Examining the criminal histories of homicide offenders: A comparison of single -victim and serial homicide and the link between prior offending and homicide crime scene behaviors
Item
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Title
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Examining the criminal histories of homicide offenders: A comparison of single -victim and serial homicide and the link between prior offending and homicide crime scene behaviors
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:0a519e9bad86:10246
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identifier
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10277
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Creator
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Trojan, Carrie,
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Contributor
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C. Gabrielle Salfati
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Date
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2009
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Criminology | Clinical psychology | Behavioral psychology | Behavioral Crime Scene Analysis | Criminal Careers | Homicide | Multidimensional Scaling Analysis | Offender Profiling | Serial Homicide
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Abstract
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This study was undertaken to test the assumptions of early behavioral typologies of homicide and serial homicide, which proposed that individuals committing similar homicides would have committed similar prior offenses. Additionally, due to the lack of empirical studies directly comparing single-victim and serial homicide offenders, these offenders were directly compared in the current study in terms of their criminal histories and homicide crime scene behaviors. The broad aim of this was not only to refine any true differences and similarities between single and serial homicide offenders' criminal histories, but also to explore whether an empirical link between prior offending and current crime scene actions could be established. If there is an underlying psychology to offender characteristics and crime scene actions as assumed in offender profiling, offenders should demonstrate thematic consistency between their prior crimes and current homicide behaviors and, therefore, investigators would be able to use such information to refine suspect lists in investigations.;Four theoretical frameworks of potential patterns in offender criminal history were proposed and tested on a sample of 122 single-victim offenders and 9 serial offenders using Smallest Space Analysis. Using an approach that focuses on the co-occurrence of offenses across the sample of offenders, the results demonstrated that both single and serial offenders' criminal histories could be best conceptualized according to a framework of criminal specialization. Although single and serial offenders' criminal histories did not differ in terms of the degree of specialization as originally proposed, they did differ in terms of the type of offending specialization they demonstrated.;Once this framework was developed, the crime scene behaviors of both groups of offenders were examined and a thematic division was evident between behaviors that were hostile versus cognitive. Moreover, within this framework, offenders fell along a continuum of behaviors from highly impulsive (single-victim) to more controlled (serial) actions. However, only a small proportion of serial offenders demonstrated thematic consistency between criminal history and current homicide behaviors in the manner assumed by early profiling research. Overall, the results caution against using criminal history to profile single-victim and serial homicide offenders.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Criminal Justice
