Personality correlates of offence style

The relationship between style of offending, recorded with a 45‐item self‐report inventory (the D45), and personality, as assessed by the Element B measure of FIRO theory (Schutz, 1958, 1992, 1994) was examined for 207 young offenders. Different styles of offending behaviour were identified with a Smallest Space Analysis (SSA‐I) of co‐occurrence among the 45 criminal and deviant behaviours in the D45. This revealed differentiation between Person and Property offences and between Expressive and Instrumental aspects of these styles. Examination of the Element B measures as external variables on the SSA‐I plot revealed a number of relationships between interpersonal personality and offence style. Overall variations in offence style related more clearly to aspects of Control than to interpersonal elements of Inclusion. Property offences, especially acts of vandalism, tended to be committed by individuals who reported higher levels of control from others (Received Control) than did Person offences. Expressive Person style crimes, typically behaviours incorporating violence, or threats thereof, especially where a weapon was involved, reported higher levels of the need for power and dominance (Expressed Control) in their interpersonal relationships. Offenders involved in Expressive Property crimes tended to be individuals for whom other people were felt to be more emotionally open and intimate (Received Openness) than other offenders. The conceptual and theoretical ramifications of this evidence for a differential relationship between personality and style of offending are explored as they relate to Investigative Psychology and ‘Offender Profiling’. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Long Do Offenders Escape Arrest? Using DNA Traces to Analyse when Serial Offenders Are Caught

Why is it that some serial offenders are arrested quickly and others only after a long period, or never at all? What characterises offenders who continue to escape arrest despite their continued involvement in crime? To be able to answer these questions, arrested (identified) offenders must be compared with never arrested (unidentified) offenders. In this paper, data from the Dutch DNA database are used to assess which characteristics of the criminal behaviour of unidentified offenders influence the probability that they will subsequently be arrested. DNA data offer a unique opportunity to compare crime series of identified offenders with crime series of yet unidentified offenders. Using the Cox proportional hazards model, we tested whether the number of crimes committed, offence specialization, and offence seriousness affect the probability of arrest of serial offenders. Results showed that as an offender commits more crimes, the probability that he will be arrested increases and that offence specialization decreases the probability of arrest. Another conclusion drawn is that DNA traces offer unique opportunities for criminological research. We discuss the limitations of this new data source and make suggestions for future research using DNA traces and for future research that might improve the current study. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Alcohol Use and Offender Remorsefulness on Sentencing Decisions1

Presentence reports on 628 offenders were content analyzed. Regression analysis found that remorseful offenders received less severe sentences than non-remorseful offenders. Offenders convicted of minor offenses received more lenient sentences if they had used alcohol in conjunction with their crimes than if they did not use alcohol. The opposite was the case for offenders commiting serious crimes. Remorseful offenders with few prior alcohol-related convictions received less severe sanctioning than non-remorseful offenders with similar conviction records. In contrast, recidivists who were remorseful were dealt with more harshly than their non-remorseful counterparts.     

A longitudinal examination of the relation between co‐offending with violent accomplices and violent crime

Although the idea that youthful offenders are affected by the company they keep is widely accepted, evidence in support of this idea is based primarily on reports provided by offenders and their peers. As an alternative to relying on reports of criminal behavior, a method that may overestimate the role that peers play in criminal behavior, the current research on co‐offending uses court records to identify and track over time individuals who are known to commit crimes together. The present investigation is the first co‐offending study to track patterns of violent criminal behavior (over an 18‐year period) among a sample of urban offenders and their accomplices. The study tests whether violence “spreads” from violent offenders to those inexperienced in violence. Results indicate that nonviolent offenders who commit their first co‐offense with violent accomplices are at increased risk for subsequent serious violent crime. Findings suggest that lessons of violence can be learned “on the street,” where knowledge is passed along through impromptu social contexts, including those in which offenders commit crimes together. Aggr. Behav. 28:97–108, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Application of the behavioral investigative support system for profiling perpetrators of serial sexual assaults

The authors developed a data-based profiling system in order to support offender profiling. The system stored incident records of prior offenders. Inputting offence details of an unsolved incident, a probability score was assigned to each prior offender in the system; the score represented the behavioral similarity with the unsolved incident. The system then ranked all offenders in the system according to the probability scores, and prioritized the high-ranked offenders as possible suspects. Moreover, the system inferred the characteristics of unknown offenders by accumulating characteristics of the high-ranked offenders. The system achieved promising accuracy, especially for linking crimes to perpetrators. In 45 out of 81 simulation trials, the target offenders were retrieved as a rank score of 1 from among 868 sex offenders.     

