Kidnapping

Abstract

When a person is abducted and the suspect is someone other than a family member, it is a difficult for police to decide where to look for the victim. To date, there has been little research conducted on how offenders select murder and disposal sites, and how far they travel to get to these areas. Past research pertains only to the United States and United Kingdom. Thus, investigators have little knowledge regarding relevant distance relationships in Canada, and how offenders chose the locations to dump victims. This thesis includes a review of previous research in this field, as well as a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses. As stranger homicides are infrequent crimes, all Canadian and Washington State cases were included. Using data from Violent Crimes Linkage Analysis system (ViCLAS) and Homicide Investigative Tracking System (HITS), this research examined victim and offender demographics, temporal and spatial factors, the disposal site, and the distances involved in the crime. The distances analyzed were between the offender and victim's residence, point of initial contact, murder scene and disposal site. Many distinctive patterns emerged, relating to the age of the victim and offender,...