If you are an average American, your chance of being murdered by a serial killer is 0.0004%. That’s three zeros in front of that 4. That’s four ten-thousandths of a percent. But if you are a women selling sex on the street, your chance of being murdered by a serial killer is 7%. That means they are 10,000 times more likely to be targets of a serial killer than most people. Why are women on the street so much more at risk? Law enforcement will tell you it’s because their lifestyle. But what do they mean by that? Do they mean they are more easily located? That they are more visible? That they are easily identifiable? That they will voluntarily get into a suspects car? But the same could be said for women hailing a cab or looking for her Uber ride. They are easily located, outside night clubs or the airport. They are visible as they stand on the street corner and they are easily identifiable as they look eagerly for their ride to come. And will get in without coercion. So that’s not what police are referring to when they say their “lifestyle” puts them at risk. What they are referring to are a group of tendencies they say are shared by women on the street. The tendency to be addicted to drugs or alcohol. The tendency to not stay in one place because they are homeless. The tendency to sell sex to make money. The tendency to be out and about without having to tell another person where they are. To police those tendencies make a lifestyle. And that lifestyle is something serial killers count on. Gary Ridgway, that Green River killer, who killed 48 prostitutes in the 1980s and 90s, said, he picked women on the street because, “I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.” And he wasn’t wrong. Several of his victims weren’t reported missing for years and some were never reported missing. Women who live on the street know that if they are taken, it might be weeks or months before anyone comes looking for them. Cindy Jaramillo realized that hard truth when she was kidnapped from the streets of Albuquerque in 1999 by the Toy Box Serial killer. REFERENCES Brewer, D, et al. “Extent, Trends, and Perpetrators of Prostitution-Related Homicide in the United States.” Journal of Forensic Science. 2006. Vol. 51, No. 5 Potterat, J., et al. “Mortality in a Long-term Open Cohort of Prostitute Women.” American Journal of Epidemiology
. 2004. Vol. 159, No. 8