South African Serial Homicide: Consistency in Victim Types and Crime Scene Actions Across Series

Key to understanding the significance of behavioural evidence for linkage purposes is in establishing how consistently an offender displays the same or similar behaviours across their series. There have however to date been very few studies aiming at identifying salient components of offending behaviour that can be used reliably for linking individual crimes as part of a single series. In addition, studies that have been conducted have all dealt with serial homicide in the Western world and have been based on small samples of cases from each country. Some of the recent literature has started to disentangle some of these salient features, notably the victim, violence levels, control, and planning. The current study focused on evaluating the consistency of these features across series, using a sample of serial homicides from South Africa consisting of 30 offenders with a total of 283 victims and 235 crime scenes. Results indicate that the level of interaction with the victim may be influential to the stability or instability of offending patterns across the series. How offenders approach planning in their offence also showed a certain degree of consistency, with patterns of violence being the least consistent across the series of all components tested. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characteristics of juvenile sex offending against strangers: Findings from a non‐clinical study

Previous studies of the characteristics of juvenile sex offending have been restricted to clinical samples (with convicted offenders undergoing treatment or assessment), which have several inherent limitations. To overcome these limitations victim allegations made to the London Metropolitan Police, UK, in 2001, of sexual assault by juvenile stranger perpetrators were sampled. The study aimed to determine more accurately the alleged nature of sex offending by this type of juvenile offender (aged less than 18 years) and to determine what factors were associated with the most serious cases of this type of aggressive behaviour. The most common offence characteristics were identified, and relationships between suspect and offence/victim characteristics were statistically tested. Offence seriousness, as indicated by physical violence and the occurrence of penetration, was significantly associated with an assault by a team of offenders, a young victim, and older juvenile offenders. The potential for predicting offender characteristics from offence characteristics was examined. Estimated offender age was significantly predicted by the absence/presence of penetration. An older juvenile offender was predicted by a penetrative attack. Aggr. Behav. 30:243–253, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Boys' Experimentation and Persistence in Developmental Pathways Toward Serious Delinquency

We expand on earlier work documenting developmental pathways in disruptive child behavior towards serious forms of delinquency in boys. Three pathways we hypothesized in our previous work: (a) An Authority Conflict Pathway prior to the age of 12, that starts with stubborn behavior, and has defiance as a second stage, and authority avoidance as a third stage; (b) A Covert Pathway that starts with minor convert acts, has property damage as a second stage, and moderate to serious delinquency as a third stage; and (c) An Overt Pathway that starts with minor aggression, has physical fighting as a second stage, and violence as a third stage. We now refine this work by distinguishing between boys who experiment and those who persist in disruptive behavior. Data are presented showing that the fit for the three pathways is better for persisters than for experimenters. Also, the proportion of persisters that enter each pathway at the first stage (rather than at later stages) is higher than that for experimenters. Penetration in each pathway was more common among boys who received a diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Boys' rate of offending increased with penetration into pathways and with persistence on more than one pathway. Boys' persistence and advancement in the Overt or the Covert Pathway was almost invariably accompanied by their advancement in the Authority Conflict Pathway. The classification of boys according to persistence and pathways accounted for the majority of high rate offenders, according to both self-report and court adjudicated offenses.     

Commuters and marauders: an examination of the spatial behaviour of serial criminals

The demographic characteristics of serial offenders that distinguish between the commuter and the marauder offence styles were examined. Proposed by Canter and Larkin (1993) these two styles represent competing models of criminal spatial behaviour under which the home base plays a role in offence site selection. Data on serial burglars, arsonists and sex offenders were extracted from the criminal records maintained by the NSW Police Service. The offence style of each offender's crime series was identified in order to relate the offence style to the demographic variables, and to examine the offender's first and last offences in a series. A commuter offence style was more likely to be adopted by burglars and generally by adult males. A marauding offence style was apparent in sex offenders and metropolitan based offenders. There was a progression in the distance travelled to offend across all crime types, as the last offence was located further from the home base by comparison with the first. These findings serve to validate the conceptual distinction between commuter and marauder offence styles. Several implications for further research are addressed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Perpetration of Violence: The Moderating Role of Gender

This study sought to increase specificity in our knowledge of links among child sexual abuse (CSA), aggression, and physical intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration by criminal offenders, with particular interest in gender. Participants were 202 men and 72 women (N = 274), who were recruited from an urban pretrial supervision program. Women reported higher rates of CSA than men. After controlling for relevant covariates, CSA was associated with general aggression and severe IPV. We found a gender by CSA interaction; CSA was associated with aggression and severe IPV for women, but not men. Findings provide preliminary evidence that CSA impacts aggression and IPV perpetration differently for female offenders compared to male offenders and gender-specific treatment might be warranted in pretrial settings.     

