Results of the Regression Analysis
Neither poverty nor lack of intelligence emerged as a common factor. Rather, the subjects were all male, predominately white (92%), of average or above average intelligence (80%), often the oldest son (56%) in a family with both parents present at birth (57%), and a stable/self-sufficient economic level (86%). These offenders came from backgrounds that appeared to be functional but, upon closer examination, revealed numerous problems: substance abuse (alcohol, 70%; drugs, 33%), psychiatric problems (53%), criminal involvement (50%), physical abuse (42%), psychological abuse (74%), sexual problems (46%), instability of residence (68%), the loss of the father before age twelve (47%), and difficulties with the mother (44%) as well as male caretakers (72%). Clearly, a disturbing picture of family life. Negative and abusive childhood sexual experiences were common, as were anti-social behaviors such as stealing, lying, rebelliousness, and tantrums.
One of the best known findings from the childhood/adolescent data, used in nearly every criminal profile, is the so-called "homicidal triad" of fire-setting, enuresis (bedwetting), and cruelty to animals. These factors emerged as significant predictors of adult homicidal behavior and sexual violence. It is impossible to understate the importance of these factors in the prediction of violent behavior, particularly when two or three of them appear in the same child, adolescent, or adult.
Despite their intelligence, many of these offenders performed poorly in high school, often not graduating, held unsteady employment, and often received undesirable/dishonorable discharges from the military. This research also underscored the importance of violent sexual fantasies in the development of homicidal behavior, as well as the role of precipitating stress factors in the actual commission of the crime. Typical stressors included conflict with females and parents, as well as financial and employment problems. In many profiles, a guess as to the precipitating stressor is given to the public in an attempt to spark recognition of a possible suspect. The offender's age at the time of the crime is another common element. These offenders were almost always under forty years of age when they started committing homicides, although their criminal histories began much earlier.
The research left no doubt that these homicides were carefully planned in astonishing detail. Fifty percent of perpetrators targeted the specific victim, time, and place prior to the murder's commission. An additional group of perpetrators knew that they were "in the mood to murder," and thus sought out opportunities for homicide by cruising appropriate places for victims to kill or locations for murders to take place. The disposal of the body-whether it is left in the open or carefully concealed-is an important factor in profiling the perpetrator, too, as it reveals much about motive.
Several post-crime behaviors are also important to profiling and identifying the killer. Killers often returned to the scene of the murder or the grave site of the victim; participated in the discovery of the victim's body or the investigation by offering tips or evidence; attended mem- orial services and press confer- ences; and paid close attention to media accounts of the crime and people's reactions to it. Keeping souvenirs or trophies- jewelry, clothing, identification cards, body parts-from the victim, maintaining scrapbooks of newspaper articles about the crime, and using journals, tape recordings, and photographs of the crime were common, al- though these behaviors were more likely when the killer used a firearm to commit the murder, as opposed to a blunt or sharp instrument.
Perhaps the most important con- tribution to the understanding of sexual homicide and the crimi nal profiling of its perpetrators, is the distinction made between organized and disorganized crime scenes. These distinctions are commonly accepted in law en- forcement and, combined with the demographics given above (white, male, intelligent, late twenties to early thirties, blue collar employment), comprise a standard or boilerplate profile of an organized or unorganized per- petrator, without any reference to unique characteristics of the crimes at hand. MORE ON...
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