Making sense of senseless murders: The who, what, when, and where?

Abstract

The phenomenon of "senseless" or "motiveless" homicide refers to homicides that lack an objective external motivation. Despite the unique challenges these homicides pose to police, few empirical studies have been conducted on the topic and existing studies are limited to clinical studies using small samples. To overcome existing empirical shortcomings, the current study used a sample of 319 homicide cases where no motive was established during the investigation to describe the "who" (offender and victim characteristics), "what" (modus operandi, crime characteristics), "where" (encounter, crime, and body recovery associated locations), and "when" (time of the crime) of the entire criminal event. Findings provide insight into the entire crime-commission process and suggest a different dynamic to "senseless" homicide from what has been described in previous literature. Implications for police investigative practice are discussed. | INTRODUCTIONAlthough conceptualized differently depending on the perspective, criminal motive is most often viewed as the "reason" or the "why" a person engages in a crime. In homicide investigations, the motive plays a central role in providing context for why the crime occurred (Adcock & Chancellor, 2013;Turvey, 2002). Moreover, determining the motive can provide several advantages to a homicide investigation. For example, it can be used to aid in the assessment of an offender's identity, reduce a suspect pool, assist in demonstrating the guilt of a perpetrator, and assist in investigative and forensic case linkage efforts (Parker & McKinley, 2018). In homicide investigations, motive is established objectively through a determination of what appears to have happened based on the facts of the investigation (e.g., witness testimony, crime scene evidence, crime scene reconstruction; Adcock &