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Titles of Interest

A Matched Cases Control Study of Convenience Store Robbery Risk Factors

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Abstract

Convenience store clerks have been shown to be at high risk for assault and homicide, mostly owing to robbery or robbery attempts. Although the literature consistently indicates that at least some environmental designs are effective deterrents of robbery, the significance of individual interventions and policies has differed across past studies. To address these issues, a matched case-control study of 400 convenience store robberies in three metropolitan areas of Virginia was conducted. Conditional logistic regression was implemented to evaluate the significance of various environmental designs and other factors possibly related to convenience store robbery. Findings indicate that numerous characteristics of the surrounding environment and population were significantly associated with convenience store robbery. Results also showed that, on a univariate level, most crime prevention factors were significantly associated with a lower risk for robbery. Using a forward selection process, a multivariate model, which included cash handling policy, bullet-resistant shielding, and numerous characteristics of the surrounding area and population, was identified. This study

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Staged Crime Scene California v. Charles B. Davis 2007

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This case involves a triple homicide in a small one-bedroom apartment. The victims were all stabbed to death and include Dana Beckmeyer, 44, WFA, who lived in the Oceanside apartment where the stabbings took place; Adrian Anthony Vanengalen, 55, WMA, of San Marcos; and Bruce Carriker, 57, WMA, of Vista, California. They were all either tweaked out on methamphetamine, high on marijuana, or drunk. The man suspected by police and ultimately put on trial was Charles B. Davis, 57, BMA, who had recently moved in with Beckmeyer. According to Mallory and Davis (2006): Charles Davis was calm and collected when he called police from a liquor store to surrender after a grisly triple murder in his home early yesterday, Vista sheriff’s officials said. The 58-year-old man called at 7 a.m. from a pay phone in Vista to say he knew why homicide investigators were searching for him and he was ready to cooperate. Oceanside police had been searching for Davis since 3:30 a.m., when...

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Solicitation: Research and Development on Forensic Crime Scene and Medicolegal Death Investigations

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Specific Information Research and Development on Forensic Crime

Scene and Medicolegal Death Investigations

With this solicitation, NIJ seeks proposals for research and development to enhance forensic crime scene examinations and forensic medicolegal investigations of death. This solicitation focuses on:
New or improved forensic tools and technologies that will allow for the detection and identification of evidence at a crime scene; e.g., latent prints, blood spatter, blood, semen, hairs, fibers, gun shot residue, explosive residue, fire debris, and impression evidence including:

– Smaller, more rugged, and less labor-intensive non-destructive analytical tools and technologies for the onsite presumptive and/or confirmatory analysis of forensic evidence at a crime scene.

– Improved means to locate, identify, capture, and stabilize samples (kit development), which are applicable to trace particulate, liquid, chemical, and biological evidence, and

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Legal Strangers and the Duty of Support: Beyond the Biological Tie – But How Far Beyond the Marital Tie?

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In 1998, Paula Johnson and Carlton Conley discovered that the child they thought was their biological daughter was not biologically related to them.' This child, Callie Marie Conley, had been switched within days of her birth with their own biological daughter at the hospital where both girls were born.' The discovery of the mistaken identities occurred only after Ms. Johnson had initiated a hearing for a formal child support order. Callie had been born while Johnson and Conley were living together as unmarried cohabitants. After they discontinued this living arrangement, Mr. Conley voluntarily paid child support. When they disagreed about the amount that he should be paying, Ms. Johnson initiated the hearing for court-ordered support." As a stalling tactic to delay the hearing, and which he admitted was such, Mr. Conley disputed for the first time that Callie was not his biological child. Paternity and maternity tests eventually proved that neither he nor Ms. Johnson was Callie's biological parent. They eventually learned their biological daughter's...

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Promoting Effective Homicide Investigations

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INTRODUCTION

CALL FOR ACTION

In 2006, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) hosted two conferences addressing violent crime: the “Promoting Effective Homicide Investigations” (May 25 and 26) and the “National Violent Crime Sum- mit” (August 30). Both were instrumental in understanding violent crime in the United States, as well as national and local initiatives to reduce it.1 The primary goal of this document is to improve homicide investigations by exploring law enforcement agency practices and examining relatively new procedures that may lead to more effective investigations. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) report of 2005 crime data showed a 2.4 percent nationwide increase in homicides from 2004.The FBI’s preliminary numbers for 2006 indicate a continued upward trend in homicides in cities across the nation. For example, during the period 2004 to 2006, homicides increased by 38 percent in Cleveland. Other cities with significant increases in homicides in that period include Cincinnati (41 percent), Houston (37 percent), Las Vegas (16 percent),

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Cracking the Cold Case: The Anatomy and Deconstruction of Unsolved Crimes

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Abstract

Popularized by the media and trendy television programs, the topic of “cold case investigation” has become ubiquitous. By examining unsolved cases and investigating detective processes, a compilation of information is gathered to analyze, reexamine and recreate crimes in an effort to solve them. This research aims to examine the procedures and anatomy of unsolved cases while reviewing the current cold case management tactics used by local and national law enforcement officials. Through academic literature, eight law enforcement staff interviews, governmental publications and the author’s documented first-hand investigative experience, this thesis also suggests recommendations for all cold case investigative personnel in their future case investigations. Though the media has worked for and against creating an accurate depiction of cold case investigation, using determined volunteers or decks of playing cards could offer unique techniques to investigators that now may have more tools to use than they realized.

