Shadowing Practice: Why does America have so many SERIAL KILLERS? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.

235 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

I keep seeing this statistic online.

The United States has roughly 4 % of the world's population, but apparently it has produced more than 60 % of the world's serial killers.

60%.

My immediate reaction to that statistic was, what the fuck's going on in America?

But then I looked a little more closely at that statistic

and one word started bothering me identified

so today i want to figure

this out properly does the united states really create more serial killers than anywhere else and if it does

why welcome to breakfast cereal my name's josh now before

we go any further i want you to answer the question yourself why do you think america has

so many serial killers drop your answer down in the comments

now then come back at the end of the episode and edit or reply to your own comment

do you still believe it because

when i started researching this i assumed there would be you know just one big american explanation some cultural defect

or historical event something i could just point at

but the deeper i got into the numbers the less

this looked like one explanation it started looking like a pile up

and just one quick disclaimer yes i am canadian

so before the americans

which is like 90 of my audience before

you guys all tell me to just shut my hoser mouth just watch to the end

it might not be as bad as you think i'm certainly not here just to all over america

and if you still want me to shut up after the end hey fair enough free speech right

So, let's start, as usual, with the most boring place.

The data.

But honestly, I know you guys love it when I pull out all the charts and shit.

Okay, so the statistic most people use comes from the Radford University Serial Killer Database.

Yes, it's back.

I managed to get through almost an entire episode without talking about the Radford Database last time. So, congratulations everybody, we had a good run

but it's it's back the 2023 annual report says

that the database contained 5752 identified serial killers from around the world of those 3690 were from the united states

that works out to 64 .16 percent now the same table estimates

that the united states represented about 4 .24 percent of the world's population.

Look at that.

That is not a small statistical difference.

That's not America beating

Canada by a couple of percentage points.

It's not the Dodgers beating the Jays last October.

That's America wandering into the serial killer

Olympics with a team larger than every other country combined.

England was second in total identified killers with 182 got russia

had 164 japan 138 india 130 south africa 129 canada my homeland 125 america had

3690

so there i mean episode over right i mean

there's clearly some kind of chemical being added to american breakfast cereal except

we need to talk about what these numbers actually measure

you often see this table described as serial killers per capita

that's not quite what it is a conventional per capita crime rate would normally count incidents during a defined period

and divide them by the population exposed during that same period.

Like murders in one year per 100 ,000 residents, for example.

Now, this table does something different.

It takes a cumulative historical collection of identified serial killers

and compares each country's share of those killers with its share of the world's population in 2022.

And that creates an immediate problem.

They see that the numerator includes offenders from across many decades.

And the denominator is one recent population estimate.

But I mean, countries have grown at different rates.

Borders have changed.

Legal systems have changed.

The ability to detect murder has changed.

And as we talked about in the last episode, I mean, even the definition of serial killer has changed.

And we're just blending all of that together into one number?

However, the database calls the result a ratio.

For the United States, that ratio is… 15 .12 meaning america's share of identified serial

killers is roughly 15 times its share of the current world population

england's ratio is 4 .66 canada's is 4 .49 australia's is 4 .89 india's is 0 .13 china's is 0 .06

yeah it's a useful comparison but it's not a a clean measurement of the probability

that a person born in each country will become a serial killer.

It's really showing us where the world's documented serial killers are concentrated.

And hey, heads up, documented is going to become the most important word in this episode.

The huge asterisk called known.

The people who made this database are very clear about its limitations.

They say the number of serial killers outside of the United States is greatly underestimated.

Not slightly underestimated, greatly underestimated.

So for a killer to enter this database, several things have to happen.

First, the murders, they got to be discovered, right?

Obviously.

Police must determine that multiple deaths are connected.

then the offender must be identified information about the offender

or victims must become publicly available and eventually the case must be documented in english

so think about how many opportunities

there are for a killer to disappear from the data america

has an enormous english language media industry public court records local reporting true crime books police releases digitized newspapers

and researchers actively looking for cases America is basically standing under the brightest light in the room

so maybe America doesn't have more serial killers maybe it simply has more serial killers whose names we know

that explanation is extremely convincing until you compare America with other countries standing under a similar light look at Canada England, and Australia.