Driving aggression in forensic and non‐forensic populations: Relationships to self‐reported levels of aggression,anger and impulsivity

A series of four questionnaires — the Buss‐Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS‐11), the Driving Anger Scale (DAS) and a Driving Violence Inventory (DVI) — were administered to a sample of 473 British drivers consisting of undergraduates (N=185), members of the public (N=106) and offenders (N=182) serving sentences in closed prisons in England (violent=82, non‐violent=100). Offenders consistently rated acts of driving aggression as less severe compared with other drivers. Offender attributions of driving violence differed to other drivers in that they were equally likely to perceive obscene gesturing as high or low intensity responses; they also viewed assault as a high intensity response whereas members of the public rated it more severely. Trait levels of anger and aggression were the predictors of driving violence in all groups but previous aggressive behaviour was only a predictor for the offenders. Gender and age were found to be predictors of aggressive driving in non‐offenders. Even with the effects of age controlled, offenders (and violent offenders in particular) scored higher on measures of driving anger and aggression. These data suggest that offenders differ in their perceptions of aggressive behaviours experienced in everyday driving and as a consequence are more likely to commit acts that other drivers perceive as violent. As offenders are known to display similar perceptual biases in other domains, identified as precursors to their aggressive behaviour, it seems likely that experience effects (as reflected in the trait measures) underpin differences in driving aggression between offenders and non‐offenders.     

Women accused of sex offenses: a gender-based comparison

Sexual offenses committed by women are likely underestimated and under-reported. This exploratory study compares and contrasts women accused of sexual offenses and their male counterparts. Data were retrospectively compiled on all alleged female and age-matched male sex offenders who were referred for psychiatric evaluation to a large Midwestern city's court psychiatric clinic over a six-year period. Data were abstracted regarding their crimes, charges, demographics, social history, medical history, legal history, violence history, substance use, sexual history, psychiatric history and their victims. Like the men, women were most frequently referred for sexual predator classification evaluations. Ages ranged from 19 to 62 years, and the majority had children. Most had prior arrests. One-third had a past history of psychiatric hospitalization, and most were given a non-paraphilic psychiatric diagnosis. The majority of the women reported past histories of sexual or physical victimization. While there were many similarities between female and male sex offenders in this psychiatric sample, women more frequently had victims of both genders.     

Patterns of Adolescent Aggression and Victimization: Sex Differences and Correlates

This study identified heterogeneous patterns of peer and dating aggression and victimization among boys and girls and examined their relation to risk and protective correlates. Girls (n = 1648) and boys (n = 1420) in grades 8–10 completed surveys assessing 14 indicators of violence involvement. Latent class analyses indicated a four-class solution, though a test of measurement invariance indicated the nature of the classes differed by sex. Among boys and girls, three classes emerged: Uninvolved (45% of girls, 61% of boys), Peer Aggressor-Victims (23% of girls, 21% of boys), and Cross-Context Aggressor-Victims (CCAV) (12% of girls, 5% of boys). Those in the Peer Aggressor-Victims class were likely to report involvement in peer aggression only; however, girls in this class were likely to be involved only in moderate violence, whereas boys were likely to be involved in moderate and severe violence. Those in the CCAV class were likely to report involvement in all forms of violence except sexual and controlling aggression, which was likely only among boys. Among girls, but not boys, a Verbal Dating Aggressor-Victims class (21% of girls) emerged that was characterized by involvement in occasional verbal dating aggression only. Among boys, but not girls, a Cross-Context Physical Victims class (13% of boys) emerged that was characterized by being only a victim of moderate physical peer and dating violence. Unique and shared risk and protective factors distinguished class membership for girls and boys. Findings suggest the pathways leading to violence may differ by sex and result in different patterns of violence involvement.     

