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Homicide Investigation

The Nature And Dynamics Of Sexual Homicide: An Integrative Review

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Abstract

The author reviews the definitions, epidemiology, evolving research, offender, and offense characteristics of sexual homicide, a form of intentional killing that occurs in less than 1% of homicides in the United States. Although the extant research is limited by very few comparative studies, repetitive use of small, nonrandom samples, retrospective data, no prospective studies, and the absence of any predictive statistical analyses, the yield over the past 100 years is impressive. The author advances a clinical typology of sexual murderers. The first group of compulsive sexual murderers leaves behind organized crime scenes and are usually diagnosed with sexual sadism and antisocial/narcissistic personality disorders. They are chronically emotionally detached, often primary psychopaths, are autonomically hyporeactive, and the majority experience no early trauma. The second group of catathymic sexual murderers leave behind disorganized crime scenes and are usually diagnosed with a mood...

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Women Who Kill: A Comparison Of The Psychosocial Background Of Female And Male Perpetrators

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the psychosocial background of female and male perpetrators convicted of homicide in Sweden between 1995–2001. All women (n = 43) who were convicted for lethal violence during the period and a corresponding number of randomly chosen men (n = 43) were examined. In total, information about 86 individuals was collected retrospectively. Areas of interest were psychosocial variables during childhood and at the time of the current crime. Results showed that both female and male perpetrators were psychosocially encumbered already at an early age. Homicidal women had more severe childhood circumstances, but less aggressive childhood behaviour than did their male counterparts. At the time of the crime, women had a more ordered social situation, had more often been exposed to violence and searched for help than had the men. These gender differences suggest that specific actions are needed for preventing women's homicidal behaviour...

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Patterns of Homicide Among the Elderly.

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Abstract

Forty-five homicide offenders aged 55 and older are analyzed in the contexts of their deadly acts. Analyses include demographic and social characteristics of offenders and victims, demographic and social relationships between offenders and victims, circumstances of offense, and arrest disposition. Where feasible, comparisons are made with age-general populations of homicide offenders. Explanatory insights based on the "routine activity approach are offered....

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Elderly Homicide in Chicago: a Research Note.

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Abstract

There is a body of knowledge about elderly crime victims, but we know little about the characteristics of elderly perpetrators, especially of homicide. The few studies that have been published are based on small samples and are somewhat dated. In an examination of homicides committed in Chicago over a 31-year period, we compared cases involving perpetrators aged over 60 years (n = 443) with those involving younger perpetrators (n = 24,066). There were a number of significant differences. Elderly killers were more likely to be White and to commit suicide afterwards. Their victims were more likely to be spouses, females, and aged over 60 years. Inter-racial homicide was more common for younger offenders. The low number of homicides involving the elderly is explained by reference to routine activity theory....

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Ritual and Signature in Serial Sexual Homicide Louis B. Schlesinger, Martin Kassen, V.

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Abstract

Ritual and signature are fantasy-driven, repetitive crime scene behaviors that have been found to occur in serial sexual homicide. Notwithstanding numerous anecdotal case reports, ritual and signature have rarely been studied empirically. In a national sample of 38 offenders and their 162 victims, we examined behavioral and thematic consistency, as well as the evolution and uniqueness of these crime scene actions. The notion that serial sexual murderers engage in the same rituals and leave unique signatures at every scene was not supported by our data. In fact, the results suggest that the crime scene conduct of this group of offenders is fairly complex and varied. Implications of these findings for forensic assessments and criminal investigations are discussed.

Since the early case studies of sexual murder by von Krafft-Ebing,1 offenders have been reported to engage in various crime scene behaviors that are unnecessary in the commission of...

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Journey to Crime and Victimization: An Application of Routine Activities Theory and Environmental Criminology to Homicide

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Abstract

Despite the attention the crime of homicide has received by the academic community there are still gaps in the literature. One of these gaps pertains to the examination of the mobility patterns of homicide victims and offenders. This study addresses this gap by focusing on three research questions

(1) Does the distance traveled by homicide suspects and victims from their residence to the incident location vary by homicide motive type?

