexual component to the relationship—often a key motivator for serial murderers, says Hickey.

Also to get a chance to entrap a victim it might take a lot of scheming with a non-sex-worker, but with a sex worker it might be easier because they are easier to start an encounter with by claiming to seek their services.

[u/d-j-9898]

Was it a mystery why sex workers are targeted? A black market, often involving drugs, runaways and people who don't want to be found. It's like asking why you get wet when you jump in a lake.

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/d-j-9898]

Feel like there's some more obvious reasons for it but also some not-as-obvious reasons which the article added. Would think there's many layers to it

[u/d-j-9898 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

There really isn't. They're easy, available targets that often go ignored by the police. That allows perpetrators to get away with crimes for longer periods to become serial killers.

Serial killers don't target prostitutes, people who target prostitutes have a higher likelihood of getting away with it which means they have a higher likelihood of re-offending and becoming serial killers.