A combination of combat experience,early abduction,and severe traumatization fuels appetitive aggression and violence among abductees of rebel war in Northern Uganda

Individuals who perpetrate violence may likely perceive violence as appealing and infliction of violence to derive pleasure is termed as appetitive aggression. Individuals who were abducted as children into an armed group often experience a higher number of traumatic event types, that is traumatic load and are usually socialized in a violence-endorsing environment. This study aims to investigate the interaction between age at initial abduction with that of traumatic load, and their influence on appetitive aggression along with perpetration of violent acts by former members of an armed rebel group of both sexes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among a target group of formerly abducted rebel-war survivors (including participants with and without combat experience) from Northern Uganda. Participants included 596 women and 570 men with N = 1,166 (M_age = 32.58, SD_age = 9.76, range: 18–80 years). We conducted robust linear regression models to investigate the influence of age at initial abduction, traumatic load, combat experience, and biological sex on appetitive aggression as well as their perpetrated violent acts. Our study shows, appetitive aggression and the number of perpetrated violent acts were specifically increased in individuals who were abducted young, experienced several traumatic events in their lifetime, and with previous combat experience. For perpetrated violence men showed increased levels whereas for appetitive aggression the association was independent of biological sex. Therefore, early abducted individuals with a higher traumatic load, who have combat experience, need to be given special intervention to prevent any further violence.     

societal reaction to sex offenders: a review of the origins and results of the myths surrounding their crimes and treatment amenability

Examination of societal reaction to sexual offenders reveals a history of harshness exemplified by the sexual psychopath laws of the 1930s. The latest round of legal attempts to control sex offenders uses Severe sentencing laws, civil commitment procedures and community notification statutes to confine and shame sex offenders. This paper shows these laws to be based on popular beliefs about the predatory nature of these men, the probability of their re-offense and their amenability to treatment rather than the facts about the sex offenses and offenders. The severe reaction to sexual offenders is a vindictive one based on myth and misunderstanding that serves many interests. The paper exposes the contradictory myths and skewed emotions that guide our view of sex crimes and compares these with the facts about re-offense rates and the effects of treatment.     

A Typology of Offenders Who Use Online Communications to Commit Sex Crimes Against Minors

This study aims to present a qualitative, empirically based typology of offenders who use online communications to commit sex crimes against minors, including offenders who met victims online and those who knew them in advance. Seventy-five reports made by law enforcement officers were analyzed using a qualitative software program, during which a typology defining 4 types of offenders was identified: the expert, the cynical, the affection-focused, and the sex-focused. Each type of offender was characterized by patterns of online communication, offline and online identity, relationship dynamics with the victim, and level of sex crime expertise. The typology reveals the heterogeneous nature of sex offenders who use online communications. This diversity must be addressed to provide satisfactory interventions for both victims and offenders.     

Reinforcement sensitivity of sex offenders and non‐offenders: An experimental and psychometric study of reinforcement sensitivity theory

This study tested predictions of Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) in subgroups of sex offenders and male non‐offenders using an experimental choice task consisting of a reward and a non‐reward phase. In addition, RST‐related psychometric measures were used. Both experimental and psychometric data were of interest to determine whether sex offenders could be reliably differentiated from non‐offenders. Paraphilic (N=50) and impulse control‐disordered (N=48) sex offenders showed greater sensitivity to continuous reward than male non‐offenders (N=51). Impulse control‐disordered sex offenders showed less behavioural adaptation under non‐reward than both paraphilic sex offenders and male non‐offenders. In addition, reward sensitivity, rash‐spontaneous impulsivity, and anxiety measures discriminated sex offenders from male non‐offenders. The results suggest that reinforcement sensitivity is a promising personality trait for differentiating subgroups of sex offenders from non‐offenders. The experimental and psychometric results illustrate that predictive accuracy in forensic settings could be improved by combining several types of data.     

The role of gender in claiming partial or complete homicide-related amnesia

The current study examined offence and offender characteristics in female and male offenders claiming no, partial or complete homicide-related amnesia. Pre-trial file information consisting of forensic examination reports and crime reports of all female (n = 79) and male (n = 577) offenders subject to forensic psychiatric examination in 1995–2004 and convicted of homicide were retrospectively analysed. The Psychopathy Check List Revised (PCL-R) was used for scoring psychopathy. Claiming homicide-related amnesia was significantly more frequent in female (60.7%) than male (42.1%) offenders. Findings indicate that in males the use of sharp instrument, intoxication, staying at the scene and feeling regret for the killing accompany claims of crime-related amnesia. In females, personality disorder and criminal history were significantly more frequent in offenders claiming crime-related amnesia. Analysis of intelligence, psychopathology or psychopathy indicated no significant relationship with claims of amnesia in either gender groups.