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Assessing the Interaction Between Offender and Victim Criminal Lifestyles & Homicide Type

December 1, 2018September 16, 2017 by admin

Abstract:

Study findings show that criminal lifestyles are common among both homicide victims and offenders. At least 75 percent of the victims and 87 percent of the offenders engaged in some type of criminal/deviant lifestyle. The analyses did not find much variation among the lifestyles of homicide victims and offenders in Newark; however, there were two types of homicide victims and offenders. One group of victims and offenders were apparently less involved in the criminal world, and the other group was heavily involved in the criminal world. Still, this small variation between homicide victims and offenders did influence homicide type; for example, the combination of the most criminally involved victims and offenders was more likely to lead to gang-related and drug-related homicides, and the more criminally involved youth were more likely to kill the less criminally involved victims in escalating dispute/revenge-related homicide incidents. In addition,...

Reviewing Murder Investigations: An Analysis of Progress Reviews From Six Police Forces

December 1, 2018September 16, 2017 by admin

Abstract:

In attempting to improve the investigative quality of murder enquiries, the police service of England and Wales has conducted reviews of investigations. The reviews aim to identify and develop investigative opportunities to progress the investigation; act as a form of quality assurance in relation to both the content and process of an investigation; and identify, develop and disseminate good investigative practice. This paper presents findings drawn from a study of investigative issues raised in reviews of unsolved homicide investigations and focuses on identified investigative weaknesses and good practice. Twenty-eight day review documents of 34 unsolved murder investigations were obtained from 6 forces and analyzed using content analysis in order to identify areas of good practice and investigative weakness. The study highlighted a range of frequently recurring themes within murder review documents, as well as other important issues about the review process and how they are conducted. Key findings from the study included: (1) review documents...

Learning to Kill: Contract, Serial, and Terroristic Homicide

December 1, 2018September 16, 2017 by admin

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....

Masking And Bondage In Suicidal Hanging

December 1, 2018September 16, 2017 by admin

Abstract

The body of a 35-year-old man was found hanging in a relatively isolated place outdoors. A vest was wrapped over his head, neck and lower part of the face. The hands were loosely tied in front of the body. The vest was tucked between the neck and the ligature, to act as a pad. Thorough scene examination and post-mortem examination excluded any evidence of foul play. Although bondage is usually associated with autoerotic practices in asphyxiation deaths, it was established that this case was a suicide. DNA was used as a supportive measure to determine that the handkerchief and vest belonged to the deceased....

Memory For Murder A Psychological Perspective On Dissociative Amnesia In Legal Contexts

February 20, 2019September 15, 2017 by admin

Mental health professionals and legal decision-makers often hear reports of memory impairment from both perpetrators of extreme violence such as homicide (e.g., Kopelman, 1995; Roesch & Golding, 1986; Schacter, 1986a), and from complainants and eyewitnesses (e.g., Loftus, 1993). Adult complainants, for example, have testified about their recovery of repressed memories for a violent incident(s) following a lengthy period of amnesia (e.g., Loftus, 1997; Porter, Yuille, & Lehman, 1999). Although these two types of cases differ in the timing of the memory loss (current vs. historical), both require a consideration of the validity of dissociative amnesia. Dissociative amnesia refers to amnesia for a traumatic (and, in this context, criminal) experience which has a psychological origin. Whereas dissociative amnesia refers to a process of forgetting following a traumatic experience, a dissociative state refers to an altered state of consciousness occurring during a traumatic experience. Dissociation is the more general term referring to the separation..

