Harry Potter fan theories suggest that Slytherin became a haven for troubled kids because of the school’s founders.
In Harry Potter’s Wizarding World, villains are frequently shown to have some connection to the Slytherin House. Slytherins tend to be ethically compromised or self-centered despite a few notable exceptions (such as Severus Snape, Regulus Black, and Horace Slughorn). Early in the series, Harry was told that most dark wizards originate from Slytherin. Slytherin is probably a “dumping site” for hazardous kids because of this.
Slytherins in the Harry Potter books and movies have essentially no redeeming characteristics, yet each house has its share of flaws. Slytherin is the most difficult of the Hogwarts houses to deal with. People like Hermione Granger, who embodies intelligence and ambition, should be drawn to the Slytherin lifestyle. Yet she is instead placed in the house, where she develops into a more fearless and noble character. Slytherin tends to attract the most combative and bullish kids.
There may be a fan theory to explain why that is, blaming the school’s other foundations for this development. According to Reddit user Burnnoticelover, the other founders (Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw) put a spell on the Sorting Hat after Salazar Slytherin passed away. The hat would sort pupils into Slytherin instead of just putting them in the house they were most deserving of. As a result, Slytherin pupils tend to be abrasive and dumb. Because Slytherin was a haven for students who could otherwise constitute a threat to the rest of the student body, it became the “dumping ground” for those kids.

According to this hypothesis, people like Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle and less cunning tricksters like Crabbe and Goyle may all end up in the same house. As a result, Slytherins’ dark thoughts and beliefs are kept from spreading across the rest of the school, preventing them from becoming more prevalent. So few Slytherins introduced in the book are good people, which may be because Slytherins are more inclined to adhere to hazardous ideas like blood purity than other students.
As demonstrated by Draco Malfoy, having no positive role models to look up to, the Slytherin pupils’ mental health deteriorates as they become older. Instead of a homogenous bunch of bullies, he’d have developed into a traumatized would-be killer because of his exposure to more diversified and less hostile peers. As a result, it is easier for the other houses to corral and restrain the more dangerous pupils in the event of an emergency, as in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where the Slytherins were detained before the final battle to prevent them from fighting alongside Voldemort. Hogwarts may be partly to blame for the Slytherins’ darker tendencies, as keeping them secluded reinforces and elevates their darker worldviews.