Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of serial killers by race


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. Cirt (talk) 00:50, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

List of serial killers by race

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There are serious problems in this article: how is race defined for purposes of classification here? Self-identification of race by the criminal? As an example, people who identify themselves as Hispanic but have dark skin are sometimes called black or African-American in press articles: who would be right in that case? You can easily classify someone by date of birth, place of birth, occupation, etc., but race is not always so easy to classify. There's an empty section "Multiracial & Other": who isn't multiracial? Also, lumping "Asian" and "Indian" together into a single group makes little sense. This article seems like an impossible task to make scientifically accurate and objective. Unreferenced, original research per WP:NOR. MuffledThud (talk) 03:31, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Crime-related deletion discussions.  —MuffledThud (talk) 03:32, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Social science-related deletion discussions.  —MuffledThud (talk) 03:35, 13 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Delete great jumping POV. The nominator is right, race is tricky at best to classify. Also, this seems to have issues with verifiability and original research to boot. B figura  (talk) 03:34, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Per the nominator's concerns on racial classification issues. Warrah (talk) 03:47, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Agree with above. Also, even if it were less controversial and subjective it doesn't seem as obviously useful as ...by country - is any purpose served by listing together all the, say, black serial killers of Canada, France, UK, New Zealand? Declan Clam (talk) 04:50, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom. problems include: ted bundys father is unknown, thus unknown ethnicity. and his article doesnt say he is white. and, of course, race is a social construct, so while it may be a NOTABLE idea worthy of various articles, etc, race as an objective, encyclopedic classification scheme at WP must be extremely limited. this is not an instance for using it.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 07:01, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete totally unacceptable list. The Four Deuces (talk) 08:37, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment It's not at all hard to figure out what race somebody is... nobody ever says, "well, we can't be sure whether the first 42 men who were U.S. presidents were white or not". Nor do I think it's politically incorrect.  On the other hand, I don't see the point of grouping serial killers by race, any more than grouping them by religious denomination or national ancestry (which is why we don't have "list of Baptist serial killers" or "list of Italian-American organized crime figures").  List of serial killers by country is a different matter entirely, because the killer, the victims, the investigators, the scene of the crime, etc., are all part of the same nation.  If someone can make a convincing argument about why this list is necessary, then, by definition, I'll be convinced.  Mandsford (talk) 14:55, 13 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Comment Given that the majority are white, people might be curious to easily find the ones that aren't, just as they might be curious about the ones who are women, or who fall outside of the usual age range. That said, there is the problem of what will be used to determine people's race, as others have noted.  However, one would suppose that RS could be found for that. There are racial cats on WP after all, and lists of people by race. 169.226.85.157 (talk) 16:37, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Given that it is probably written from an American POV, where 80% of the population are white, and includes non-American whites in the list, but excludes non-American blacks (by the section title), then most serial killers in the list are likely to be white. Martin 4 5 1  (talk) 22:09, 13 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Lacking any redeeming use, this is patently offensive, bordering on vandalism and fighting words. Speedy delete. Bearian (talk) 21:28, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete for so many reasons. Is a list with no use, not referenced (breaches BLP), very incomplete. Is obviously written by a North American in the way it deals with race, e.g. African American is not a race, and does not deal with Africans in other parts of the world, yet it includes Peter Sutcliff who is British without making reference to where he killed. Hispanic is also not a race, but more of a American way of identify people from ex-Spanish colonies as it does not include ex-Portuguese. This list is too fundamentally flawed to keep. Martin 4 5 1  (talk) 22:04, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. Categorising American serial killers by race isn't an encyclopedic treatment of the topic. There's no reason given for such a categorisation. Their notability derives from having killed a lot of people, not from the colour of their skin or their ethnic group. Fences  &amp;  Windows  00:42, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete per good comments above. I've also recently been removing the (un-created, red-linked) from articles. Good Ol’factory (talk) 04:58, 18 November 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.