Part I: Introduction and Definitions

For centuries, law enforcement agencies have used

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Discouragement of Crime Through Civil Remedies: An Application of a Reformulated Routine Activities Theory

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ABTRACT

This discussion develops an updated version of routine activities theory and assesses its potential for explaining the impact of civil remedies on crime discoura gement. A reformulated routine activities theory is constructed by marrying its original precepts with other theories of crime. The updated approach provides a promising theoretical framework for understanding how nuisance abatement, juvenile curfews, and server liability laws impact on crime.

INTRODUCTION

Since its introduction two decades ago (Cohen and Felson 1979), routine activities theory has emerged as a leading approach for explaining crime . During its brief history, the theory has weathered debates over its conceptualization as a micro or macro-level theory (Capowich 1999), criticisms of its assumptions (Jeffery 1993), and disquieting research findings (Massey, Krohn, and Bonati 1989). Still, the volume of research that acknowledges an intellectual debt to the routine activities approach continues to expand. This is due, in part, to recent attempts to marry routine activities with other theories of crime such as...

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Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis

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The word “name-calling” provokes negative associations, but the term “diagnostic labeling” has an aura of scientific precision, objectivity, and professionalism that lends it tremendous power. Language confers power (Miller and Swift 1977), and that power is “not distributed equitably across the social hierarchy” (Hare-Mustin and Marecek 1997, 106), a fact that has had tremendous impact on those who have sought mental health services. Diagnosis of physical problems has often been extremely useful, and in principle, psychiatric diagnosis can be helpful, too (e.g., Emily J. Caplan, chapter 5 in this volume). Unfortunately, psychiatric labeling has been conceived of and applied in extremely biased ways and is surprisingly unwarranted by scientific research, and thus it can result in serious harm (P. Caplan 1995). As Hare-Mustin and Marecek note: “a diagnostic label . . . has a profound influence on what we think of people so labeled and how they think about themselves” (1997, 105). In addition, diagnostic labels often create problems with employers and the...

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Sexual Attraction to Corpses: A Psychiatric Review of Necrophilia

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Necrophilia, a sexual attraction to corpses, is a rare disorder that has been known since ancient times. According to Herodotus,' the ancient Egyptians took precautions against necrophilia by prohibiting the corpses of the wives of men of rank from being delivered immediately to the embalmers, for fear that the embalmers would violate them. According to a legend, King Herod had sex with his wife Marianne for seven years after he killed her.3.4 Similar legends exist about King Waldemar and Charle-mag~e.'.~ Necrophilia was considered by the Catholic Church to be neither whoring ("fornicatio") nor bestiality, but "pollution with a tendency to ~horing."~ In more recent times, necrophilia has been associated with cannibalism and myths of vampirism. The vampire, who has been romanticized by the Dracula tales, obtains a feeling of power from his victims, "like I had taken something powerful from them."' Cannibalistic tribal rituals are based on the notion that consumption of human flesh imparts a special power or

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Reproductive Age Women Are Over-Represented Among Victims Of Wife-killing

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ABSTRACT

Younger women, relative to older women, incur elevated risk of uxoricide. Some evolutionary theorists attribute this pattern to men's evolved sexual proprietariness. Other evolutionary theorists propose an evolved homicide module for wife killing. An alternative to both explanations is that young women experience elevated uxoricide risk as a byproduct of marriage to younger men, who commit most acts of violence. We used 13,670 uxoricides to test these explanations. Findings show that (1) reproductive age women incur elevated risk of uxoricide; (2) younger men are over-represented among uxoricide perpetrators; and (3) younger women, even when married to older men, still incur excess risk of uxoricide. Discussion examines competing explanations for uxoricide in light of these findings.

WIFE-KILLING AND WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE STATUS

According to the reports of battered wives, battering husbands, and friends and family of both parties, physical violence is a punishment inflicted by husbands on wives they suspect of sexual infidelity (Daly & Wilson, 1988; Dobash & Dobash, 1979)....

