M7 - OLET2601 Psychology Of Crime PDF

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OLET2601: Psychology Of Crime - Module 7Case 4: The Homicidal OffenderOffence: Murder, Torture, Interfering With A CorpseIt was a rainy day in March when the homicide squadreceived a phone call about acase. It would be better if more senior detectivescould attend the scene they were told;it was a ca...

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OLET2601: Psychology Of Crime - Module 7 Case 4: The Homicidal Offender Offence: Murder, Torture, Interfering With A Corpse It was a rainy day in March when the homicide squad received a phone call about a case. It would be better if more senior detectives could attend the scene they were told; it was a case unlike anything they would have seen before. Detective Morris and Detective Edwards were two of the longest serving detectives in the squad. While they grabbed their coats they looked at each other, both wondering what on earth could be so special about this case. When the detectives arrived at the crime scene- a well-kept three story house in an affluent suburb- they each had their suspicions about what they would walk into. They had been told that there were multiple victims from the same family. When they heard that, they automatically thought it must have been a domestic incident. “Probably the husband”, Edwards said to Morris “happens every time. They just go after the whole family”. “Ah, remember that case three years ago, where it was the missus though. She topped them all,” Morris said. It took Edwards a few seconds but then he did remember that case. In a quite unusual case, a wife had killed her children and herself, during a severe episode of postnatal psychosis. Nothing could have prepared the detectives for the murders that had happened in the family house they were just about to walk into. The four victims were a father, mother and their son and daughter. Their third child, a teenage son, had found them dead when he returned from a school day-trip. It was very clear that this was not a domestic incident. That is, this family was clearly murdered by a person not in their family unit. All victims were located in the living room. The dad and 8-year old son were tied to a chair. Their feet were duct-taped to the legs of the chair and their hands were zip tied behind the backs. They had been suffocated with plastic bags over their heads, but it was clear that the killer had assaulted them before he killed them. They had various bruises and cuts over their body. First Crime Scene More disturbingly, it became clear that they were forced to watch their wife/mother and daughter/sister being tortured and killed first. The mother and her 11-year old daughter were badly injured before they were killed. The murderer had stabbed them both multiple times. Not deep enough to cause lethal damage, but deep enough to cause immense suffering. Moreover, he had burned them in various places all over their bodies

using a wire coat-hanger which he had apparently heated up using an iron. The mother was eventually strangled using the electrical cord from the iron. The little girl was hanged using a rope, which had been taken from the garage. The detectives assumed the killer was a man as semen was found in various places in the living room. It was an interesting case because besides the bodies, the house was in an immaculate state. Nothing indicated that there might have been a struggle between the family and the killer. Either the killer must have been known to the family, must not have been considered a threat, or he had cleaned up the crime scene like a forensic worker after he had finished. But if it was the latter, why leave the semen behind? The detectives were intrigued and concerned at the same time. This was unlike any case they had come across before. Cases like this only happened in those awful American TV shows; not in their calm and friendly police area command. They knew they needed to step into gear now. No time could be lost trying to solve this heinous crime. Edwards and Morris started instructing their team. The neighbourhood needed to be canvassed. Police officers were to go around the street to doorknock and get statements from neighbours and other potential witnesses. They would ask them if they saw or heard anything and what their relationship was with the murdered family, and what kind of family it was in general. They would see if there was any security camera footage, or whether there were any cars with dash-cams that might have caught someone entering or leaving the house around the time the murders took place. Morris and Edwards themselves were on the way to the hospital. The surviving son of the family had been brought there in a state of shock. They were going to see if they could talk to him. After, they would return to the police station to look into the background of the murdered family. Was this a random attack? Or was something more going on? Were there potentially some links with organised crime and this was payback? The detectives could not eliminate anything at this point.

