Module 11 Flashcards
What are the sections of Multiple homicides?
Homicides that involve more than one victim:
Spree murder
Serial Murder
Mass murder
What is a spree killer?
2+ victims in 1 event in 2+ locations with no cooling off period
What is a serial killer?
2+ victims in 2+ events in 2+ locations with a cooling off period. there are distinct homicide events
What is a mass murderer?
4+ victims in 1 event in 1 location with no cooling off period
What did Reid (2017) do?
Wanted to separate serial homicide into people who do it compulsively (i.e. not a hit man)
“The primary goal of the perpetrator is intrinsic and based on psychological motivations of personal gratification”
What did Walters et al. show?
On average US serial killers are
25-40 years old
Male (84%)
White but this is debated because some show there is a lot of racial diversity but most people kill in their own race
4 victims, usually young women who are unrelated and vulnerable (33% prostitutes)
Tend to act alone
Of Average intelligence - but street smart and know the legal system
Geographically stable
What did Holme & Homies do?
Came up with types of serial killers. Didn’t hold up to the test of time because there was too much overlap of types, generated from a very small sample that only the FBI had access to, no empirical scrutiny
Type; motive; victim
Visionary; psychotic; random
mission-oriented; eliminate specific group; nonrandom
power/control; absolute dominance; nonrandom
hedonistic: lust; sexual gratification; random
hedonistic: thrill; excitement; random
Hedonistic: comfort-oriented; financial gain; nonrandom (where women serial killers usually fall)
Does typology work?
There’s no evidence of types of motives working. there’s no explanation for changing motives, it is fluid and changes over time.
Useful as a historical look for how we used to look at it but doesn’t work now
Are serial killers psychopaths?
They are often described as psychopathic however these studies are small case studies that are not scientifically rigorous in scoring psychopathy and often very inflated. Although most/all would score high on the callous and unemotional part (factor 1), some them would not make the threshold because of the lifestyle part (factor 2)
What did Hickey et al show?
It was a scientifically rigorous study, based on multiple assessments by different trained people. The average offender PLC-R score is 18-20 the average person in public is 0-3.
Of Bundy, Gary, Kemper, Dahmer, and Ridgeway, only Bundy (34) would classify as a psychopath.
Why does the BTK killer have a lower PCL-R score?
Organized killer
Doesn’t score high because he is so controlled and maintained a healthy external relationship with his family. He was a husband, father and community leader and killed 10 people over 31 years, evading capture
Why did Ted Bunny have a higher PCL-R score?
Because he was organized but very reckless. He escaped prison both times he was arrested during his killing spree. He did not have a good social life.
What are the risk factors associated with serial homicide (Keatley et al.)?
Biological factors
Head injury
Autism Spectrum Disorder
MAOA gene variations
Psychopathy?
Hypersexuality
Environmental Factors
Physical Abuse
Family disruption
Abandonment/neglect
Loneliness
Mother = punitive, cold, rejecting
What is the Macdonald Triad?
Three components based on homicidal patients that were eventually linked specifically to serial killers
Fire Setting + Enuresis (wetting the bed) + Torturing Animals
It probably does matter because of relationships with abuse (fire setting and enuresis) - Leary et al.
What did Reid et al show in mapping life course trajectories?
70 serial killers in North America and United Kingdom
Early childhood (3-8)
63% childhood abuse (physical more likely from father, psychological abuse more likely from mother)
34% exposed to domestic violence
56% abandoned by at least one parent
Middle childhood (9-15)
71% “loner”, rejected by peers
Leading to Maladjusted coping (internalizing, fantasizing)
64% violent fantasizing, conceptualization of death
late adolescence (16-19)
48 conduct disorder
58% juvenile record
Adulthood (20-3)
Profile “hypersensitive to stress, cognitively and morally immature, lacking healthy coping skills, hyperactive to perceived threats”
46% never married
87% at least one criminal conviction
average age of first murder = 30
“long-term negative effects of decades of abuse, isolation, unaddressed psychological/emotional pain… the individual could no longer integrate themselves within the context of the world”
They withdraw into their fantasy world
the urgeL force that compels them
Murder as restorative practice
