White Male Murderer Syndrome

The story of Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito has been dominating the news for a couple of weeks. Commentators often suggest that it is an example of “missing white woman syndrome”: when a white woman goes missing, it is big news. When a non-white woman goes missing, it isn’t.

In fact, the Petito case tends to disprove the thesis. Gaby Petito is not missing. Her body was found on September 19. Based on the “missing white woman” thesis, public interest should have waned at that point. Instead, it has grown since. It is not Petito people are interested in. It is Laundrie.

What we are dealing with, here and in most other cases of “missing white woman syndrome,’ is actually “white male murderer syndrome.” It is the white killer, not the white victim, that makes the matter newsworthy. For whatever reason—the initial premise would imply this is because of anti-white racism. People want to think bad things of whites. It is politically incorrect to report bad behavior by blacks or aboriginals.

Of course, one does not necessarily know the perpetrator. But if a black woman turns up missing or dead, the perpetrator is probably a black man. Therefore, not newsworthy. If an aboriginal woman turns up missing or dead, the perpetrator is probably an aboriginal man. Therefore, not newsworthy. This would change if the prime suspect turns out to be, or can be implied to be, white. This, for example, is why “missing aboriginal women” is recently a big deal in Canada—because it has new been insinuated that white people, not aboriginals, are somehow directly or indirectly at fault. 

If a white woman turns up missing or dead—this is newsworthy, because the perpetrator is probably a white man. This is especially so in the Petito-Laundrie case, since a white man is the obvious suspect. If, on the other hand, the obvious suspect is or turns out to be non-white, the story disappears.

A similar example of “white murderer syndrome” is the common misperception that mass killers are always white men. In fact, the proportion of mass killers who are white reflects their proportion of the overall population—about 65%. It is blacks who are overrepresented—approaching twice their population share. But if a black man starts shooting up a mall, it is less likely to be featured as major news. Or his ethnicity will not be mentioned, or will be downplayed.