Multiple Homicide: Patterns of Serial and Mass Murder

Abstract

Over the past decade the topic of multiple homicide-serial and mass murder-has attracted increased attention in the field of criminology. Though far from the epidemic suggested in media reports, it is alarming nonetheless that a small number of offenders account for so much human destruction and widespread fear. The serial killer is typically a white male in his late twenties or thirties who targets strangers encountered near his work or home. These killers tend to be sociopaths who satisfy personal needs by killing with physical force. Demographically similar to the serial killer, the mass murderer generally kills people he knows well, acting deliberately and methodically. He executes his victims in the most expedient way-with a firearm. Importantly, the difference of timing that distinguishes serial from mass murder may also obscure strong similarities in their motivation. Both can be understood within the same motivational typology-power, revenge, loyalty, profit, and terror...

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FBI | Serial Murder Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators

I. Introduction

Serial murder is neither a new phenomenon, nor is it uniquely American. Dating back to ancient times, serial murderers have been chronicled around the world. In 19th century Europe, Dr. Richard von Krafft-Ebing conducted some of the first documented research on violent, sexual offenders and the crimes they committed. Best known for his 1886 textbook Psychopathia Sexualis, Dr. Kraft-Ebing described numerous case studies of sexual homicide, serial murder, and other areas of sexual proclivity. Serial murder is a relatively rare event, estimated to comprise less than one percent of all murders committed in any given year. However, there is a macabre interest in the topic that far exceeds its scope and has generated countless articles, books, and movies. This broad-based public fascination began in the late 1880s, after a series of unsolved prostitute murders occurred in the Whitechapel area of London. These murders were committed by an unknown individual who named himself “Jack the Ripper” and sent..

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Phenomenology and Serial Murder

STUDYING SERIAL MURDER : THE NEED FOR ANOTHER APPROACH

How we look at the problem of serial murder will determine what we find. The conscience of humanity demands that the taking of one human life by another be explained. Human beings are distinguished from other life forms in terms of their ability to develop culture. Implicit in this notion is our sociability. Human beings have, at once, the capacity to behave in prosocial and antisocial ways two dimensions that are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, it may be the result of protective or humanitarian motives that prompt one individual to kill another. The act of taking another’s life may thus be understandable and acceptable in terms of its apparent utility Killing does not always involve criminal, violent, aggressive, or intentional acts. Killing someone in self-defense or in the context of war are examples of comprehensible killing. There are, however, other kinds of killing for ...

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The Organized/Disorganized Typology of Serial Murder: Myth or Model?

Abstract

Despite weaknesses in the organized/disorganized classification of serial killers, it is drawn on for "offender profiles," theories of offending, and in murder trials. This dichotomy was therefore tested by the multidimensional scaling of the co-occurrence of 39 aspects of serial killings derived 100 murders committed by 100 U.S. serial killers. Results revealed no distinct subsets of offense characteristics reflecting the dichotomy. They showed a subset of organized features typical of most serial killings. Disorganized features are much rarer and do not form a distinct type. These results have implications for testing typologies supporting expert opinion or to help understand variations in criminal acts, as well as the development of a science of investigative psychology that goes beyond offender profiling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012

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The Relationship Between Serial Sexual Murder And Autoerotic Asphyxiation

Abstract

This case series documents and examines the association between autoerotic asphyxiation, sadomasochism, and serial sexual murderers. Autoerotic asphyxiation, along with other paraphilias found in this population, is reviewed. Five cases of serial sexual killers who engaged in autoerotic asphyxiation were identified worldwide: four from the United States and one from Russia. Case reports for each are provided. All (100%) were found to have sexual sadism in addition to autoerotic asphyxiation. Furthermore, two (40%) had bondage fetishism, and two (40%) had transvestic fetishism, consistent with these paraphilias co-occurring in those with autoerotic asphyxiation. Overall the group averaged 4.0 lifetime paraphilias. Some possible relationships were observed between the offenders’ paraphilic orientation and their modus operandi, e.g., all of these serial killers strangled victims suggesting an association between their sadistic and asphyxiative paraphilic interests. The overlap of seemingly polar opposite paraphilias in this sample sexual sadism and autoerotic asphyxiation is explored from a historical and clinical perspective.