(2) Does the reason why homicide victims and suspects travel to the incident location vary by homicide motive type?

(3) What victim and suspect characteristics significantly predict the distance traveled from the residence to the incident location?

The analyses show that there are statistically significant differences among the homicide types in terms of the length of the journey of victims and suspects to the incident location. In addition, there is variation by motive in terms of why the...

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Homicide and Social Disorganization on the Border: Implications for Latino and Immigrant Populations†

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Abstract

Objective

We advance social disorganization theory by examining homicides disaggregated by motive and gang relation and by using data from El Paso, Texas—a predominantly Latino city with high levels of immigration and poverty.

Methods

We analyze homicide data from the El Paso Police Department's detective logs, 1985–1995, as well as data from the 1990 U.S. Decennial Census.

Results

Key measures of social disorganization tend to be associated with homicide but these relationships vary across type of homicide. Immigration and percent African American show no connection with any homicide measure, while percent Latino is only positively associated with gang-related homicides.

Conclusion

Overall, social disorganization is useful in understanding homicide in El Paso, but race/ethnicity and immigration do not operate as predicted. These results add important knowledge to a growing literature regarding the neighborhood-level associations between immigration, Latinos, and crime.

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Sexual Homicide: Differentiating Crime Scene Actions

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Abstract:

Recent studies have focused on how previous thematic approaches can help explore the style of the offender, specifying the way each offender interacts with the victim. In the present study, it is hypothesized that there are thematic distinctions in sexual homicide, expressive and instrumental, which can be interpreted from the analysis of co-occurrence of crime scene actions. The case files of 40 convicted sexual homicide offenders were content analyzed using the Homicide Profiling Index (Salfati, 2005). Using a multidimensional methodology, Smallest Space Analysis, the present study showed that these crime scene actions could be successfully differentiated in terms of expressive and instrumental aggression. The expressive theme consisted of violent behaviors that centered on hurting the victim, whereas the instrumental theme consisted of behaviors that were more focused on the benefits the victim provided for the offender. In order to provide a basis for the types of behaviors that investigators can use for effectively differentiating...

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Diagnosing Homicidal Mania: Forensic Psychiatry and the Purposeless Murder

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It is not every criminal defendant in late Victorian England who writes to the medical officer of the prison, inviting him to attend his trial and more than likely, his execution. The defendant had already discussed his forthcoming date at the Old Bailey with the prison doctor in a mood that bordered on ebullience: “he appeared in very great glee at being about to be … tried … he thought it would be a splendid sight … he said he would wear his best clothes and have his boots well polished—then he began to talk about his cats”. It might seem odd to shift the conversation so easily from a possible death sentence to asking about one's pets, but then, thirteen-year-old boys are often concerned about their pets, even thirteen-year-old boys who conspire with a younger brother to murder their mother and leave her body to rot for a week...

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A Working Definition of Serial Murder and the Reduction of Linkage Blindness

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify and clarify the issues facing our society resulting from the phenomenon of serial murder. It will be argued that the extent and prevalence of serial murders in our society today is an indirect effect of the almost total lack of sharing or coordination of investigative information relating to unsolved murders and to the lack of adequate networking among law enforcement agencies in this country. This lack of coordination and networking will be referred to as linkage blindness. This inability of law enforcement to link unsolved murders to a serial pattern greatly increases the probability that this serial sequence of murders will continue until the murderer makes a mistake...

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Linkage Blindness

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Law enforcement investigators sometimes do not see or are prevented from seeing beyond their own jurisdictional responsibilities. The officer's responsibility usually stops at the boundary of the jurisdiction except when hot pursuit is necessary. A police department's accountability and responsiveness to its jurisdictional clients can create a sense of isolation from the outside world. The term linkage blindness was coined in 1984 to denote an underlying problem with law enforcement serial murder investigations and some other crimes as well.

Intergovernmental conflict between law enforcement agencies is unfortunately a common occurrence. The basis of these conflicts is a real or perceived violation of an agency's boundaries or geographical jurisdiction, or of the specific responsibilities of an agency to enforce specific laws. Agencies large and small continually ...

