Maybe because the anonymity of CL gives wackos, including killers, somewhat of a safe harbor?
To be fair, I think CL is great for some things, like buying/selling/trading goods and services, checking out job listings (a surprising number of local companies post their openings on CL), seeking certain types of advice from locals and sometimes meeting women who are interested in other women. But you could do A LOT better elsewhere if you're a woman seeking a man because it IS so anonymous (which has a ton of implications, like flakes, liars, cheaters, nutjobs, and, yes, very dangerous people) and most of the men who cruise the w4m ads are incredibly jaded due to the high number fake and spam ads.
I'd strongly suggest going with OKCupid instead. It's also totally free, you can search for sex partners there, and it will make your screening process a hell of a lot easier. Besides doing serious screening and trusting your instincts, the trick, obviously, is to look for people with lots of commonalities who seem exceedingly genuine and have actually taken time to create a quality profile with pics.
I've used it successfully to find a master. But had to sift through the fakes. I insist on a link to a facebook page (no add of course), multiple pics, full name and quick skype to make sure they are who they say they are. As far as that person being a psycho goes, that's just something you have to judge for yourself unfortunately!
My wife and I have responded to exactly 1 CL ad. It just happened to end up being a home run. But we weren't stupid about it. This particular ad was about 400 words long, used paragraphs and clearly stated who they were and what they were looking for. Is CL for everyone? No, but it worked for us - albeit once. Just be smart about it. Good luck.
It can work but as everyone else has said before you have to shift through the spam, bots, ad whores and flakes. Just be smart about it. Use a separate email account. But I feel you would have better luck on here in the personals.
Craigslist was once a nice place to meet casuals, or even get some dates and meet new people. But in the last 5 years its become a cesspool of Bots, adverts for other sites that are all fake,lies, cheats and thieves. also most people lie about being clean(wether thats in any case online or not idk) but my friend finally met someone recently on there and 2 weeks later was getting two shots in his ass and taking antibiotics for a few days. granted it was curable, but not everyone is as lucky. I think the Juice is not worth the squeeze on c-list anymore. Bots, Nuts, Fakes/liars have ruined a good thing yet again with that site.
On the other hand, its a great place to sell or buy anything else lol. I've got cars, car parts, tools, dvds, and tons of other things for next to nothing. just got to have good feelers. its a jungle out there.