All three are wealthy, predominantly English -speaking countries with functioning legal systems,

active news media, and a long history of publicly documenting major crimes.

Their ratios are high compared with much of the world.

That supports the idea of a documentation bias.

Four of the six countries with the highest ratios in the report are English speaking.

But America's ratio is still more than three times those of Canada, England, and Australia.

So you could say, I guess, like maybe the reporting bias explains part of the difference.

It may be even a very large part, but it probably does not explain everything.

Unless Canada has secretly buried several thousand serial killers beneath Saskatchewan, something unusual appears to have happened in the United States.

especially during one particular period, the Golden Age.

If you've been around my channel for a while, this certainly isn't the first time you've heard this strange term.

And hey, just for the record, I didn't make it up.

People in the comments are always accusing me of being a weirdo for calling it the Golden Age.

100

Like I personally coined the phrase, I didn't.

101

Anyway, when people picture the American serial killer, They're usually picturing somebody from the 60s, 70s, 80s, or early 90s.

102

You know the guys.

103

Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer, Kemper, Rader, Ramirez, Son of Sam, Zodiac, Ridgeway.

104

That is not just pop culture selection.

105

The data really does show a massive increase during that period.

106

You guys have seen this chart here, this one, a thousand times on this channel.

107

According to the Radford Report, 93 known American serial killers began their series during the 1950s.

108

That increased to 255 in the 60s, then 673 in the 70s, then 840 in the 80s.

109

The number declined to 729 in the 90s, 438 in the 2000s, and 215 in the 2010s.

110

Now, of course, there's always delays in identifying recent offenders, so the newest numbers will almost certainly rise.

111

but that doesn't just erase the overall shape.

112

I mean, look at it.

113

It's a mountain, people.

114

I even have an entire series on that mountain, specifically this decline here.

115

The series is called Where Did All the Serial Killers Go?

116

All the episodes are in a playlist.

117

I'll link it above and down in the description.

118

I'm also diving back into that series within the next, I think, month or so.

119

So make sure you subscribe if you haven't.

120

Things are going to get wild.

121

You're not going to want to miss those.

122

But back to this database.

123

It also estimates the average number of known American serial killers who are active during each year.

124

Using the FBI -style threshold of two or more victims in separate events, There were an average of 20 per year during the 1950s,

125

39 during the 1960s, 114 during the 70s,

126

173 during the 80s, 157 during the 90s,

127

98 during the 2000s, and 53 during the 2010s.

128

And the apparent peak year was 1987.

129

The database identifies 212 known serial killers who were active in the United States during that year under the two victim definition.

130

212. That does not mean 212 Bundys were just driving around in Volkswagen Beetles.

131

The definition includes many different types of serial killers poisoners, medical killers, financial killers, pears,

132

people whose series only lasted two incidents.

133

See, told you in the last episode, everybody wasn't sexually motivated.

134

But even with all those qualifications, 1987 looks terrifying.

135

So what was different about America during this period?

136

Well, first of all

137

there was just a lot more murder the american homicide rate

138

began climbing rapidly during the same broad period homicide not serial

139

killers just murder in general in 1965 the homicide rate was 5 .1 deaths per 100 000 people by 1974

140

it had reached 9 .8 it peaked at 10 .2 in 1980

141

It dropped temporarily, rose again, and reached another peak of 9 .8 in 91.

142

Then it declined sharply through the remainder of the 90s.

143

Now, I need to be careful here.

144

A higher homicide rate does not automatically create serial killers.

145

Most murder is not serial murder.

146

Most homicide involves conflict between people who know each other, criminal activity, or a single incident that never repeats.

147

You cannot take the murder rate, divide by a number, and calculate how many BTKs are going to emerge, for example.

148

But serial killers don't exist outside of the society around them.

149

The rise in no -one serial murder occurred during a broader increase in American violence.

150

There were more murders, more missing people, more unidentified bodies, more overwhelmed homicide units.

151

But still, I mean, that doesn't explain why someone wants to kill repeatedly.

152

But it may help explain why someone who already wants to kill can continue doing it.

153

See, I don't think that America necessarily manufactured thousands of uniquely evil brains.

