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Homicide Studies

Homicidal Events Among Mexican American Street Gangs

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Abstract

This article examines the complexity of street gang homicides and focuses on situational factors that lead to gang members’ susceptibility to this violent behavior within the context of a disadvantaged minority community. This study is based on an analysis of 28 homicides involving Mexican American gang members. The absence of immigrant youth involvement in these types of violent crimes is discussed. Findings demonstrate how locally embedded social processes associated with specific gang types, ecology, drugs, circumstances, and motives unfold into homicidal events. These findings may contribute to the development of street-based social programs focused on gang mediation, dispute resolution, and crisis intervention.

Concerns have emerged about the association of United States (U.S.) Latinos and crime, especially because of the increased presence of street gangs among this population. However, many crime indicators for Latinos, including homicide, are often lower than for other socioeconomically comparable U.S. groups (Martinez, 2002; Sampson, 2008). This is often explained by the large proportion of immigrants compared with native-

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The Homicidal Narcissist

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ABSTRACT

Personality type and murder have been linked via several studies on Sadistic personality disorder, Antisocial personality disorder, and psychopathy. The present study focused on the relationship between Narcissistic personality disorder and homicidal propensity. The relationship was examined using a sample of 490 inmates of the Colorado Department of Corrections. The subjects specific to this study were 215 inmates convicted of homicidal crimes including manslaughter, first degree murder, second degree murder, and second degree murder-crime of passion. A control group of approximately 275 inmates was included. The control group consisted of a random sample of crimes with the exception of homicide. Elevations on the Narcissistic, Sadistic, and Antisocial indices of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III were expected from the homicidal subjects. Results showed small but significant differences were found between minorities and whites on years of education and IQ. Significant...

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Homicide Process Mapping

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Since 1990, the number of homicides committed in the United States has dropped over 30 percent. While this is a positive trend, it is somewhat counterbalanced by another trend: in the mid-1970s, the average homicide clearance rate in the United States was around 80 percent. Today, that number has dropped to 65 percent—hence, more offenders are literally getting away with murder. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), recognizes that the problem of violence in the United States requires a multifaceted approach. In a coordinated initiative of projects, BJA has examined the manner in which trends in violence are identified by law enforcement for tactical purposes,3 reviewed how cutting-edge analysis and the integration of resources can disrupt trends in violent crime, and examined two decades of violence-reduction initiatives to determine what works.

Based on lessons learned, new initiatives are explored, such as the Law Enforcement Forecasting...

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An Examination of Homicide Clearance Rates: Foundation for the Development of a Homicide Clearance Model

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Introduction

Homicide rates around the country show that many individuals choose murder as the ultimate means of conflict resolution. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, 65 percent of homicides are cleared. Unfortunately, consistently high homicide clearance rates are not the norm for departments around the country. To help departments raise their clearance rates, it is important to discover which aspects of homicide case management and investigation produce the best results. First it may be useful to review definitions of “clearance rate.” Bottomley and Pease state, “[A]n offense is said to be cleared up if a person has been charged, summonsed or cautioned for the offense, if the offense is admitted and taken into consideration by the court, or if there is sufficient evidence to charge a person, but the case is not proceeded with...” (1986:44). However, Rinehart (1993) points out that Greenwood, Chaiken, and Petersilia (1977:32) define a cleared case to exist “when police have identified a perpetrator, have sufficient...

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The Sex Killer

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Abstract

Thirteen sex killers were compared to 13 nonsex killers and 13 nonhomicidal sexually aggressive men on sexual history, substance abuse, history of violence, mental illness and personality, brain pathology and endocrine abnormalities. There were more similarities among the three groups than differences. Among the findings, the presence of transvestism and the early appearance of sadism differentiated the sex killers from the other two groups. Sex killers also killed by strangulation more often than nonsex killers and more often victimized a female stranger. The sex killer was more often diagnosed as ‘antisocial’ personality and ‘sadist’ than the other two groups. They were more often considered psychotic at the time of their offence and more often considered not guilty by reason of insanity. Directions for future research are noted...

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Body Disposal Patterns of Sexual Murderers: Implications for Offender Profiling

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

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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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Neighborhood Structure Differences Between Homicide Victims And Non-victims

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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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Sleep Architecture In Homicidal Women With Antisocial Personality Disorder—a Preliminary Study

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to characterize sleep in severely violent women with antisocial personality disorder (ASP) as the primary diagnosis. Participants for this preliminary study were three drug-free female offenders ordered to undergo a forensic mental examination in a maximum security state mental hospital after committing homicide or attempted homicide. Ten healthy age- and gender-matched controls PSconsisted of hospital staff with no history of physical violence. The most striking finding was the increased amount of slow wave sleep, particularly the deepest sleep stage, S4, in women with ASP. This finding is in agreement with previously reported results in habitually violent male criminals with ASP. Severe female aggression seems to be associated with profound changes in sleep architecture. Whether this reflects specific brain pathology, or a delay in the normal development of sleep patterns in the course of aging, needs to be clarified. From the perspective of sleep research,...

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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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The Elderly Victim of Homicide: An Application of the Routine Activities Approach

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Abstract

This study attempts to resolve some of the disparity between lifestyle/routine activities theory and empirical findings concerning the elderly victim of homicide. Analysis of Canadian data leads to the conclusion that the elderly are disproportionately victims of theft-based homicide, a finding not consistent with the routine activity approach. A reformulation of the theory resolves the theory/data gap....

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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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Motives in a Triple Spree Homicide

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Abstract

Juries, criminologists, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and the lay public like to know the motive for a murder—especially when there are unusual features such as multiple victims, extensive injuries, or unexplainable acts to the bodies. However, many times the motive is not readily available from the murderer because he does not confess or he does not consciously know why he killed. The following case describes the analysis of multiple motives in a triple spree homicide committed in a very short time frame. Robbery was the primary motive for the first victim and sexual homicide was the motive for the second and third victims.

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Are Unknown Victim-Offender Relationship Homicide Cases More Like Stranger, Family Or Acquaintance Homicides?

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Abstract:

Much has been made about the increase in the proportion of “unknown” victim-offender relationship homicides over the past twenty years. The relative frequency of the reporting of unknown victim-offender relationships in homicide has increased precipitously so that it now constitutes more than one third of all cases. This has implications for clearance rates, as unknown relationship cases are highly likely to be unsolved. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for the years 1996 through 2002, the present paper compares unknown relationship cases to other known relationship categories (i.e., family, acquaintance and stranger) to determine how similar/dissimilar they are based upon selected characteristics and circumstances.

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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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The Role Of Deviant Sexual Fantasy In The Etiopathogenesis Of Sexual Homicide: A Systematic Review

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Abstract

Much research examining the etiopathogenesis of sexual homicide has focused on the role of deviant sexual fantasy. However, there are fundamental questions as to the nature of the relationship between deviant fantasy and sexual homicide that remain unanswered. Given that most people are likely to entertain deviant fantasies without really desiring to put them into practice, it is important to understand how and why some people develop deviant sexual fantasies and act on them. To understand the mechanisms that promote development and acting out of deviant fantasy in sexual murders, this paper addresses the available scientific evidence on the topic, by providing a systematic review of the studies that have investigated the role of fantasy in the etiopathogenesis of sexual homicide. Five databases were searched, supplemented with hand-search of reference lists from retrieved papers. The author and a psychiatrist independently evaluated eligibility of all studies identified, abstracted data, and assessed study quality....

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