final

Question 1

About how much more likely is it that a random citizen of the United States is a victim of murder as compared to murder by a serial killer?

Answer 1

250-300 times more likely

(Module 1: avg. number of homicides attributed to serial killers = 50 , approx. rate of homicide by serial killer per 100,000 = .02 (roughly 1 in 5 million))

Question 2

T or F: In terms of the likely cause of his actions Charles Whitman is viewed as a pretty typical mass shooter.

Answer 2

FALSE

(Module 1: Charles Whitman was likely affected by a brain tumor which caused him to become aggressive and lose emotional control, he is NOT typical)

Question 3

What does “bifurcation” in mass murder typically refer to?

Answer 3

Most mass murder occurs at ONE location , but occasionally there is movement between places (and sometimes a delay); public to public, private to public

Question 4

What was the major problem with the FBI study of mass shootings?

Answer 4

It did not set a minimum number of victims.

(Analysis studied any situation where an individual(s) is killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area, this is more typical of homicide not mass shootings)

Question 5

With respect to prevalence, Lanskin and Silver’s (2020) study of mass shooters concluded that:

Answer 5

Mass shooting events are increasing and high fatality mass shooting events (12 or more victims) are increasing even more.

Question 6

Considering high-fatality mass shootings from 1966-2009 and from 2010-2019, Lanskin and Silver concluded that in the more recent time period these characteristics are present:

Answer 6

Fame and attention seeking are increasingly common as motives, Shooters are more likely to plan the shooting for a year or more, An assault weapon is used at the time

(ALL OF THE ABOVE)

Question 7

In the United States, mass shootings by people with serious mental illness represent:

Answer 7

Less than 1% of gun related homicides

Question 8

Aside from killing at least 4 people, serial killers and mass murderers share certain characteristics. Which of the below is a characteristic both tend to share (according to research)?

Answer 8

Their murders are seen as means to provide more control over their life.

(Victims are usually female: INCORRECT, They are usually arrested or killed at the crime scene: NOT TYPICALLY TRUE of serial killers, but for mass shooters)

Question 9

ESSAY QUESTION:

application of Jack Katz’ Righteous Slaughter Theory

Answer 9

• Draws attention to the positive stimuli of crime or the “experience” of crime from the perpetrators’ point of view.
• Righteous Slaughter describes the motivation behind (typically impulsive) homicides, which (seemingly paradoxically) are committed because, from the perpetrators point of view, the victim(s) violate fundamental unassailable values (sanctity of marriage/family, fairness and equity, honor, devotion to “higher calling” such as religion, identity group, nationalism, etc.).
• Context of domestic homicide: examples of typically males (not always) murdering their spouse/partner generally pointing to something like the sanctity of marriage/family/children and justifying their murder with the “higher calling”.
• Context of mass shooters: rectifying some kind of justice, worship of “higher calling”, in the mind of the shooter they equate their murder to some kind of “noble” act rather than just a cowardly act of shooting.

Question 10

What distinguishes first-degree murder from second-degree murder?

Answer 10

First-degree murder is premeditated.

(First degree murder: the premeditated/deliberate, unlawful killing of another person. Second-degree murder: the intentional, unlawful killing of another person, but without any premeditation (sometimes called voluntary manslaughter))

Question 11

What is true about the murder rate in the United States?

Answer 11

It is much lower than it was in the 1980’s

(PEAK was in the 1980’s and 1990’s, MUCH lower now, aging population is one reason for this)

Question 12

Homicide is roughly what percent of all reported serious violent crime?

Answer 12

1%

(Homicide represents about 1% of all reported serious violent crime, and .1% of all reported serious crime)

Question 13

What was discussed in the lecture as an important reason for changes in the patterns of homicide in the present day as compared to the 1980s?

Answer 13

Age structure

(Little use of the death penalty: NOT CORRECT, Poverty: correct but age structure is the answer - crime is disproportionately committed by young people and we are a steadily aging population, median age in U.S. is about 30)

Question 14

The — explanation for the size of place-homicide association points out that large cities have lots of people with particular characteristics (e.g. young, unmarried, etc.) who tend to commit more crimes, regardless of where they live.

Answer 14

Compositional Perspective

(Urbanism and Homicide - Ad Hoc Application of Theory)

Question 15

What is “collective efficacy”?

Answer 15

Refers to the perceived ability of neighborhood residents to activate informal (and sometimes formal) social control when confronted with acts of deviance or crime around their neighborhood (examples: neighborhood watch, speaking out, getting police involved, etc.)