Homicidal Offenders Reading The public believes homicide is more common than it actually is ● Media reports on offenders who live a double life

Nature and Extent of Homicidal Violence Four different types of homicide: ➔ First-degree murder ◆ Life in prison max ➔ Second-degree muder ◆ Life in prison max ➔ Manslaughter

◆ Life in prison max ➔ Infanticide ◆ Max 5 years

Some killing is exempt from penalties, such as killing during war or killing in self-defence

First-degree murder ● All murder that is planned and deliberate ● Murder of a law enforcement officer or correctional staff member ● Murder occurring during the commission of another violent offence (sexual assault, kidnapping) regardless of whether the murder was unplanned or deliberate

Second-degree murder ● Not considered first-degree murder

Manslaughter ● Unintential murder ● Occurs during the “heat of passion” ● Criminal negligence

Bimodal Classification Of Homicide Researchers have attempted to characterise aggression in animals and human in a bimodal manner ● Kingsbury, Lambert and Hendrickse (1997) proposed a bimodal classification scheme for the study of aggression and homicide in humans, in which homicides are classified as reactive (or affective) aggression and instrumental (or predatory) aggression

Reactive homicide → impulsive, unbplanned, immediate, driven by negative emotions and occurring in response to some perceived provocation ● Occurs more often among relatives

Instrumental homicide → proactive rather than reactive, premeditated, calculated behaviour, motivated by some goal -

Goal could be to obtain money, power, control or even gratification of sadistic fantasies ● Occurs more often among strangers

Miethe and Drass 1999 study ● Coded 34329 single-victim, single-offender homicides in US ● 80% classified as reaction and 20% instrumental ● Victim-offender relo divided into three categories ○ Strangers ○ Acquaintances ○ Family members/intimates ○ Most involved acquaintances (55%) ○ Most being classified as reactive (80%) ○ Fam members accounted for 28% of cases with most being reactive (93%) ○ 17% victim was a stranger with 52% being classified as reactive

Woodworth and Porter 2002 study ● Used continuum of violence ○ Purely reactive ○ Reactive-instrumental ○ Instrumental-reactive ○ Purely instrumental ● 12.8% were purely reactive ● 23.3% as reactive-instrumental ● 20% instrumental-reactive ● 36% purely instrumental

Filicide: When Parents Kill Filicide → killing of children by their biological parents or step-parents and includes neonaticide (killing of a baby within 24 hours of birth) and infanticide (killing a baby within the first few weeks)

Attitudes towards parents killing their children vary across cultures and time

● In ancient Rome a father had a right to kill his children ● Few cultures have sanctioned the gender-based killing of children ● In China and India female children are more likely to be killed than male children because of the greater value these societies place on male children ● Certain Inuit and African societies used to kill infants that had birth defects ot killed one infant if twins were born

Some studies have found that stepfathers are more likely to kill a child than are biological fathers

Mothers Who Kill Several studies have classified maternal filicides ● Stanton and Simpson reviewed these and other studies of child murder and concluded there are three broad types of maternal filicide ○ Neonaticides ○ Those committed by battering mothers ○ Those committed by mothers with mental illnesses

Neonaticide group (kill their children within 24 hours of birth) are typically young, unmarried women with no prior history of mental illness, are not suicidal and who have concealed their pregnancies, fearing rejection or disapproval from their families Battering mothers have killed their children impulsively in response to the behaviour of the child ● These mothers have the highest rates of social and family stress, including marital stress and financial problems Mental illnesses group → tend to be older and married ● Likely to have killed older children, have multiple victims and be diagnosed with psychosis or depression ● Group most likely to attempt suicide after the murder

Some researchers have used the term ‘altruistic filicide’ to describe mothers who kill out of love ● In these cases the murder is in response to the mothers delusional beliefs that the childs death will somehow protect the child

Infanticide And Mental Illness Does childbirth trigger mental illness? ● Assumption underlying the offence of infanticide is that women who kill their infants are suffering from a mental illness related to childbirth ● 3 types of mental illness have been identified during the postpartum period (period after childbirth) ○ Postpartum blues ○ Postpartum depression ○ Postpartum psychosis