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Learning to Kill: Contract, Serial, and Terroristic Homicide (From Shocking Violence II: Violent Disaster, War, and Terrorism Affecting Our Youth

Abstract:

The majority of homicides are spontaneous acts with a smaller number of homicides not of the spontaneous or unplanned type. These are planned and sometimes highly planned. In this chapter, three different types of homicide, where the offender not only plans the crimes, but frequently studies methods to kill in order to perfect the technique are reviewed: the contract murder, serial murder, and terroristic murder. The contract murderer is an individual who is hired to take the life of another person, with the majority of contract murders carried out by amateurs acting for a specific gainful purpose. Serial murder is viewed as sexually motivated and basically a subtype sexual homicide. Sexual homicide becomes serial when multiple victims are involved, usually in multiple locations. The terroristic murderer is not seeking sexual gratification or money, but rather the killings are motivated by political philosophy or extreme religious doctrine. All three of these types of homicide have been present...

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The Missing Missing Toward a Quantification of Serial Murder Victimization in the United States

Early attempts to estimate the annual number of serial murder victims in the United States greatly varied (Fox & Levin, 1985; Holmes & DeBurger, 1988; Kiger, 1990). Kiger (1990) noted that the most extreme estimates of the number of serial murder victims were as high as 6,000 victims a year with claims of as many as 500 active annual killers during the mid to late 1980s. By 1990, scholars suggested that the incidence of serial murder was overestimated and that the United States was spending an extraordinary amount of money and attention on what may have constituted as little as 1% of total annual homicides (Kiger, 1990). Jenkins (2005) suggested the exaggerated magnitude of serial murders in the United States resulted from several factors. When apprehended, serial killers (e.g., Henry Lee Lucas) claimed to have hundreds of victims when in fact they had far fewer (Egger, 2002; Fox & Levin, 2005).1 There was also confusion about differences...

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Third Circle Theory: Purpose Through Observation

The Third Circle Theory is the theory Secret Entourage created to explain how the human mind evolves from birth to the stage where it can find "purpose". The theory which has proven to be the same for all the successful individuals who have not only found their purpose in life but have executed on their beliefs, and as a result established themselves as successful innovators, explorers, educators, and entrepreneurs is now clearly defined and explained in over 160 pages.

The Third Circle Theory consists of three circles illustrating, 3 worlds, 3 perspectives, 3 visions and 3 cycles. Each circle consists of a world, a perspective, a vision and a cycle of the mind. All individuals go through the First Circle, some will evolve to the Second Circle, and very few to the Third Circle, which is why we call this theory the Third Circle Theory.

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An Analysis Of Spatial Patterns In Serial Rape, Arson, And Burglary: The Utility Of The Circle Theory Of Environmental Range For Psychological Profiling

Abstract

D Canter and P. Larkin's (1993) Circle Theory of Environmental Range was designed as a means of using the geographical locations of an individual offender's known offences to predict the approximate site of the offender's residential base. Canter and Larkin obtained support for their theory from an investigation of spatial patterns in serial rapists' offences in a few British cities. The present study sought to assess the generality of Circle Theory by examining spatial patterns of serial offences in three crime modalities in the Australian environment Data on 24 serial rapists, 22 serial arsonists, and 27 serial burglars were extracted from the NSW Police Service's files of criminal records. For each case the positions of offences and the domestic base were plotted on a scaled street map. Using a technique defined by Canter and Larkin a circle was constructed to represent the offender's hypothetical criminal range. In most cases of serial rape...

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Prostitutes as Victims of Serial Homicide: Trends and Case Characteristics, 1970-2009

Abstract

This work includes a count of solved serial murder cases in the United States from 1970 to 2009. The number of serial murder cases has declined; the likelihood that a victim is a female has increased somewhat and although the numbers of all types of serial murder victims has declined, when a case occurs, victims are increasingly likely to be prostitutes, particularly female prostitutes. U.S. serial murder cases with prostitute victims accounted for 32% of all U.S. serial murder cases involving female victims only, 1970-2009. However, the proportion of solved cases involving female prostitute victims only increased across the study period from 16% during 1970-1979 to a high of 69% during 2000-2009. Prostitute killers amass a greater average number of victims than do nonprostitute killers and when analyzed by decade, those who kill primarily prostitutes, kill for slightly longer periods of time. The implications of findings for prevention and investigation efforts are discussed.