Question 16

What is a better predictor of homicide - Absolute or Relative Deprivation?

Answer 16

Relative Deprivation

(absolute deprivation represents poverty in an objective sense while relative deprivation represents a perceived difference between what people have in comparison to others; stronger predictor of violence)

Question 17

ESSAY QUESTION:

what is meant by the term “murder inequality”

Answer 17

• The fact that there are some cities with MANY times the homicide rate in other cities; large cities in same country
• Massive DIFFERENCES within cities
• Select number of neighborhoods that represents majority of homicide rates

Question 18

The largest portions of homicide are characterized as:

Answer 18

Impulsive, emotional outbursts by people who know one another.

(Atypical crimes, difficult to investigate, do not have typical leads)

Question 19

What is the primary reason serial homicide murder cases are so difficult to resolve?

Answer 19

The motive, and the connection between the victim and the offender, are very atypical for murder generally

(Serial killers tend to be highly intelligent: NOT TRUE but SOME can be, Almost all serial killers are highly forensically aware: NOT TRUE, stuff in movies, SOME can be)

Question 20

Herbert Mullin was a serial killer and one of his victims was a hitchhiker that he beat to death with a baseball bat because he claimed he received a telepathic message instructing him to do so. He then dumped the body on the side of the road. Under the FBI typology Mullin would be considered a(n):

Answer 20

Disorganized killer.

(Happened on the victim by chance, left the evidence at the crime scene, sudden violence to the victim, etc. typical of the disorganized killer)

Question 21

Which of the characteristics below is NOT one that differentiates organized and disorganized crime scenes/offenders?

Answer 21

Whether a motor vehicle was used.

(Not a characteristic that is mentioned/looked at in the disorganized/organized offender typologies)

Question 22

A mental state in which there is a severe break with reality, which may include hallucinations (audio and/or visual) is also called:

Answer 22

Psychosis

Question 23

David Berkowitz, the so-called “Son of Sam”, killed six people and shot seven others in 1976. Berkowitz supposedly believed that his neighbors dog was possessed by a demon and that demon ordered him to kill people parked in a nearby lover’s lane. Based on the typology of serial killer motive proposed by Holmes and DeBurger and discussed in class, Berkowitz would be considered what type of serial killer?

Answer 23

Visionary

Question 24

The video lecture and required videos covered “The Iceman” Richard Kuklinski. Based on the typology of serial killer motive discussed in class, Kuklinski would be considered what type of serial killer?

Answer 24

Comfort

Question 25

ESSAY QUESTION:

Contrast the FBI’s organized/disorganized typology and Holmes and DeBurgers’ serial killer typology. What is fundamentally different between the two?

Answer 25

• Holmes and Deburgers’ typology deals with the MOTIVE
• FBI’s typology gathered EVIDENCE at the crime scenes

Question 26

A biological perspective on crime that was popular in the 1960’s because it was associated with the serial/spree killer Richard Speck, but has been disproved, is the — hypothesis which proposed that violent crime was the result of chromosomal abnormality in which males were born with an extra chromosome.

Answer 26

XYY hypothesis

(the hypothesis contends that these males are much more likely to have aggressive and violent tendencies due to the extra male chromosome)

Question 27

The — addresses the fact that while substantial portion of the population engages in some form of crime/delinquency during the adolescent years, nearly all quit by their 30’s. However, a small fraction of offenders continue to commit crime through middle ages and beyond, and those offenders are virtually guaranteed to have committed delinquency during their youth.

Answer 27

Paradox of persistence

Question 28

In terms of policy to deal with an established, older life course persistent offender, which of the following choices would most be consistent with Moffit’s theory of adolescent limited and life course persistent offending?

Answer 28

Medicate or incapacitate them permanently

(Moffit claims the cause of offending for this group is rooted in their neuropsychological deficits)

Question 29

What general traits are typical of psychopaths and sociopaths?

Answer 29

Narcissistic and conning, selfish, callous use of others for one’s own benefit, sense of entitlement (all of the above)

(Hare’s psychopathy checklist; factors 1, 2, and other)

Question 30

T or F: serial killers are rarely psychotic.

Answer 30

TRUE

(most likely to be psychotic: visionary killers)

Question 31

Robert Hare’s research on psychopaths concluded that:

Answer 31

They are very commonly social predators.

(Hare’s studies on psychopaths; most psychopaths are not violent, though they are social predators)

Question 32

Robert Hare’s work on psychopaths found that in conventional society they are commonly employed as

Answer 32

CEO’s

Question 33

What is true of legal insanity and serial killers?

