One of America’s most notorious and horrific serial killers in the early 1980’s, operated under the constant anonymity of downtown Los Angeles. This man was named Richard Ramirez, but more commonly known as the Night Stalker. Ramirez floated around hotels in downtown L.A, not staying in one hotel for too long. Richard Ramirez would be responsible for at least 14 murders. His crimes even gave him the death penalty.

But a lot of this story has gaps. How was he not caught earlier on? People reported Richard Ramirez often walking around the hotels naked. He would throw his bloody clothes away in alley dumpsters, then walk through the lobby back to his room.

This is because what doesn’t directly affect us, we don’t bother meddling in. This is also because of structurally underfunded and unsupported police departments, and the social stigma around police officers.

What is Crime Mapping?

Crime mapping is typically collected and published by the police department of their respective cities, and it is designed to show you:

1. Where crimes occurred
2. What types of crimes occurred
3. And when they occurred.

When looking at crime mapping from the LAPD, we can see that in 2025 so far, there have been:

• 39 reported homicides.
• 216 reported rapes.
• And 2,906 reported aggravated assaults.

If we look specifically, between February 16th 2025 to March 15th, 2025, there were 10 homicides, and 87 rape cases. What’s faltering about this data is the key word reported. Think about the amount of people who haven’t reported their crimes, and we already have such an astonishing number already.

But let’s go to the comparative, and look at crime mapping in Chicago, Illinois.

Within the same time period, week 11, we see that there were

• 6 reported homicides.
• 54 reported sexual assaults.
• 115 cases of aggravated assault.

Now that’s a pretty considerable difference, especially in cities with fairly similar populations. Los Angeles has a population of 3.9 million, with Chicago having 2.7 million residents. But this permanent population also doesn’t factor in the people traveling into these cities every day.

Structural Factors

A structural factor can refer to a social, economic, or political condition for something to happen. For example, laws can be a structural factor. In this situation, police rates are a considerable structural factor in crime.

This is what I hope to cover in my next blog.