Criminal Behavior Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice J.B. Helfgott Seattle University

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Criminal Behavior Theories, Typologies, and
Criminal Justice J.B. HelfgottSeattle University

• CHAPTER 5
• Violent Crime

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Violent Crime

• Well, they started complaining about being tied
  up, and I re reloosened the bonds a couple of
  times, tried to make Mr. Otero as comfortable as
  I could. Apparently he had a cracked rib from a
  car accident, so I had him put a pillow down on
  his for his for his head, had him put a I
  think a parka or a coat underneath him. They
  You know, they talked to me about, you know,
  giving the car whatever money. I guess they
  didnt have very much money, and the from there
  I realized that, you know, I was already I
  didnt have a mask on or anything. They already
  could ID me, and made made a decision to go
  ahead and and put em down, I guess or strangle
  them.
•  
• --- Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer confessing
  to the murders of the Otero family

For information on Rader see http//www.foxnews.c
om/story/0,2933,166072,00.html
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Popular Image v Reality of Violent crime

• Violence is primed in the public mind in such a
  way that many people grossly overestimate the
  likelihood that they will be the victims of
  random stranger violence.
• Most people are disproportionately fearful of
  statistically rare violent crimes that make news
  headlines while they grossly underestimate the
  chances of violent victimization at the hands of
  people they know. It is important to keep in
  mind
• Of the 14, 860 total murder victims reported in
  the UCR data for 2005, only 2,070 (1.4) were
  committed by strangers (UCR, 2005).
• The statistical likelihood of dying from ones
  own bad habits is higher than the likelihood of
  dying at the hands of a serial killer.
• Most violent crime involves offenders and victims
  who know each other.
• Most violence is an emotional reaction, not
  diabolical, methodical, or predatory.
• A large percentage of violent crime is mundane
  and ordinary.

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Violent Crime Statistics

• Of the 14,860 murder victims in 2005, 2050 (1.4)
  did not know the offenders.
• Arrests for serious violent crime (murder and
  nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape,
  robbery, and aggravated assault) account for 4.3
  of all arrests in the United States in 2005.
• Of the serious violent crime arrests in 2005, 63
  was for aggravated assault, 30 for robbery, 6.2
  for rape, and 1.2 for murder.
• U.S. Department of Justice reports violent
  victimization rates (and property crime rates)
  are the lowest recorded in twenty years.
• National Crime Victimization Survey data shows
  that 47 of all violent crime is reported to
  police.

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Aggression and Violence
Modes of aggression may include acts of
violence, but not necessarily. On the other hand,
aggression is a necessary component of all acts
of violence. -- J. Reid Meloy (1988,
p.192)

• Aggression is a component of normal behavior that
  has a neural basis that is similar in animal and
  humans.
• Violence is a behavioral manifestation of
  aggression that involves overt threat and/or
  application of force likely to result in injury.
• Violence is an expression of a need that is
  mediated by environmental, social, and cultural
  forces that may or may not manifest in violence.

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Features of Predatory-Affective AggressionFrom
Meloy (1988) The Psychopathic Mind Origins,
Dynamics, Treatment. Jason Aronson.

• PREDATORY AGGRESSION
• Minimal-absent autonomic arousal
• No conscious experience of emotion
• Planned/purposeful violence, if present
• No-minimal perceived threat
• Multi-determined and variable goals
• Minimal-absent displacement of target
• Time-unlimited behavioral sequence
• Preceded or followed by private ritual
• Primary cognitive-conative dimension
• Heightened-focused sensory awareness
• Self-and object concept dedifferentiation
• Unimpaired reality testing
• Heightened self esteem

• AFFECTIVE AGGRESSION
• Intense sympathetic arousal of the autonomic
  nervous system
• Subjective experience of conscious emotion
• Reactive and immediate violence, if present
• Internally or externally perceived threat
• Goal threat reduction
• Rapid displacement of target
• Time-limited behavioral sequence
• Prefaced by public ritual
• Primary affective dimension
• Heightened and diffuse sensory awareness
• Self-and object percept dedifferentiation
• Possible loss of reality testing
• Lowered self esteem

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Examples of Specialized Typologies

• Predatory/Affective Aggression
• Organized/Disorganized Offenders
• Compulsive/Catathymic Sexual Homicide Offenders
• Primary/Secondary Psychopaths/NonPsychopaths
• Antisocial Persistent/Adolescent Limited
• Rapists/Child Molesters
• Others??

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Gender, Aggression, and Violent Crime

• UCR data show that
• approximately 82 of violent crime committed by
  juveniles and adults was committed by males.
• violent crime has decreased regardless of gender
  but the gap between arrest and incarceration
  rates between males and females is becoming
  increasingly smaller.
• National Crime Victimization data show that
• most violent crime is characterized by
  male-on-male violence
• both male and female offenders are more likely to
  target male victims than female victims.
• the smallest category of violent crimes involves
  female-on-female violence

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The Victim/Offender Relationship in
Homicides Adapted from National Crime
Victimization Survey data for 2004 reported by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics
http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/gender.htm
OFFENDER/VICTIM RELATIONSHIP PERCENTAGE OF HOMICIDES
Male offender/Male victim 65.2
Male offender/Female victim 22.6
Female offender/Male victim 9.7
Female offender/Female victim 2.4
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The Man Question
What is it about men that makes them commit crime
and what is it about women that makes them law
abiding?