Answer 33

Most serial killers would not be considered legally insane, but the type that would be more likely to be legally insane would be the visionary killer.

(Legal insanity: if you knew what you were doing was wrong at the time you did it, you cannot be considered legally insane (McNaughten))

Question 34

ESSAY QUESTION:

Summarize Athens stages of serious violent offenders and briefly apply it to the real life circumstances of Richard Kukslinski (The Iceman)

Answer 34

• Brutalization, Belligerency, Violent Performances, Violent Personality
• Brutalization - Kuklinski was abused as a child/adolescent often
• Belligerency - Kuklinski was bullied a lot and eventually became the bully
• Violent performances - Kuklinski killed a man very early in his life
• Violent personality - Kuklinski became noted of being a violent, powerful man who can hold his own, physically

Question 35

In terms of the typical geographic mobility of serial killers/where they kill in relation to their home, which of the subtypes of serial killers covered in Holmes and DeBurgers’ typology, would be the least likely to follow these “typical” patterns since their motive for killing is not like other serial killers?

Answer 35

Comfort killer

(geographic profiling, spatial patterns around crime scenes, offender’s residence, where the body is dumped, etc., being mapped to see where the most likely zones that the offender lives)

Question 36

In terms of victim selection, what characterized the unabomber case that cued investigators very quickly that they were dealing with a serial killer?

Answer 36

Very unusual target selection

(Not a typical victim selection, more of a mission killer; targeting industrialists and big business owners not your typical victim selection of those who would not be noticed if they disappeared (prostitutes, etc.))

Question 37

What does the “forensic files effect” refer to?

Answer 37

A situation where serial killers become more “educated” about forensics and police procedure and adapt these strategies

(Forensic awareness may be present)

Question 38

What is true about the geographical mobility of serial killers?

Answer 38

About 1/4th travel extensively (multiple states)

(Makes it harder for police to identify if they are working with the same killer, linkage blindness: police agencies haven’t communicated effectively, the information on these types of murders that bear similarities)

Question 39

What assumptions are made by environmental criminologists/geographic profiles regarding serial killer offending?

Answer 39

Offenders select victims that are near their home/place of work, but not “right next door”

(Typically, offenders will select a primary hunting target that is close to their residence because they know these areas and are familiar with them, but not right near their home: buffer zone)

Question 40

What does the CSI effect refer to?

Answer 40

A situation where the general public/juries are overconfident in the trustworthiness of some forms of forensic science

(Problems and Advances in Forensics)

Question 41

When DNA is properly collected and analyzed and a forensic scientist matches alleles at 13 markers the odds of two unrelated people matching at all 13 is one in

Answer 41

1,000,000,000 (a billion)

(When correctly collected and correctly processed, DNA is important!!)

Question 42

The research done at body farms is most useful for

Answer 42

Establishing time elapsed since death

(Establishing victim sex: not hard to do, don’t need a body farm for this, Establishing whether body has been moved: generally the remains are so decomposed that body farms are not especially adept at that either, other techniques that can reveal this)

Question 43

ESSAY QUESTION:

What are some of the questionable/problematic forms of forensic analysis?

Answer 43

• Broad range of disciplines (bite marks, blood splatter)
• No standardized accreditation/certification (some people super highly qualified doing specific task, some people not trained at all)
• Interpretation limitations/Problems in “matching” with confidence (“CSI Effect”)

Question 44

Explain the ad-hoc explanations for the higher rate of homicide commission in large places - Social Control/Shaming Perspective

Answer 44

Social Control/Shaming Perspective: contends that as urban centers are composed of large numbers of people who have no personal knowledge of one another, because of this individuals feel less constrained in their behavior, as strangers cannot effectively “shame” one another

Question 45

Explain the ad-hoc explanations for the higher rate of homicide commission in large places - Compositional Perspective

Answer 45

Compositional Perspective: contends that the demographic composition of large cities is such that they have lots of people with particular demographic characteristics (e.g. young, unmarried, etc.) who tend to commit more crime, regardless of where they live

Question 46

Explain the ad-hoc explanations for the higher rate of homicide commission in large places - Subcultural Perspective

Answer 46

Subcultural Perspective: proposes that large cities are conductive to criminal activity because they provide an environment where deviant and criminal subcultures can thrive (e.g. critical mass or deviant population)

Question 47

What are the major cues that can indicate to police a serial killer is at work?

Answer 47

1. A unique or at least distinct signature offending pattern
2. Victim selection & ideal victim type
3. Serial killers are less likely to use guns than other murderers, more often employ stealth and/or deceit