The consistency of inconsistency in serial homicide: patterns of behavioural change across series

Sorochinski, Marina; Salfati, C. Gabrielle

doi:10.1002/jip.118

Cited by 53 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In line with a more traditional view of criminal career (Blumstein, Cohen, & Farrington, 1988) crime. This result is also consistent with the learning process hypothesis suggesting that most offenders learn from their past experiences and will try something different (i.e., committing a crime in a different way, at a different place) after the first few offenses in order to determine what strategy works best for successfully achieving their goal (e.g., Cusson, 1993;Rossmo, 2000;Sorochinski & Salfati, 2010). Once a successful strategy has been determined, the offender can then start to reproduce it when committing his following crimes, which leads to the consistent use of specific sites or sites with similar locational settings (Lundrigan et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Yet, a review of the scientific literature reveals that the identification of offending behaviors and components to be used to link crimes remains elusive due to the scarcity of research on the behavioral consistency assumption (Deslauriers-Varin & Beauregard, 2013;Sorochinski & Salfati, 2010). Moreover, studies on behavioral consistency are based on various conceptual, methodological, and analytical procedures, which further limit the conclusion that can be drawn (see Deslauriers-Varin & Beauregard, 2013;Woodhams & Labuschagne, 2012).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Consistency in crime site selection: An investigation of crime sites used by serial sex offenders across crime series

Deslauriers‐Varin¹,

Beauregard²

2014

Journal of Criminal Justice

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Purpose: Knowing sites used by serial sex offenders to commit their crimes is highly beneficial for criminal investigations. However, environmental choices of serial sex offenders remain unclear to this date. Considering the challenges these offenders pose to law enforcement, the study aims to identify sites serial sex offenders use to encounter and release their victims and investigate their stability across crime series. Methods: The study uses latent class analysis (LCA) to identify victim encounter and release sites used by 72 serial sex offenders having committed 361 sex offenses. Additional LCA are performed to investigate the stability of these offense environments across offenders' crime series. Results: Distinct profiles of crime sites that are recurrent across crime series are found, suggesting that serial sex offenders present a limited diversity of victim encounter and victim release sites. Encounter sites representative of longer crime series are also identified. Specifically, the use of sites known to "attract" potential victims decreases over series and offenders become more risk-taking in regard of sites used to encounter their victims. Conclusions: The study identifies patterns of site-selection for the victim encounter and release in cases of serial crimes. Implications for crime linkage and police investigations strategies are discussed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistency in crime site selection: An investigation of crime sites used by serial sex offenders across crime series

Deslauriers‐Varin¹,

Beauregard²

2014

Journal of Criminal Justice

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“…First, on the one hand, prior studies have shown that crimes committed in greater temporal proximity showed greater behavioral consistency and that the likelihood of stranger sex offenders displaying behavioral consistency across their series decreased when looking at longer series of crimes (alison et al, 2010;grubin et al, 2001;see, however, Harbers, Deslauriers-Varin, Beauregard, & van der Kemp, 2012). On the other hand, prior studies show that greater levels of consistency are found in offenses committed later in the series investigated as the offenders have achieved a certain offending knowledge and expertise to commit their crime more successfully (grubin et al, 2001;sorochinski & salfati, 2010;Woodhams & labuschagne, 2011). second, due to the interactional nature of this offense, sexual assault is subject to situational and contextual influence and more prone to crime switching, as offenders might be unable to successfully perform their initial cognitive script and reach their goal. More specifically, previous studies have shown that the target selection process of sex offenders depends heavily on the social, physical, and geographic environment as well as the victim's behaviors and location prior to the crime (e.g., Beauregard, Proulx, rossmo, leclerc, & allaire, 2007;Canter & larkin, 1993;Deslauriers-Varin & Beauregard, 2010;rossmo, 1997).…”

Section: Empirical Findings and Methodological Issues In Behavioral Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, prior studies have shown that behaviors that are less dependent on situational factors and over which the individual exerts control present higher level of consistency (Bennell & Canter, 2002;a. Davies, 1992;Markson et al, 2010;sorochinski & salfati, 2010). For example, Bennell and Jones (2005) argued that the location chosen to commit a crime is a decision on which the offender has control.…”

Section: Empirical Findings and Methodological Issues In Behavioral Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Offending Consistency of Geographic and Environmental Factors Among Serial Sex Offenders

Deslauriers‐Varin

Beauregard

2013

Criminal Justice and Behavior

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Crime linkage analysis constitutes a tool to help investigators prioritize suspects, but a scarcity of research and methodological issues limits our knowledge on behavioral consistency in sexual offenses. The current study identifies geographic and environmental factors that are useful in examining offending consistency across series of sexual assaults using different specialization coefficients. The current study draws on criminal career research and methodology as a way to improve the study of behavioral consistency. The sample includes 72 serial stranger sex offenders who have committed a total of 361 sexual assaults. Three methods are used (i.e., diversity index, forward specialization coefficient, and Jaccard's coefficient) and reveal a high degree of offending consistency. all three methods also highlight promising factors to rely on for crime linkage of serial sexual offenses. empirical and methodological implications for behavioral consistency research are discussed as well as practical implications for police investigations and crime linkage.

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“…A number of studies have found evidence for the assumptions of crime linkage in serial crime (for a review of the research to date on behavioural crime linkage, see Bennell et al, 2014). While serial homicide has been studied less than, for example, rape, a few studies have found serial homicide offenders to be somewhat consistent in their behaviour over the course of their series (Bateman and Salfati, 2007;Salfati and Bateman, 2005;Salfati et al, 2015;Santtila et al, 2008;Sorochinski and Salfati, 2010).…”

Section: Behavioural Crime Linkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can hard-to-solve one-off homicides be distinguished from serial homicides? Differences in offence behaviours and victim characteristics

Pakkanen

Zappalà

Bosco³

et al. 2015

Journal of Criminal Psychology

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences (if any) between serial and hard-to-solve one-off homicides, and to determine if it is possible to distinguish the two types of homicides based on offence behaviours and victim characteristics. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 116 Italian serial homicides was compared to 45 hard-to-solve one-off homicides. Hard-to-solve one-off homicides were defined as having at least 72 hours pass between when the offence came to the knowledge of the police and when the offender was caught. Logistic regression was used to predict whether a killing was part of a series or a one-off offence. Findings – The serial killers targeted more strangers and prostitutes, displayed a higher level of forensic awareness both before and after the killing, and had more often an apparent sexual element in their offence. Conversely, the one-off homicides were found to include more traits indicative of impulsive and expressive behaviour. The model demonstrated a good ability (AUC=0.88) to predict whether a homicide belonged to the serial or one-off category. Research limitations/implications – The findings should be replicated using local homicide data to maximise the validity of the model in countries outside of Italy. Practical implications – Being able to distinguish between serial and one-off homicides based on information available at a new crime scene could be practically useful for homicide investigators managing finite resources. Originality/value – Studies comparing serial homicides to one-off homicides are scarce, and there are no studies explicitly trying to predict whether a homicide is an isolated case or part of a series.

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The consistency of inconsistency in serial homicide: patterns of behavioural change across series

Cited by 53 publications

References 35 publications

Consistency in crime site selection: An investigation of crime sites used by serial sex offenders across crime series

Consistency in crime site selection: An investigation of crime sites used by serial sex offenders across crime series

Investigating Offending Consistency of Geographic and Environmental Factors Among Serial Sex Offenders

Can hard-to-solve one-off homicides be distinguished from serial homicides? Differences in offence behaviours and victim characteristics

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