• Sexual difference runs right through the crime
  statistics from large-scale corporate fraud to
  petty property crime from major to minor crimes
  against the person. Crime is also something that
  men are expected to do, because they are men, and
  women are expected not to do, because they are
  women. Crime, men, and masculinity have an
  intimate relationship, so intimate that we often
  fail to see it, and so intimate that it can seem
  natural. Though the vast majority of men do not
  enter the official criminal statistics, those
  individuals who do become known as criminals are
  usually men. Each year we know this will be true
  and rarely is anything made of it, even though
  for many it is a major concern. It would be
  astonishing were the crime statistics, official
  or informal, to reveal otherwise. Criminology
  would tilt on its axis
• Naffine in Feminism Criminology, 1996, p.
  6).

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Gender matters

• Violent crime must be understood as if gender
  matters. Important questions
• What role does gender play in the motivations,
  factors, and forces that produce violent criminal
  behavior and violent victimization?
• What factors come into play when girls and women
  engage in criminal behavior, especially
  traditionally male forms of criminality, despite
  the socialization pressures for girls and women
  to be peacemakers?
• How much do ultra-masculine subcultural
  environments increase the likelihood of
  criminality?
• How much does the cultural notion of the male
  predator and female victim work its way into self
  images of boys and girls?
• How does female gender-role socialization alter
  behavioral manifestations of affective and
  predatory aggression?

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Violence and Masculinity

• If humanity is to evolve beyond the propensity
  toward violence that now threatens our very
  survival as a species, then it can only do so by
  recognizing the extent to which the patriarchal
  code of honor and shame generates and obligates
  male violence. If we wish to bring this violence
  under control, we need to begin by reconstituting
  what we mean by both masculinity and femininity
• ---Gilligan (1996) in Violence, p. 267
• In order to comprehend what it is about men as
  men and boys as boys that impels them to commit
  more crime and more serious types of crime than
  women and girls as well as different types and
  amounts among themselves we need first a
  theoretical grasp of social structure and
  gendered power
• ---Messerschmidt (1993) in Masculinities and
  Crime, p. 29

• What do these quotes mean? In your own words?

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Offense Analysis See West, A. (2000).
Clinical assessment of homicide offenders The
significance of crime scene in offense and
offender analysis. Homicide Studies, 4 (3),
219-233. 

• To understand the interplay of biological,
  sociological, psychological opportunity,
  cultural, and phenomenological factors from which
  violent criminal behavior emerges, the offense
  itself must be the a central focus of analysis.
• Motivation, factors, and forces contributing to
  violent crime can be uncovered only with careful
  analysis of offense characteristics sometimes
  called offense analysis or forensic
  psychological assessment (West, 2000).

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Analyzing the Dynamics of Violent Offending
Critical Questions

• Why was the offense was committed at this time
  and place and with this victim?
• What was going on with the offender both
  internally and externally -- what factors,
  forces, and precipitating events led to the
  offense?
• What is the victim-offender relationship and
  situational context of the offense?
• What is the degree of predatory versus affective
  aggression within the offense?
• What themes (fantasy, motivation,
  psychopathology, opportunity, modus operandi) are
  demonstrated in the commission of the offense?

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The Homogeneity of Violent Crime

• The degree to which criminal typologies are
  meaningful depends on how homogeneous crime
  categories are. Of central importance in
  understanding violent crime, is the question of
  specialization.
• Research suggests that violent and nonviolent
  offending may be different phenomena and that
  individuals who commit violent criminal behavior
  differ from those who do not.
• Research suggests that violent crime is
  characterized by
• Childhood conduct problems
• Antisocial traits
• Negative emotionality
• Psychopathy level

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Types of Violent Crime

• ASSAULT
• Simple
• Aggravated
• ROBBERY
• Bank Robbers
• Convenience Store Robbers
• Street Muggers
• Home Invasion Robbers 
• Carjackers

• HOMICIDE
• Acquaintance murder
• Intimate and family murder
• Spree Murder
• Mass Murder
• Serial Murder

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Homicide Case Studies

• Gary Ridgway

• Andrea Yates

http//www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/yates/
http//seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/greenriverki
llings/
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The Trauma Control ModelFrom Hickeys (2002)
Serial Murderers and Their Victims
Predispositional Factors
Facilitators
Low Self-esteem fantasies
Increasingly Violent fantasies
Homicidal behavior
Trauma event(s)
Dissociation
Trauma reinforcement(s)
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Summary

• Serious violent crime accounts for a small
  percentage of the total amount of crime.
• Violent crime is predominantly a male phenomenon
• Motivation, factors, and forces contributing to
  violent crime can be uncovered only with careful
  analysis of offense characteristics.
• Violence is a behavioral act that is an
  expression of predatory or affective aggression
  mediated by environmental, social, and cultural
  forces.
• Research suggests that violent and nonviolent
  offending may be distinct and different
  phenomena.
• Major categories or types of violent crime
  include homicide, assault, and robbery.