Postpartum depression ● Affects about 10% of new mothers ● Rate increases to about 20-30% for those who have had previous depressive episodes ● If a mother has experienced postpartum depression with one child, she has about a 50% chance of developing postpartum depression if she has another baby ● Experienced by 7-19% of women ● First weeks or month after birth and lasts for several months ● Symptoms ○ Identical to clinical depression ○ Depressed mood, loss of appetite, concentration and sleep problems, suicidal thoughts ● Not a mental illness that occurs as a consequence of childbirth

Postpartum psychosis Rarest Most severe postpartum mental illness Affects about 1 in 1000 mothers within 6 months of birth Symptoms include ○ Hearing voices, seeing things, feeling an irrational guilt that they have done something wrong ● Without treatment women may try to harm themselves or their infants ● First 3 months after childbirth ● Research supports a link between childbirth and postpartum psychosis ● ● ● ●

Postpartum blues ● Most common type (experienced by 85% of women)

○ Crying, irritability, anxiety beginning within a few days of childbirth lasting from a few hours to days but rarely continuing past day 12 ● Not been considered a causal factor in either neonaticide or filicide bc of the short time span

Fathers Who Kill Fathers rarely commit neonaticide ● Paternal filicides are often described as fatal child abuse ● Fathers have lower rates of psychotic disorder but higher rates of alcohol abuse and previous criminality

Familicide → occurs when a spouse and children are killed ● Almost always committed by a man ● Accompanied by a history of spousal and child abuse prior to the offence ● Wilson, Daly and Daniele (1995) → found in half of the cases the killer committed suicide ● Those who killed their spouse and own children had a greater likelihood of committing suicide than those who killed their spouse and stepchildren

Wilson et al (1995) described two types of familicide murderers: ● Despondent non hostile killer ● Hostile accusatory killer

Despondent non hostile killer → is depressed and worried about an impending disaster for himself or his family ● Kills his family and then commits suicide ● Past acts of violence towards children and spouse are not characteristic of this type of killer

Hostile accusatory killer → expresses hostility towards his wife, often related to alleged infidelities or her intentions to terminate the relationship ● Past history of violent acts is common for this type of killer

Youth Who Kill Researchers have searched for distinguishing characteristics among youth who commit murder ● Homicide by youths holds a particular fascination in the mind of the public

Corder, Ball, Haizlip, Rollins and Beaumont (1976) compared three groups of youths: ● 10 youths charged with killing parents ○ Charged with parricide were more likely to be physically abused ○ Witnessed spousal abuse ○ Report amnesia for the murders compared with other youth who committed murder ● 10 youths charged with killing relatives or acquaintances ● 10 youths charged will killing strangers

Darby, Allan, Kashani, Hartke and Reid (1998) examined the association between family abuse and suicide attempts ● Abused youth were younger, more often caucasian and more likely to have attempted suicide prior to the homicide than non-abused youth

Cornell and Benedek (1987) developed a typology of juvenile homicide offenders based on circumstances of the offence ● Psychotic ○ Youth who had symptoms of severe mental illness at the time of the murder ○ 7% ● Conflict ○ Youth who were engaged in an argument or conflict with the victim when the killing occurred ○ 42% ● Crime ○ Youth who killed during the commission of another crime, such as robbery or sexual assault ○ 51% Differences across these homicide subgroups in family background, criminal history and psychopathology have been reported

Spousal Killers Husbands are much more likely to kill their wives than wives are to kill their husbands

Femicide → general term applied to the killing of women Uxoricide → is the more specific term denoting the killing of a wife by her husband Mariticide → term denoting the killing of a husband by his wife

A consistent finding concerning uxoricide is the high incidence of perpetrator suicide following the murder → offenders rarely commit suicide after killing acquaintances or strangers

Why do men kill their spouses? ● Crawford and Gartner (1992) found that the most common motive for uxoricide (in 43% of cases) was the perpetrators anger over either estrangement from their partners or sexual jealousy about perceived infidelity ● Wilson and Daly (1993) found that recent or imminent departure by the eventual victim was associated only with a husband killing his wife and not with a wife killing her husband

A study of risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships by Campbell, Webster and Koziol-McLain (2003) found the following factors increased the risk for homicide: ● ● ● ●

Offender access to a gun Previous threats with a weapon Estrangement Victim having left for another partner