154

But did it create an environment in which a certain kind of offender could operate successfully?

155

What about guns?

156

This is probably the most obvious American explanation.

157

America has a lot of firearms.

158

Firearms make it possible to kill quickly, from a distance, and without requiring the offender to physically overpower the victim.

159

and the radford data does show a major difference approximately 36

160

.7 percent of american serial killers in the database use shooting

161

as their only killing method among offenders from other countries

162

that figures about 13 .1 percent so guns clearly influence how american serial killers kill

163

but i don't think that guns can explain the entire american difference I mean,

164

many of the offenders who define the classic serial killer archetype did not primarily rely on guns.

165

Gacy, strangled.

166

Dahmer, strangled.

167

Samuel Little, strangled.

168

The Green River Killer, strangled.

169

BTK, strangled and suffocated.

170

Kemper, used several methods.

171

Bundy, frequently used blunt force attacks and strangulation.

172

Removing every shooting offender would certainly reduce the American number.

173

but it's not going to bring it anywhere close to zero guns are just part of the pile up.

174

They're not the whole pile.

175

This is where the theories become much harder to measure.

176

People argue that America produces serial killers because it's individualistic or violent, sexually repressed, obsessed with fame,

177

built around dominance and competition, because American men are taught to suppress emotion, or because the country experienced war,

178

racism, rapid urbanization, and sure some of those factors, yeah of course some of those factors can matter,

179

but almost every one, every one of those exists outside of the United States too.

180

Britain has individualism, violence, yeah I don't ever heard of Russia.

181

Japan, they've got social isolation, I mean not to mention sexual repression, where do you think hentai and the panty vending machines it's come from.

182

And hey, it's called World War II.

183

Countries throughout Europe experienced war.

184

For God's sakes, the United States didn't enter until 41.

185

Plenty of societies have misogyny, child abuse, poverty, and emotionally damaged men.

186

If we're going to claim that one cultural trait caused America's serial killers,

187

we need to explain why that trait produced such a specific form of violence in one particular period.

188

And we also need to explain what happened next.

189

Because America's culture did not suddenly become peaceful in 95.

190

The United States still has all of these things that we just talked about.

191

Yet the number of known active serial killers fell dramatically.

192

That decline may tell us more than the original rise.

193

We should also acknowledge the role of American media.

194

The United States did not invent repeated murder.

195

Serial killers existed long before the term became common.

196

But America helped turn the serial killer into an international character.

197

Nicknames.

198

The paperback with the worst graphic design you've ever seen.

199

The prestigious Netflix series where somebody desaturates Milwaukee and then wins an Emmy Award.

200

That publicity affects our perception in two different ways.

201

First, American offenders become internationally famous.

202

A person in Germany, Brazil, or Canada may know Bundy, Dahmer, and Gacy while being unable to name a serial killer from their own country.

203

I mean, even me.

204

People seem to think that because I created this channel that I should know every serial killer under the sun.

205

I don't, not even close, guys.

206

I mean, just last episode in the comments,

207

someone was asking me about uh this guy niels hugel sorry about my pronunciation yeah sorry never heard of him

208

so i looked him up turns out he's a german serial killer nurse convicted of 85 murders

209

and they suspect more than 300 victims okay sure

210

but you know there's tons of guys from the 1800s

211

or whatever but hold on wait no this niels guy was convicted in 2020.

212

how have i not heard of him why examples like neil's

213

if you ask me makes the american problem feel even larger than the statistics already suggest

214

so america may lead both in serial killers and in serial killer content

215

and again i am aware of the irony here welcome back to breakfast cereal

216

but yeah i'm not convinced that the media coverage creates large numbers of serial killers I mean, fame may matter to some attention -seeking offenders,

217

and I guess, yeah, there's no better place to get that fame than America.

218

Hey, become a serial killer, and newspapers will print your shitty manifesto and cipher that's riddled with spelling mistakes.

219

I mean, where else are you going to get published?

220

Hey, you become big enough, maybe one day they'll cast Zach fucking Efron to play you.

221

My God.

222

But, counterpoint, most serial murderers do not become famous while they're offending.

223

And many, most actually, actively avoid attention.