Complex Suicide Versus Complicated Suicide

December 5, 2018September 15, 2017 by admin

Abstract

In complex suicides, two or more methods are applied either simultaneously or one after the other. The purpose of the present study was to distinguish such complex suicides in the proper sense from “complicated suicides”, which are characterized by an unintentional secondary traumatization following the original suicide method. The study material comprises 1217 suicides investigated at the Budapest Institute of Forensic Medicine in the period from 2004 to 2006. Among these, 4.43% (n = 54) accounted for planned or unplanned complex suicides, whereas 0.49% (n = 6) were categorized as “complicated suicides”. The latter group included four fatalities due to unintended falls from a height (for instance after breaking of the hanging noose), one death from electrocution and one case of drowning. The succession of a failed suicidal act and a secondary (“unforeseen” and therefore “accidental”) trauma with fatal outcome may cause problems in determining the manner and cause of death....

Hired Killings in Intimate Partner Relationships: A New Breed of Violent Offenders?

December 5, 2018September 15, 2017 by admin

Abstract:

In respect to hired killings in intimate partner relationships, several aggravating factors can be discerned: (1) the murder is carefully planned; (2) it is a rational act with the deliberate intent to kill; (3) others are persuaded to and offered a reward to commit the actual killing; (4) the ploy of playing the role of the bereaved partner; (5) the primary offender’s deliberate lies to the police; and (6) the lack of remorse. Despite the emerging pattern regarding hired killings, the complexities of these premeditated murders should not be ignored. Diverse motives, including financial considerations and abusive relationships particularly in the case of female primary offenders, place a heavy burden on the criminal justice system to act fairly and justly. Murder is an intensely personal type of crime and regarded by some researchers as the most problematic of all criminal behaviors. Due to some highly publicized incidents in South...

Differences In Characteristics Between Suicide Victims Who Left Notes Or Not

December 5, 2018September 15, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Background

Suicide notes (SN) are one of markers of the severity of a suicide attempt and are said to provide a valuable insight into the thinking of suicide victims before the fatal act [Shah, A., De, T., 1998. Suicide and the elderly. Int. J. Psychiat. Clin Pract. 2, 3–18]. To examine whether suicide victims who wrote notes (note writers: NW) differ from those who did not, we investigated the characteristics of a sample of more than 5000 Japanese suicides using multiple logistic regression analysis.

Methods

For all suicide victims (5161 cases), we examined the following information: gender, age, suicide method, reason for suicide, marital status, residential status, history of psychiatric disorders, previous suicidal behavior, physical disease, and content of suicide notes.

Results

Mean incidence of NW was 30.1% (male: 29.7%, female: 30.8%). NW in Japan had the following characteristics; higher proportion in female and living alone,...

A Planned Complex Suicide: Need For A High Index Of Suspicion.

December 5, 2018September 15, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Unusual ways of committing suicide are reported in the medico-legal literature, but few refer to the so-called "planned complex suicide" (PCS). PCS, also termed primary combined suicide, is defined as the combination of two or more methods of injury by the suicidal person to prevent failure of a single method of suicide alone. In contrast, in secondary or unplanned complex suicide, the victim uses the second method of suicide only after failure of the first method.2 Combinations of shooting, hanging, burning, and/or poisoning have been used as suicidal methods. Sometimes the double use of one method such as simultaneous gunshot wound from two firearms or ingestion of two different toxic substances has been reported. This gives the suicidal person a high degree of protection against failure of one of the methods, as both modes of injury are relatively certain. This case report demonstrates...

Lineup Construction and Lineup Fairness

February 20, 2019September 15, 2017 by admin

1. Introduction.

Police lineups come from English criminal law and procedure. According to Devlin (1976), lineups were instituted through a Middlesex magistrate’s order in the mid 19th century. They were intended as a ‘fair’ replacement for the practices of courtroom identification, and showups, which were widely used in 19th century England, but widely recognized as potentially unfair to the defendant. Their origin indicates that the notion of ‘fairness’ is their raisond’etre. They are intended to secure an identification that can potentially incriminate someone, but also is fair to those who are subjected to it, particularly those who are innocent of the crime. Study of the case law in many countries, as well as recent DNA-based exonerations in the U.S., indicates that lineups are not invariably fair – many innocent people are convicted after identification from a lineup by an eyewitness. The problem is significant because eyewitness evidence is cited as the most significant source of wrongful...

