READING NOTES - Chapter 11

Homicide

Introduction

• Over 40 years have passed since Charles Manson gained infamy as the catalyst behind the Helter Skelter murders

• The subject of numerous books and documentaries, he illustrates the often intense public fascination with violent crimes and offenders

• Although the occurrence of such crimes in Western countries haas generally decreased over the last 15 years, the associated societal costs remain high

Theoretical Models of Homicide

• Homicide:

  • The intentional killing of another person

• Most of the victims were murdered by someone they knew, usually an acquaintance or family member, with less than one-quarter of all homicides involving strangers

  • Given that the perpetrator and victim are often familiar with one another, it is not surprising that most homicides unfold in private residences

• Analysis of Canadian homicide cases for 2013 indicates that nearly 60% of the victims and more than 70% of the alleged perpetrators were under the influence of one or more intoxicating substances

• In their meta-analysis of data across nine countries, Kuhns, Exum, Clodfelter, and Bottia noted a similar relationship between alcohol and homicide

• Collectively, these statistics tell us that homicides arise in the context of alcohol-fuelled interpersonal conflicts among young people who know one another

Personality Types and Reactive Aggression

• Personality type:

  • The psychological classification of people into discrete categories based on the statistical combination of specific attributes

  • Personality types reflect qualitative differences between individuals on these characteristics

• We suggest that a trait reflects a quantitative difference between individuals on a particular attribute, whereas a type involves a qualitative difference

• According to trait theory, extraversion and introversion are polar ends of a continuous personality dimension where the difference is a matter of degree

• Psychologist Edwin Megargee conducted numerous investigations of aggressive behavior and worked extensively on the development of offender classification

• Undercontrolled offender:

  • A personality type identified by Edwin Megargee and characterized by an individual’s quick temper, low tolerance to frustration or provocation, and failure to internalize inhibitions or restraints against behaving aggressively 

• Overcontrolled offender:

  • A personality type identified by Edwin Megargee and characterized by individual’s extremely rigid behavioural inhibition system against the expression of aggressive impulses

  • The acts of violence committed by these individuals are typically explosive, occurring after long periods of building anger and frustration

• In the 1960s Megargee, Cook, and Mendelsohn developed the overcontrolled hostility (O-H) scale for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI; Hathaway and McKinley, 1943) to identify individuals who exhibit signs of overcontrolling emotional responses to provocations

• Several studies show that this scale has some ability to distinguish between extremely assaultive offenders and non-violent offenders

Affect, Cognition, and Reactive Aggression

• From this theoretical perspective, the insults and provocations involved in a rapidly escalating argument between acquaintances could reasonably be expected to produce negative affect, thereby accounting for the reactive violence that characterizes many homicides

  • However, the hypothesis does not explain how cognition - our thoughts, ideas, and decision-making - plays a role in acts of reactive violence

• Berkowitz addressed the role of cognition in his revised cognitive neoassociation model of aggression

  • In the second phase of this model, which quickly follows the initial step, cognitive processes are activated as individuals begin to think about and evaluate the causes of the event, the motives of the other people involved, and their emotions

• He or she will carry a residual level of arousal - anger, hostility, emotional upset - into another physical situation

• Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman present a more integrated model of aggressive or violent behavior

• Their general aggression model (GAM) proposes that individual and situational characteristics influence a person’s arousal, affect, and cognition, which in turn are subject to appraisal and decision processes that end in a behavioural response

Self-Regulation and Pathway Models of Homicide

• Self-regulation:

  • The ability to control our emotional responses and evaluate and select appropriate behavioural responses

• While the model was initially created to account for sex offending, it offers a good framework for understanding how the ability to self-regulate might contribute to reactive forms of violence such as homicide

• Underregulation:

  • Disinhibited or impulsive behavior that results from a failure to exert control over one’s feelings and subsequent behaviours

• Other research on aggression and violent behavior suggests that there may be distinct causal pathways linking dysfunctional self-regulation with homicide

• One of these pathways is characterized by poor self-regulation abilities, with offenders being further distinguished from one another based on their goals and strategies to achieve them in relation to homicide

Homicide in the Family 

• Filicide:

  • A general term that refers to the killing of a child by his or her parent

• Neonaticide:

  • A form of filicide, specifically, the killing of an infant within the first 24 hours of his or her birth

• In the first thorough comparison, Resnick examined the existing literature, dating back to the eighteenth century, and concluded that evidence of psychopathy at the time of the homicide often distinguished neonaticide and infanticidal women

• Several later studies have similarly reported that mental illness is more commonly observed in cases of infanticide

• No real link between these symptoms and infanticide has been identified

• Postpartum depression involves relatively more serious and somewhat prolonged symptoms of depression - loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, and suicidal ideation - and may persist for several weeks

  • Postpartum psychosis:

    • A rare form of depression experienced by some women after childbirth that can cause delusional and/or disorganized thinking, rapid mood shifts, and bizarre behavior

  • Women with postpartum psychosis often experience breaks with reality 

  • Most existing filicide research centres on the maternal type

  • While paternal neonaticide is rare, men are not less likely than women to commit filicide

  • However, the research suggests that several important differences exist

• Parricide:

  • The murder of a parent by his or her child 

  • Matricide refers to killing one’s mother and patricide to killing one’s father

• Much of the investigation has focused on identifying a common set of characteristics associated with the offence

• An interesting finding is that key differences exist in the characteristics of adult and juvenile parricide offenders, prompting some researchers to propose that a different set of explanatory factors may exist for each group

Multiple Murder

Defining Multiple Murder

• The phenomenon of multiple murder has traditionally been organized into three distinct categories

  • Mass murder:

    • A form of multiple murder that involves killing four or more victims as part of one event at a single geographic location

  • Spree murder:

    • A form of multiple murder that involves killing the victims during one continuous event at two or more geographic locations

  • Serial murder:

    • A form of multiple murder that involves killing two or more victims at different times

Serial Murder

• Criminologist Ray Surette identified the psychotic super-male criminal - typically represented by the serial killer - as the most common narrative of criminality in the media

• The methods for detecting and policing serial homicide have changed remarkably over the years, casting doubt on the accuracy of older data

  • The amount of empirical research on serial murder is relatively small, and much of what is currently known is based on case studies

  • Sex, power, and control are common underlying motivations of the male serial killer 

  • Researcher have also highlighted the role played by vivid fantasies fraught with sexual domination and control over a human 

• A number of serial killers exhibit bizarre patterns of sexual arousal, referred to as paraphilia

• Paraphilic disorder:

  • A paraphilia that causes the person distress or impairment or involves inflicting psychological distress or physical harm on another person

    • Jeffery Dahmer, who murdered 17 young men, exhibited several paraphilias, including necrophilia, cannibalism, and vampirism

• Erotophonophilia (or lust murder):

  • A paraphilia involving the murder of an unsuspecting sexual partner

• They may shoot, stab, or strangle a victim to death, but they might also employ elements of non-lethal torture, which is consistent with the portrait of an individual seeking to exercise ultimate control over another human being

Female Serial Killers

• To what extent does she represent the prototypical female serial killer?

  • While the research is limited, it suggests that female serial killers differ from their male counterparts in a few important ways

  • Female serial killers may be “active,” on average, for longer periods, which might be partially explained by their use of more subtle methods

• Hickey has described the female serial killer as the “quiet killer” who prefers poison as her weapon of choice

• In contrast to male serial killers, however, female serial killers are more likely to be motivated by financial gain

Typology of Serial Killers

• Numerous efforts have been made to develop a useful serial killer typology from observable patterns in the murders

• Organized killer:

  • The type of serial killer who is generally intelligent, socially and sexually adept, emotionally controlled, and able to maintain some facade of normalcy 

  • The organized killer’s crime scenes reflect elements of planning and premeditation 

    • It is not unusual for the organized killer to also take a trophy from the scene, such as articles of clothing, jewellery, or photographs, which help him or her to relive the murder later

    • In addition organized killers usually carefully select their victims, watching or stalking them for some time before murdering them

• Disorganized killer:

  • The type of serial killer who is typically socially and sexually inept and had below-average intelligence

  • The disorganized killer’s crime scenes reflect spontaneous attacks, suggesting sudden outbursts of anger

    • The crime scenes reflect this frenzied style of attack:

      • The disorganized killer is much more apt to use something readily available at the scene as a weapon than to bring one and is unlikely to make any effort to conceal the crime or alter the evidence

• Perhaps the most familiar and widely cited classification system is the one developed by criminologist Ronald M. Holmes

• This typology distinguishes serial killers on the basis of their motivations and the absence of psychopathology

• Holmes identified four major types of serial killers:

  • Visionary, mission-oriented, hedonistic, and power/control

• Visionary serial killers:

  • The type of serial killer who is motivated by a serious psychotic disorder

  • These individuals suffer from delusions or hallucinations and often report hearing voices instructing them to target and kill certain people

• Mission-oriented serial killer:

  • The type of serial killer who targets victims based on an agenda or mission, selecting people who he or she feels are unworthy and should be systematically eliminated from society 

• Hedonistic serial killer:

  • The type of serial killer who is motivated by the thrill or enjoyment derived from killing

• Power-oriented serial killer:

  • The type of serial killer who is motivated by the power and enjoyment derived from exercising an ultimate life-or-death form of control over another person

Etiology of Serial Murder

• To date, we have surprisingly little understanding of the etiological mechanisms underlying serial homicide 

• MacDonald triad:

  • A set of three behavioural problems - fire-setting, cruelly toward animals and enuresis (bedwetting) - that emerge early in childhood and may be precursors to serious forms of adult antisocial behavior

    • Though these problems have not been identified as common risk factors for general adult violence, some researchers suggest that they are more often observed among serial killers and may, at the very least, serve as a warning sign that a child is troubled or experiencing early psychological difficulties 

• Regardless of the MacDonald triad’s value as an early warning sign for the development of serial homicide, it does not offer much insight into why an individual commits multiple murders

• Addiction model of serial homicide:

  • A theory of serial murder that states the act of murder has a ritualistic aspect for serial killers that leads them to become addicted to or compelled to kill

• Trauma-control model of serial homicide:

  • A theory of serial murder that argues that the combination of certain predispositional factors and early traumatic events interact with several other factors over the life-course to create a serial murderer

• Trauma events:

  • Severely negative events that occur during a person’s formative years

• An examination of the child histories of serial killers reveals that many experienced childhood traumas

• The developing serial killer, who does not have these types of relationships, spends increasingly more time in a fantasy world

• Two final components of Hickey’s model are trauma reinforcers and facilitators

• Trauma reinforcers:

  • Events experienced in adulthood that reinforce or trigger responses felt during similar or related traumatic events in childhood

• These individuals lack the effective coping skills to deal with these events adequately and will instead rely on their fantasy worlds as a way to escape and cope

• Furthermore, serial killers often increasingly rely on facilitators, such as alcohol, drugs, or pornography, which serve to disinhibit an individual and make them more comfortable exploring their fantasies of power and domination

Mass Murder

• In their extensive work on mass murder, Ronald M. Holmes and Stephen T. Holmes identified several key differences between serial killers and mass murderers

• Holmes and Holmes developed a typology for mass murder based on motivation, anticipated gain, victim selection, victim relationship, and spatial mobility

• Some mass murderers appear to be motivated by extrinsic pressures, such as the influence of a group or individual, whereas others are motivated by intrinsic forces, such as delusional thinking

Cults and the Disciple Mass Killer

• Disciple mass killer:

  • A type of mass murderer who kills as a result of his or her relationship with a person ordering the murders

• One of the first challenges in discussing cults is establishing a definition that adequately distinguishes these groups from legitimate subculture or religious organizations 

• Destructive cult:

  • A strictly organized group that has a charismatic leader, uses deceptive means to recruit members, and retains them through manipulative strategies that negate freedom of choice

• Psychologist Margaret Thaler Singer, a world-renowned expert, identified three factors that distinguish cults:

  • The origin and role of the leader, the power structure between the leader and followers, and the use of a coordinated program of persuasion

• Much of the existing research on cults focuses on the leader’s explicit role and use of coercive persuasion to exercise control over others

• Coercive persuasion:

  • Forms of social influence that produce significant changes in an individual’s behavior and thought processes

• Cults use numerous tactics to recruit members, including isolation and invitations to group meals, lecture sessions, or weekend retreats

• Love bombing:

  • A recruitment technique often employed by cults that involves showering potential recruits with unconditional love, affection, flattery, and security

• According to Watkins, Mason used these orgies to “eradicate hangups” and to reduce people’s inhibitions

• Psychological theories of social influence can shed light on cult recruitment and indoctrination techniques 

• Foot-in-the-door technique:

  • A compliance tactic that involves getting someone to fulfill a more extreme request by first gaining his or her agreement to perform smaller, benign tasks and gradually increasing them

• The efforts and sacrifices that cults request of new recruits may trigger dissonance and consequently increase commitment to the cult

• Cognitive dissonance theory:

  • A social psychological theory that proposes the experience of inconsistent thoughts results in anxiety that people may reduce by changing their attitudes to minimize the inconsistency 

• Other techniques used to engender feelings of confusion and uncertainty during the stages of indoctrination may also facilitate dissonance

School Shootings

• School shootings are a statistically rare phenomenon

• Public concerns about safety and school violence are in large part fuelled by mainstream media reporting practices, which selectively focus on rare, extreme events and thereby increase their perceived salience

• Much of the research on school shootings focuses on the identification of a statistical profile based on potential risk factors, many of which are micro factors discussed in the chapters on neuropsychology, developmental theories, and psychopathology

• The role of some potential risk factors, such as peer rejection and bullying, may play a smaller direct role in school shootings because they interact with other factors within a larger sociocultural framework

• Other researchers have attempted to create categories of school shooters based on particular groupings of risk factors

• Langman identified three distinct types:

  • The traumatized school shooter demonstrates a distinct pattern of developmental risk factors

    • He or she comes from a “broken home” characterized by physical and/or sexual abuse, parental substance use, or parentaal criminal history

  • The psychotic school shooter is characterized by serious mental health problems

  • The psychopathic shooter exhibits symptoms consistent with psychopathy, including a lack of empathy and high levels of narcissism