224

So while the media may amplify the archetype, I don't think it substantially increases the number of people who become repeat killers.

225

So why does America seem to create more serial killers than anywhere else?

226

Partly because it really did have a lot of them, especially during the Golden Age.

227

But America's 64 % share is not a clean measurement of human nature.

228

It's a measurement of known offenders.

229

And America is unusually good at producing the conditions required to create a known serial killer.

230

The murders are discovered.

231

Police eventually connect them.

232

The offender is identified, the records become public, the media covers the case, the information survives in English.

233

America didn't create 64 % of whatever evil makes a person want to kill.

234

Maybe it did create an environment where some people could kill repeatedly,

235

and then created the most detailed historical record of them in the world.

Download App

Everything you need to speak fluently

AI PronunciationScore every sentence

IPA PracticeMaster every sound

VocabularyBuild your word bank

Vocab GameLearn while playing

Scan QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

FOR YOU

Recommend Video

229 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Why does America have so many SERIAL KILLERS?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: killer, serial, america, offender, murder. This video has 233 sentences and 2645 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:26. The speaker talks at a steady 129 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
killer noun	/ˈkɪlɚ/	One who or that which kills.
serial adjective	/ˈsɪɹ.i.əl/	Having to do with or arranged in a series.
offender noun	/əˈfen.dɚ/	One who gives or causes offense, or does something wrong.
database noun	/ˈdeɪtəˌbeɪs/	A collection of (usually) organized information in a regular structure, usually but not necessarily in a machine-readable format accessible by a computer.
ratio noun	/ˈɹeɪ.ʃoʊ/	A number representing a comparison between two named things.
homicide noun	/ˈhɑ.məˌsaɪ̯d/	The killing of one person by another, whether premeditated or unintentional.
explanation noun	/ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/	The act or process of explaining.
decline verb	/dɪˈklaɪn/	To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
fame noun	/feɪm/	One's reputation.
estimate noun	/ˈɛs.tɪ.mət/	A rough calculation or assessment of the value, size, or cost of something.
pile noun	/paɪl/	A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
measurement noun	/ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/	The act of measuring.
cereal noun	/ˈsɪə.ɹɪ.əl/	A type of grass (such as wheat, rice or oats) cultivated for its edible grains.
underestimate verb	/ʌndɚˈɛs.tɪ.meɪt/	To estimate too low; to perceive (someone or something) as having a lower value, quantity, worth, etc., than what he/she/it actually has.
chart noun	/t͡ʃɑɹt/	A map illustrating the geography of a specific phenomenon.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pile up verb		To form a pile, stack, or heap.
get through verb	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	To overcome; to endure.
heads up		Used as an informal warning, caution, or call for attention; pay attention!
pull out verb		To withdraw; especially of military forces; to retreat.
shut up	/ʃʌt ʌp/	Stop talking (usually in the form of making annoying, irrelevant, or false comments, during a period of peace and quiet, or when one is not allowed to talk)…
turn out verb		To end up; to result.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I'll link it above and down in the description.
You're not going to want to miss those.
I don't, not even close, guys.
I mean, where else are you going to get published?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has produced · have grown · have changed
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being added · are concentrated · is greatly underestimated
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who made · people who know · someone who already

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 31 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, didn't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: ratio /ˈɹeɪ.ʃoʊ/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/
Long words — get the stress right: explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, underestimate /ʌndɚˈɛs.tɪ.meɪt/, repeatedly /ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like killer, serial, offender.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Why does America have so many SERIAL KILLERS? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Download App

Does America have a gun problem? | 60 Minutes Australia

Every Disturbing Trait That Serial Killers Have Explained in 12 Minutes

The Sugar Epidemic Is Way Worse Than We Thought...

Why The Entire Ocean Is Terrified of Sperm Whales

Why Is The Mentalist So Popular Now?

I Investigated Chiropractors

What's the latest on the opioid crisis?

Demographics Expert Answers Population Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

Eating Death Row Inmates Last Meals

Are We Living Inside an Alien Control System?

Why Dating a Short Girl is Suddenly a "Red Flag" | Wojak Stories

Every WORST School Shooting In 21 Minutes