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Homicide Studies

Homicide Event Motive: A Situational Perspective

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ABSTRACT

The motive for a homicide can be conceptualised from different perspectives, for instance, psychological, legal, investigative, and is often focused on the offender’s reasons for committing the homicide. As criminology often draws on theories from various disciplines, motive’s conceptualisation from study to study and comparison is difficult. This manuscript introduces a new perspective for conceptualising motive, based on the situational approach termed “homicide event motive”. Defined as the fundamental reason for the homicide and drawing on theories such as the Routine Activities Theory, Crime Pattern Theory, and Theory of Closure on Deviant Acts, this conceptualisation shifts the focus from the offender’s personal reasoning to the homicide situation itself and the elements that brought about the event. This manuscript will outline the theoretical foundations of homicide event motive.

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Differences in Characteristics of Criminal Behavior Between Solo and Team Serial Killers

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Introduction

Numerous research and theory have been published in an effort to better understand and categorize the most aberrant of pathological behaviors, those of a serial killer. This research is not only used to understand these individuals and what causes them to act out in this manner, but is also applicable when thinking about prevention and early detection of such behavior. When one can accurately understand patterns of behaviors, and the characteristics of such patterns, one can then begin to understand and trace back psychological mechanisms and etiologies of such behavior. Understanding and identifying precursors to these behavioral patterns will aid in early detection and intervention. A considerable amount of this research has focused on solo serial killers specifically, or serial killers as an entire population. Very little research is available regarding differences between different categories of killers, such as solo and team types of serial killers. The current research aimed to increase specificity of the available research and examine whether there are key differences in various aspects of criminal behavior between solo and team serial killers.

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Travel-To-Crime: Homing In On The Victim

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ABSTRACT

Environmental criminology focuses on the intersection in time and place of the offender and victim. Patterns of crime are generally explained in terms of the routine activities of the offender. His or her travel to crime distances are short and crimes are committed within the offender's 'awareness space'. It has generally been theorised that victims also have short journeys to crime, associated with their routine behaviour. This review, however, suggests that occupancy of 'unawareness space', where people are away from familiar surroundings, may confer heightened risk. This is supported in research in the special case of crime and tourism, though other travelling victim patterns have been largely ignored. This paper postulates that crime risk increases at the intersection of offender awareness and victim unawareness spaces. The 2002–3 British Crime Survey provides some suggestive evidence on this. Its analysis reveals that 26.9% of self-reported victimisation occurs more than 15 minutes away from the victim's home. For personal

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A Comparison of Homicide Trends in Local Weed andSeed Sites Relative to Their Host Jurisdictions, 1996 to 2001

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Operation Weed and Seed is a cooperative strategy involving local community social organizations and local law enforcement, the United States Attorneys' Offices around the country and the Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS) of the United States Department of Justice, in addition to a multitude of public and private stakeholders. The goal of Weed and Seed is to systematically reduce crime in targeted high crime communities through the coordinated efforts of enforcement, prevention, and neighborhood restoration. Unlike other crime suppression or prevention programs, however, the efforts of Weed and Seed are aimed at meeting this end through the strategic coordination of pre-existing efforts and the marshaling of established community resources that go beyond the traditional activities of justice-related agencies

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Retaliatory Homicide: Concentrated Disadvantage and Neighborhood Culture

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Much of the research on violent crime is situated within an exclusively structural or subcultural frame-work. Some recent work, however, argues that these unidimensional approaches are inherently limited and thatmore attention needs to be given to the intersection of structural and cultural determinants of violence. Thepresent study takes up this challenge by examining both structural and cultural in uences on one underexam-ined type of homicide: retaliatory killings. Using quantitative data to examine the socioeconomic correlates andecological distribution of homicide in St. Louis, Missouri, and narrative accounts of homicide incidents, we Ž ndthat a certain type of homicide (what we call “ cultural retaliatory homicide” ) is more common in some neigh-borhoods than in others due to the combined effects of economic disadvantage, neighborhood cultural responsesto disadvantage, and problematic policing. Problems confronting residents of these communities are oftenresolved informally— without calling the police—and neighborhood cultural codes support this type of...