Serial Murderers: The Ultimate Predator The term serial murder was first coined in the early 1980s → a considerable amount of disagreement regarding its definition ● Researchers trying to establish a definition attempts to answer the following questions ○ How many victims are required ○ Should motive for killing matter

○ Should the relationship between the murderer and the victim be considered ● Most definitions of serial murder include the criterion that a minimum of three people are killed overtime ● The time interval between the murders has been called a cooling-off period ● Subsequent murders occur at different times have no apparent connection to the initial murder, and are usually committed in different locations

Characteristics Of Serial Murderers Although they belong to a heterogeneous group → many serial killers appear to have certain characteristics in common: ● Most serial murderers are male ○ Review in the US between 1825 and 1995 83% were male and 17% female ● Most operate on their own ○ There are team murders that are committed by two or more offenders working together ○ In the US between 1875 and 1995 there were 47 serial killer teams ● Most murderers in the US are caucasian ● Victims are usually young females not related to the murderer ○ Age and sex of the victim can vary

Female Serial Murderers Have not been the focus of much research ● Serial killing by females is extremely rare ● Most are either “black widows” (those who kill husbands or family members for financial gain) ● Or “angels of death” nurses who kill their patients

Differences between male and female serial murders ● Female serial murderers are more likely to have no prior criminal record, have an accomplice, use poison, kill for money and kill a family member or someone they know

Typologies of Serial Murderers A number of classification systems have been developed to classify serial murderers, although most have yet to be subjected to empirical verification One typology that focuses on crime scenes and offenders is the organised-disorganised model proposed by the FBI in the 1980s In 1998 Holmes proposed another typology ● They used 110 case files of serial murderers to develop a classification system based on victim characteristics and on the method and location of the murder

Four types of serial murders were proposed: ● Visionary ○ Kills in response to voices or visions telling them to kill ○ Most likely diagnosed as delusional or psychotic ● Mission-oriented ○ Believes there is a group of undesirable people who should be eliminated such as homeless people, sex workers or a specific minority group ● Hedonistic ○ Motivated by self-gratification ○ Divided into three subtypes based on the motivation for killing ■ Lust murderer ● Motivated by sexual gratification and becomes stimulated and excited by the process of killing ■ Thrill murderer ● Derives excitement from seeing his/her victims experience terror ■ Comfort murderer ● Motivated by material or financial gain ● Power/control oriented ○ Wanting to have absolute dominance over the victim

The above typology has been criticised for the following reasons ● Considerable overlap among categories ● Eg lust, thrill and power/control murders are all characterised by a controlled crime scene, a focus on process (i.e enjoyment of the act of killing) and a selection of specific victims ● Failed to test empirically

Keppel and Walter (1999) applied the motivational rapist typology proposed by Groth, Burgess and Holmstrom (1997) to classify sexual murder ● They proposed two types of sexual murders that reflect the theme of power (power-assertive and power-reassurance) and two types reflecting the theme of anger (anger-retaliation and anger-excitation) ● These types differ with regard to crime scene characteristics ● Power-reassurance type commits a planned rape that escalates to an unplanned overkill of the victim ● Anger-excitation rape type commits a planned rape and murder of the victim

How many serial murderers are there? Based on stats from the US it appears there have been an increase in the number of serial murderers over time ● Difficult to know the true prevalence rate eg could be due to better police investigation and communication which has led to better detection ● % of murder victims killed by strangers or unknown persons has increased dramatically in the US ○ Increase could be due to drug-related murders ● Rates of serial killers appear to have regional differences ○ Sociocultural factors may help to explain these differential rates ○ Eg cultures supportive of violence appear to have higher rates of serial homicide

Mass Murderers Mass Murder → defined as killing three or more victims at a single location during one event with no cooling-off period ● Eg school shootings such as Columbine or Virginia Tech ● Classic mass murder ○ Individual goes to a public place and kills strangers at that location ● Family mass murder ○ Three or more family members are killed usually by another family member

Mass murderers are more likely to commit suicide or get killed by police during the rampage than are serial murderers ● Mass murders can also ...