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Sexual Homicide of Elderly Females Linking Offender Characteristics to Victim and Crime Scene Attributes

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The FBI consults regularly on the investigation of extraordinarily violent and unusual homicide cases. Although overall awareness of elderly victimization throughout the United States has greatly increased over the past decade, little attention has been focused on elderly female victims of sexual homicides and the offenders who commit these crimes. Law enforcement agencies are often faced with rarely seen and excessively violent crime scenes as they attempt to solve these homicides. This in-depth study examines the characteristics of 128 elderly women who were murdered by 110 offenders as well as the characteristics of the attendant crime scenes. An empirical analysis of crime scene attributes, victim characteristics (including severity of victim injuries), and offender demographics produces significant predictive information about offender characteristics that may assist law enforcement investigations of such cases.

Case 1
A 77-year-old widow was sexually assaulted and murdered in her bedroom. The medical examiner identified three separate causes of death. The offender strangled the victim into unconsciousness, severely fractured her skull using...

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To Be Published In The Official Reports Office Of The Attorney General

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ANALYSIS

The question presented for analysis concerns access by police and district attorney investigators to the medical and psychiatric records of a deceased person that are in the possession of the county coroner. May the records be disclosed by the coroner without the issuance of a court order, search warrant, or subpoena duces tecum? The issue arises when the coroner determines that a person has died under circumstances which suggest that the death was a homicide, and the coroner must notify the appropriate law enforcement agency. Government Code section 27491.11 provides: “In all cases in which a person has died under such circumstances as to afford a reasonable ground to suspect that the person’s death has been occasioned by the act of another by criminal means, the coroner, upon determining that such reasonable grounds exist, shall immediately notify the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the criminal investigation. Notification shall be made by the most direct communication available. The report shall state the name of the......

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Auto Erotic Hanging Brought As A Case Of Suicidal Hanging – A Case Report

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ABSTRACT:

A rare case of auto erotic hanging brought as a case of suicidal partial hanging is reported in this paper. Hanging is usually considered suicidal if not proved otherwise. The findings which were corroborative of auto erotic hanging decided that this was a case of accidental and not suicidal hanging.

INTRODUCTION:

Accidental hanging in the course of some abnormal sexual practice has certain characteristics which are virtually specific. The victims are exclusively males. Some are nude, some are attired in female garments and others, if normally clothed, may have opened their trousers and there is evidence of manipulation or bandaging of the genitals. Protection of the neck is by soft material, a handkerchief, vest or other cloth, interposed between the ligature and the skin of the neck [1].

CASE REPORT: One day, it was reported to the police that a constable of the 1st IRB (Indian Reserve Battalion) posted at Imphal was found hanging in the morning Inside his quarter.

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PARTNERS IN CRIME A Comparison of Individual and Multi-Perpetrator Homicides

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Homicide is a heterogeneous crime associated with diverse contexts, motives, offender– victim relationships, and offender characteristics. Although cleared at a higher rate than that of other violent crimes likely because of the resources channeled into such investigations (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007) homicide remains poorly understood, and stranger homicides in particular can be challenging for investigators (Dauvergne & Li, 2006). In 2006, the United States experienced an estimated 17,034 homicides, only 60% of which were cleared by police investigation and, most typically, the arrest of at least one person (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007). In Canada, 70% of solved homicides between 1991 and 2005 were cleared within 1 week of the incident, with the likelihood of success dropping drastically after that time. Given the urgency associated with a homicide investigation and the temporal constraints associated with a positive outcome, a valuable asset to investigators would be the ability to predict perpetrator characteristics based on the crime scene and the victim left behind. If specific

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The Problems of the Blue-Collar Workers

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The social and economic status of blue-collar workers has become a subject of increasing concern in the last few years. Recent reports have identified the economic insecurity and alienation which whites in this group have felt. What such reports have failed to note is that there are some two million minority-group males who are skilled or semi-skilled blue-collar workers who are full-time members of the work force and who share many of the same problems as whites in their income class. This nonwhite group also shares the same concern as white workers for law and order and other middle-class values. Many have moved from subemployment to low-income entry-level jobs, but they now feel blocked from further opportunity.In 1968, 34 percent of all minority-group families were in the $5,000 to $10,000 income category. Of course, on the average, most black families are still not anywhere as well off as white families: The median income of all Negro families was $5,590, that of all white families $8,937.

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Homicide Scene Investigation

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Introduction

Solving crimes is an easy thing to do in most cases; proving them is sometimes not. Trying the criminal case is the hardest of all lawsuits. Why? Because convicting a human being of a crime means that there are dire consequences for that person. No one, even the hardest hearted judge, wants to put someone in jail or have them, in the worst scenario, executed, unless they are absolutely sure that the persons who are the target of the investigation and trial are guilty. For that reason a criminal case has a much stricter burden of proof than a civil case. And for murder cases, because of the dire consequences to a defendant, a criminal homicide can be the most difficult case in the criminal lexicon to prove. However, this is not necessarily the case. If the police and the prosecutor do their job, investigate the cases as they should, know what has to be proved, and how to prove it, a

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