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Parricide: An Analysis of Offender Characteristics and Crime Scene Behaviorsof Adult and Juvenile Offenders

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Researchers of parricide have often concentrated on the characteristics of the offenders. However, research which has empirically documented the link between offender’s characteristics and crime scene evidence is scant. Therefore, the aim of this study is to attempt not only to explore the crime scene behaviors evident in parricide offenses, but also to determine whether there are any differences between juvenile and adult offenders in both personal and crime scene characteristics. Twenty-four cases of parricide offenses, obtained from the FBI Behavioral Science Unit case files, were analyzed using frequency and chi-square. The results revealed, contrary to literature, that mental illness and abuse were not significantly different for both groups. Regarding crime scene variables, differences between the two groups were found on a number of victims and movement of the victim’s body after death. Other interesting findings include initial approach to victim and overkill. These findings provide investigative ...

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Sexual (Lust) Homicide Definitional Constructs, Dynamics, and Investigative Considerations

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the historical definitional origins of sexual homicide (lust murder), the dynamics of sexual homicide injury, offense definition constructs and their limitations, and key presumptions of injuries associated with sexual homicide offense models. The chapter concludes by arguing for the clarification of concepts, characterizations, linkages, and research into the offense dynamics and offender motivations of sexual (lust) homicides.

INTRODUCTION

Violent interactions in which people are engaged are based on experiences and expectations of reality. For that reason, an understanding of violence and its extremes must consider the offender’s construct of reality. As Skrapec noted, “behavior is the product of one’s own sense of reality regardless of the degree to which that reality matches the objective facts of that person’s life” (1, p. 51–52). The mental representations of an offender’s realities are acted upon and acted out, and they may be presumed to be detectable and specifiable in the...

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Psychiatric Aspects of Familicide

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Introduction

Various types of killings occur within family matrices. The news media highlight the dramatic components, and even novels now use it as a theme. 1 However, a psychiatric understanding remains elusive. Not all killings within a family are familicidal. For want of a better term, I have called the killing of more than one member of a family by another family member "familicide." The destruction of the family unit appears to be the goal. Such behavior comes within the category of "mass murders" where a number of victims are killed in a short period of time by one person. However, in mass murders the victims are not exclusively family members. The case of one person committing a series of homicides over an extended period of time, such as months or years, also differs from familicide. The latter can result in the perpetrator...

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On the Plausibility of Adaptations for Homicide

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1 Introduction

1. People kill other people in every known culture around the world. The question is why. This chapter presents our theory of Evolved Homicide Adaptations, and contrasts this theory with two competing conceptions of why people kill: The Byproduct Hypothesis and the Evolved Goal Hypothesis. Prior to presenting these competing views of homicide, we discuss the concept of “innateness” from an evolutionary perspective in relation to our conception of evolved homicide adaptations.

2. The Concept of Innateness from the perspective of Evolutionary Psychology The term “innateness” is used to refer to a multitude of different phenomena (see Elman, Johnson, & Bates, 1996). Our conceptualization of innateness falls in line with the standard definition of the innateness of adaptation. It is clear that selection has acted on genes that pattern human ontogeny. These genes provide the blueprint for the development of adaptations. Like the blueprints to a house,...

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The Plausibility of Adaptations for Homicide

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1 Introduction

People kill other people in every known culture around the world. The question is why. This chapter presents a new theory of homicide, Homicide Adaptation Theory, which proposes that humans evolved adaptations to facilitate killing. The new theory is contrasted with two competing conceptions of why people kill: The Byproduct Hypothesis and the Evolved Goal Hypothesis. Prior to presenting these competing views of homicide, we discuss the concept of “innateness” in relation to our conception of evolved homicide adaptations. 2 The Concept of Innateness from the perspective of Evolutionary Psychology The term “innateness” is used to refer to many different phenomena (see Elman, Johnson, & Bates, 1996). Our conceptualization of innateness falls in line with the standard definition used by evolutionary psychologists and biologists when referring to any adaptation. Selection has shaped the genes that pattern human ontogeny. These genes provide the blueprint for the development of... ...

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Modelling Cranial Gunshot Wounds And Backspatter

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Abstract

Bloodspatter from gunshot wounds may be divided into two categories; forward spatter and backspatter. Forward spatter is ejected from the exit wound and travels in the same direction as the bullet. Backspatter on the other hand is ejected from the entrance wound and travels against the line of fire, back towards the shooter. This means it is commonly deposited on the hand of the shooter or the firearm, making it a critical piece of evidence when determining the manner of death. Despite this fact, research in this area is limited and no realistic synthetic model for studying backspatter has been documented in the literature. This project was initiated in response to this, in an attempt to create a realistic cranial model that could produce backspatter from a gunshot wound. A pig head model was developed, as it could be validated unlike a human model. This model consisted of synthetic skin, soft tissue...