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Neighborhood Structure Differences Between Homicide Victims And Non-victims

Abstract

While there were numerous studies documenting the neighborhood characteristics that led to increased risk of crime victimization, very little was done to compare the neighborhoods of homicide victims to non-victims. The current research used the case-control design to alleviate this gap in the research. A sample of homicide victims and non-victims collected from Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1993, was used to make these comparisons. Significant differences were noted in the macro-level measures of education, unemployment, household income, and percentage of female-headed households in the neighborhoods of victims and non-victims. Individual elements, such as age, race, gender, and arrest were also strongly associated with the risk of homicide victimization. Both macro and micro level variables needed to be included when studying factors that increased the risk of homicide victimization....

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Prostitute Found Dead Near Ny Serial Killer’s Dumping Ground Possibly Murdered, Says Famed Coroner

AMITYVILLE, N.Y. –  The remains of a New York-area escort whose body was found in 2011 near a mass grave of prostitutes were buried Thursday, four days after a renowned coroner told Fox News she may have been murdered a development that could be a break in the hunt for a Long Island serial killer.

Shannan Gilbert, 23, of Jersey City, N.J., disappeared May 1, 2010, after visiting a client in the gated community of Oak Beach on a barrier island off Long Island's south shore. A months-long search for her first led to the bodies of four other prostitutes, each strangled and stuffed in burlap bags along Ocean Parkway, a 15-mile road that spans Jones Beach, roughly a mile from where they would later find Gilbert's body, in December 2011.

It's extremely rare for a young woman to die of drowning yards away from where four young women have clearly been murdered. The statistics don't go along with that."...

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Dealing With The Phenomenological Interview With Prostitutes: Experience Report

ABSTRACT

This article aims at describing our experience in obtaining statements using the phenomenological interview. Eleven prostitutes were interviewed in Teresina, PI. Along this journey we have had several remarkable moments such as: the strategy of approaching the interviewee, the site of the interviews and the own emotional narration of the prostitutes. This process has showed us that one needs to be familiar and empathic with the research subjects. We have also learned that there is not a specific formula of conducting the interview, but it is the role of the researcher to identify the difficulties and propose strategies to obtain the statements. Thus, the empathic relationship that we have experienced in obtaining the statements from these women through the phenomenological interview was essential to understand the contact with violence throughout the prostitution daily life.

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“Truth” Drugs in Interrogation

George Bimmerle

The search for effective aids to interrogation is probably as old as man's need to obtain information from an uncooperative source and as persistent as his impatience to shortcut any tortuous path. In the annals of police investigation, physical coercion has at times been substituted for painstaking and time-consuming inquiry in the belief that direct methods produce quick results. Sir James Stephens, writing in 1883, rationalizes a grisly example of "third degree" practices by the police of India: "It is far pleasanter to sit comfortably in the shade rubbing red pepper in a poor devil's eyes than to go about in the sun hunting up evidence."

More recently, police officials in some countries have turned to drugs for assistance in extracting confessions from accused persons, drugs which are presumed to relax the individual's defenses to the point that he unknowingly reveals truths he has been trying to conceal. This investigative technique, however humanitarian...

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Family Affiliation and Prostitution in a Cultural Context: Career Onsets of Taiwanese Prostitutes

Abstract

American researchers emphasize family disaffiliation resulting from negative experiences as an important career contingency for prostitutes. They suggest that cohesive families insulate daughters from entering prostitution, an implication that ignores cultural variations within the United States and worldwide. This study examined the nature of family affiliations among prostitutes in Taiwan, a nation characterized by strong family cohesion and widespread prostitution. The traditional status and role of daughters in Taiwanese families is described. A sample of 89 prostitutes were interviewed in Taipei. The majority had good or very good relationships with their parents before the women left home and continued to maintain such relationships. Only 10% mentioned negative family experiences as precipitating factors in the decision to enter prostitution. A typology of career onsets was drafted. About one third of the sample entered the occupation out of a sense of filial obligation toward their families of origin. Other precipitating factors included paying off their own or husbands' debts, upgrading their financial status, deriving other satisfactions

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Body Disposal Patterns of Sexual Murderers: Implications for Offender Profiling

Abstract

Offender profiling postulates that crime scene behavior should predict certain offender characteristics. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between offender characteristics, situational factors, and body disposal patterns. Sequential logistic regression analysis on a sample of 85 sexual murderers shows that those who were in a relationship at the time of the crime and who present organized psychological characteristics are more likely to move the victim’s body after the homicide. However, when the victim is older and a conflict with the offender occurred prior to the crime, the body is more likely to be left at the crime scene. Implications for offender profiling are discussed in light of the results...

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