Homicide Trials Reimbursement

December 5, 2018September 15, 2017 by admin

ANALYSIS

In 1961, the Legislature (Stats. 1961, ch. 2115) instituted, through the addition of a chapter in the Government Code (§§ 15200 et seq.), a system whereby the state would share with counties the cost of certain homicide trials. The legislative intention was expressed in section 15200: ‘The Legislature hereby declares that: (1) The uniform administration of justice throughout the State is a matter of statewide interest; (2) The prosecution and conduct of trials of persons accused of homicide should not be hampered or delayed by any lack of funds available to the counties for such purposes; (3) A county should not be required to bear the entire costs of a trial involving a homicide if such costs will seriously impair the finances of the county; and (4) It is the intention of the Legislature in enacting this chapter to provide for state assistance to counties in such emergency situations....

Homicides with Mutilation of the Victim’s Body

December 5, 2018September 15, 2017 by admin

Abstract: In the 10-year sample, there were 13 cases of homicide with mutilation of the victim’s body (2.2 percent); all involved 1 victim. Eight of the 13 cases (61.5 percent) were classified as "defensive" mutilation, i.e., the offender was attempting to eliminate evidence of the offender's identity. Two of the mutilations were offensive, i.e., the offender inflicted the mutilation in the course of the attack. Three cases (23 percent) were classified as psychotic mutilation due to the offenders being diagnosed with schizophrenia and delusions at the time of the killing and mutilation. None of the victims were strangers to the offenders, and nearly half were partners or family members. Compared to homicides without victim mutilation, homicides with mutilation were more likely to involve multiple offenders, movement of the victim from the homicide scene, sexual behavior toward the victim, and the use of a sharp instrument. At the time ...

Diagnostic Study of the Criminal Alias

December 5, 2018September 15, 2017 by admin

Abstract:

The most common ways in which their names were modified included changing the middle name or initial, changing the spelling of one name, or completely changing all three names. These alias users were older property offenders who had more prior arrests, less education, more tattoos, more prior psychiatric contact, and were more often alcoholics than alias nonusers. While these findings are consistent with intentional deception, they also suggest that criminal alias users may have a pathological self-concept. (Author abstract)...

Elderly Female Serial Sexual Homicide

December 5, 2018September 14, 2017 by admin

Abstract

The purpose of criminal investigative analysis is to assist law enforcement in identifying and apprehending violent offenders by identifying important suspect and crime scene characteristcs. The genesis of criminal investigative analysis grew out of micro-level reviews of unusually violent crime cases. Although the descriptive terminology used to identify the process has changed over the years, the process of assessing violent criminal behavior has not. Lack of agreement as to what constitutes criminal investigative analysis has also led some to view the process as more art than science. In an effort to clarify some of these issues, an analysis of cases of serial sexual homicides of elderly women is conducted. Although the sexual homicide of elderly women represents a small percentage of overall homicides in the United States, the authors provide empirical evidence supporting the use of criminal investigative analysis in solving these unusual cases. The FBI regularly consults on various types of...

Assault and Homicide Associated with Amphetamine Abuse

December 5, 2018September 14, 2017 by admin

Abstract

The author describes the histories of 13 persons who committed homicide while intoxicated with amphetamines. In most of these cases, the events leading to the homicidal act were directly related to amphetamine-induced paranoid thinking, panic, emotional lability, or lowered impulse control. The most important variables associated with these cases included predisposing personality, environmental circumstances, and the use of other drugs....

Psychiatric Aspects Of Homicide

December 5, 2018September 14, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Author Information

Homicide is a significant public health problem in the USA and a pervasive concern in other nations as well.This paper evaluates the past year's contributions to the psychiatric literature with special emphasis on etiological considerations. In particular, advances in predictive capability and the growing importance of biological factors are examined...