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Couple Age Discrepancy and Risk of Intimate Partner Homicide

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Although national level studies in the United States and Canada find that extreme partner age discrepancy is a risk factor for intimate partner homicide in opposite-sex couples, these studies carry two caveats: They are limited to cohabiting marital or common-law couples and they are not detailed enough to explore alternative explanations for the age discrepancy-homicide risk association. Using the Chicago Homicide Dataset, which includes all homicides that occurred in Chicago from 1965 to 1996, we analyze the 2,577 homicides in which the victim was killed by a current or former legal spouse, commonlaw spouse, or heterosexual boyfriend or girlfriend, and in which the woman was at least 18 years of age. Within each of 14 categories of couple age discrepancy, we estimate the population of intimate heterosexual couples and calculate the population-based risk of homicide. The results replicate national level findings showing that the risk of intimate partner homicide is considerably elevated for couples...

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Family Survivors Of Homicide Victims: Theoretical Perspectives And An Exploratory Study

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INTRODUCTION

The burgeoning literature on the psychological impact of crime has neglected a group of profoundly traumatized victims: surviving family members of criminal homicide victims (henceforth referred to as survivors). Criminal homicide is defined as "the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another" (FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1985, p. 7) and includes the crimes of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. Few would dispute the seriousness of homicide. A national survey asking respondents to rate the severity of 204 illegal acts found the six rated as most serious involved homicide (Rand et al., 1983). Yet, the indirect victims, those who have lost a loved one to homicide, are nearly invisible in the existing literature. We have no information concerning the number of survivors, and have only scant information about the impact of homicide on their psychological adjustment. Experts have recently begun to acknowledge that homicide produces indirect victims who suffeice...

Additional Resource: Family Survivors of Homicide Victims: Theoretical Perspectives and an Exploratory Study

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What Propels Sexual Homicide Offenders? Testing an Integrated Theory of Social Learning and Routine Activities Theories

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ABSTRACT

Sexual homicide is a rare occurrence. Little is known about the offending perspective of sexual homicide from a criminological standpoint. Recently, Chan, Heide, and Beauregard (2011) proposed an integrative theoretical framework using concepts and propositions of Social Learning Theory (differential association, definitions, differential reinforcement or punishment, and imitation) and Routine Activities Theory (a motivated offender, an attractive and suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian or guardianship) to elucidate the sexual homicide offending dynamics. According to this integrative model, the individual-level view of the sexual murderers is explained by the social learning principles, while the offending process is complemented by the routine activities propositions from amicro-level to provide a better explained sexual homicide offending model. However, this model has yet to be tested empirically. In addition to testing the Chan et al.’s model, this study proposes and tests an alternative model by incorporating the construct of pre-crime precipitators to better explain the motivating factor of an

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Victim Precipitated Criminal Homicide

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In many crimes, especially in criminal homicide, the victim is often a major contributor to the criminal act. Except in cases in which the victim is an innocent bystander and is killed in lieu of an intended victim, or in cases in which a pure accident is involved, the victim may be one of the major precipitating causes of his own demise. Various theories of social interaction, particularly in social psychology, have established the framework for the present discussion. In criminological literature, however, probably von Hentig in The Criminal and His Victim, has provided the most useful theoretical basis for analysis of the victim-offender relationship. In Chapter XII, entitled "The Contribution of the Victim to the Genesis of Crime," the author discusses this "duet frame of crime" and suggests that homicide is particularly amenable to analysis.' In Penal Philosophy, Tarde frequently attacks the "legislative mistake" of concentrating too much on premeditation and paying too little attention to motives,

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Analyzing an Offender’s Journey to Crime: A Criminal Movement Model (CriMM)

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Abstract

In the current study we develop a Criminal Movement Model (CriMM) to investigate the relationship between simulated travel routes of offenders along the physical road network and the actual locations of their crimes in the same geographic space. With knowledge of offenders’ home locations and the locations of major attractors, we are able to model the routes that offenders are likely to take when travelling from their home to an attractor by employing variations of Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm. With these routes plotted, we then compare them to the locations of crimes committed by the same offenders. This model was applied to five attractor locations within the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Information about offenders in these cities was obtained from five years worth of real police data. After performing a small-scale analysis for each offender to investigate how far off their...

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