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The “Pseudocommando” Mass Murderer: A Blaze of Vainglory

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The term “pseudocommando” was first used to describe the type of mass murderer who plans his actions “after long deliberation,” and who kills indiscriminately in public during the daytime.2 He comes prepared with a powerful arsenal of weapons and has no escape planned. He is sometimes described as having the intent to die in a “blaze of glory.” Since glory has been defined as “a state of great gratification or exaltation,” the clich to go out in a blaze of glory would seem to be a perverse turn of phrase, maonsidering the unfathomable pain and tragedy these individuals cause. This article briefly explores what is known about the mindset of the pseudocommando mass murderer and how he transforms his desire for revenge into a perverse sense of honor, which allows him to justify his actions. On July 22, 2011, Norway experienced the immeasurable fallout from a pseudocommando whose perverted sense of honor and...

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Aggression homicide and rejection homicide: a communicative classification of homicide

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Abstract

Based on a 10-year sample of homicides (n = 50), the hypothesis was tested that it is possible to differentiate between aggression and rejection homicide. The aggression homicide results from the offender/victim relationship, which is no longer accepted for some reason. In contrast, in the rejection homicide the offender radically strives for a goal which can only be reached if the victim is eliminated. Based on forensic-psychiatric expert opinions (n = 50), the case analyses yielded 31 aggression homicides and 18 rejection homicides, one case could not be classified. Aggression homicides differed significantly from the rejection homicides with regard to their main motives. Hate in quarrel (n = 8), violent occupation of the victim (n = 7), delusions (n = 5), revenge (n = 3), self-defence (n = 2), and jealousy (n = 1) characterized the aggression homicides, whereas rejection homicides were dominated by economic motives (n = 14). Two offenders intended to get rid of the victim and one...

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Choosing Favorites? Examining the Multiple Factors that Influence the Prioritization of Cold Case Homicide Investigations

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Abstract:

With each cold case homicide, a victim fails to receive justice and a perpetrator is likely at large. With the recent implementation of cold case homicide units across the country, these unsolved crimes are receiving a second chance for resolution. However, the caseload for these types of units is often daunting. Due to limited personnel dedicated to cold cases, detectives are often limited in the number of cases they can "actively" work at one time. Therefore, they must prioritize which cases to investigate. This paper examines the multiple factors that influence this critical decision. Hypothetically departments seek to work those cold cases that occurred most recently and that have the greatest amount of evidence. However, several other influences complicate this process. Resource allocation, political pressures, family interests, community impact, and other factors might be more likely to dictate to detectives which cold case homicides will be worked first....

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The Media As An Investigative Resource In Murder Enquiries

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Abstract

This article examines how the police seek to use the media in an instrumental fashion, as an investigative resource in murder enquiries. The majority of murders are comparatively easy for the police to solve. There are however, a small number of particularly serious and difficult to solve murders and it is during investigations into these types of crime that the police may employ a range of tactics to use the media as part of their wider investigative strategy. A discussion of police media strategies is provided and decisions about their strategic deployment are linked to the structural concerns of the police and media organizations....

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Analyzing 911 Homicide Calls For Indicators Of Guilt Or Innocence An Exploratory Analysis

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Abstract

This study examined verbal indicators to critically analyze 911 homicide statements for predictive value in determining the caller's innocence or guilt regarding the offense. One hundred audio recordings and transcripts of 911 homicide telephone calls obtained from police and sheriffs departments throughout the United States provided the database for the study. Using qualitative approaches for formulating the linguistic attributes of these communications and appropriate quantitative analyses of the resulting variables, the likelihood of guilt or innocence of the 911 callers in these adjudicated cases was examined. The results suggest that the presence or absence of as many as 18 of the variables are associated with the likelihood of the caller's guilt or innocence regarding the offense of homicide. These results are suggestive of up to six distinct linguistic dimensions that may be useful for examination of all homicide calls to support effective investigations of these cases by law enforcement...

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