Investigating Staged Crime Scenes

Ethnocultural Diversity in Homicide Crime Scene Staging

“…Additional diversity found in this research relates to the most common type of staging scenario, which seems to contrast with Western studies. Notwithstanding the disagreement among prior studies regarding the most common type of staging selected by offenders—suicide (Geberth, 1996; Hazelwood & Napier, 2004), missing person (Eke, 2007), burglary (Petherick & Ferguson, 2015a; Turvey, 2000), and arson (Schlesinger et al, 2014)—the most common type of staging in Israel differs, with accidental death scenarios most often chosen by offenders in Israel.…”

“…Although some scholars have indicated that a homicide staged to seem like suicide is the most prevalent (Geberth, 1996;Hazelwood & Napier, 2004), Schlesinger et al (2014) and Adair and Dobersen (1999) argued that homicide is rarely staged as suicide. Adding to the controversy are Eke's (2007) observations, which suggest that the most common staging scenario is that of a missing victim, whereas Turvey (2000) and Petherick and Ferguson (2015a) argued that the most commonly staged death scenario relates to burglaries and breakins. Schlesinger et al (2014) maintained that the most common staging scenario relates to arson (25%).…”

“…Because most studies on HCSS were conducted in Western societies, primarily the United States (Ferguson, 2015;Pettler, 2016;Schlesinger et al, 2014;Turvey, 2000), the generalizability of common narratives and other HCSS characteristics to non-Western societies is questionable. For example, scholars' observations regarding a gun being the most common weapon of choice may correlate with rather lenient gun policies in the United States.…”

“…Indeed, despite the fact that staged crime scenes are not uncommon (Geberth, 1996;Schlesinger et al, 2014;Turvey, 2000), with the exception of Lupariello et al (2018) and Adair and Dobersen (1999), published literature devoted to studying them forensically is lacking (Douglas & Munn, 1992;Geberth, 1996;Turvey, 2000). Petherick and Ferguson (2015a) identified only four published studies on staged crime scenes (Ferguson, 2014;Hazelwood & Napier, 2004;Schlesinger et al, 2014;Turvey, 2000). Controversies over empirical and theoretical observations prevail.…”

“…Staging is achieved by altering physical evidence at the scene before, during, or after the homicide to present a misleading appearance of the crime scene. Precautionary acts, on the other hand, mean that an offender takes precautions before, during, and after the killing (Turvey, 2000).…”