Juvenile homicide offenders: A 35‐year‐follow‐up study

Murders committed by juveniles have been a major concern in the USA for more than 40 years. Due to decisions in the 21st century by the United States Supreme Court, the likelihood of juvenile homicide offenders being sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) is less than in past decades. In addition, hundreds of individuals in prison who were sentenced to LWOP under mandatory sentencing statutes or their equivalent as juveniles for murder are now eligible for resentencing and may be released. Given these changes in sentencing policies and practices, follow‐up research on juveniles involved in murder is needed. This study is a 35‐year follow‐up study of 59 boys who were convicted of murder and sentenced to adult prisons in a southeastern state, and initially interviewed in the early 1980s. Twenty‐two of these men agreed to participate in clinical interviews about their experiences in prison and upon return to the community if released. The experiences in prison are highlighted for all men. Thereafter, attention focuses on the 19 juvenile homicide offenders who have been released. Of these 19 men, 11 were classified as failures given that they were sent back to prison at least once. Length of time served and completion of GED were the best predictors of post‐release success. Clinical observations, implications of the findings, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Post‐incarceration Recidivism of Lone versus Group Juvenile Homicide Offenders

Killings by juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) who use accomplices have been increasing since the 1980s and currently represent approximately half of juvenile arrests for murder in the United States. Nevertheless, prior research has not compared JHOs who kill alone with JHOs who kill in groups. The present research followed up 30 years later on a sample of 59 male murderers and attempted murderers sentenced to adult prison. This study was designed to analyze whether lone and group JHOs differed on pre‐incarceration, incarceration, and post‐incarceration variables. Significant findings indicated that compared with lone offenders, group JHOs had a higher mean of pre‐homicide arrests and were more likely to be Black, have a pre‐homicide delinquent record, commit a crime‐related homicide offense, and target a stranger. With respect to post‐homicide variables, group JHOs were more likely to be released from prison and more likely to be rearrested. The two types of JHOs did not differ significantly in relation to the number of post‐release violent offenses. Preliminary implications of the findings and avenues for future investigation are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual,Family, Peer,and Academic Characteristics of Male Juvenile Sexual Offenders

This study examined the individual functioning, interpersonal relations, and academic performance of 115 male juveniles who were divided into 5 demographically matched groups (sexual offenders with peer/adult victims, sexual offenders with child victims, violent nonsexual offenders, nonviolent nonsexual offenders, and nondelinquent youths). Parents and youths completed self-report instruments, behavior rating inventories, and a videorecorded interaction task, and teachers completed a rating measure. Results showed that juvenile sexual offenders, like juvenile nonsexual offenders, had more behavior problems, more difficulties in family and peer relations, and poorer academic performance than did nondelinquent youths. However, juvenile sexual offenders and nonsexual offenders did not differ on any of the measures of individual or interpersonal adjustment. The implications of these findings for research, theory, and treatment are discussed.

Serial murder by children and adolescents

Six cases of serial murder by children and adolescents spanning the past 150 years are presented. The available literature pertaining to this area is reviewed. Each of these six offenders committed sexually homicidal behavior as demonstrated by their expression of erotic interest or engagement in overt sexual behavior at the crime scenes. From a DSM-IV-TR perspective they all exhibited signs of sexual sadism, and their crime characteristics reflected behavior of a more predatory than affective nature. Hands on methods of killing were preferred, i.e., cutting, stabbing, or strangulation. These crimes are extremely rare. Case reports in this area are encouraged to advance our knowledge of these youths.     

The compelling case for low-violence-risk preclusion in American prison policy

This article recommends the development of broad policies of preclusion regarding the use of incarceration for offenders who are highly unlikely to commit a violent crime in the future. The proposal builds on the new Model Penal Code: Sentencing's provision on the limited utilitarian purposes of incarceration. Such low-violence-risk-preclusion strategies (LVRPs) would stand on the most powerful predictive capabilities of today's risk assessment technology. If implemented properly, there is reason to believe that substantial drops in prison rates could be realized in most states. The preclusion groups would include defendants who should not be sent to prison or jail by sentencing judges even though the law allows for such penalties; those serving prison sentences who should be released by parole boards or other releasing authorities at the earliest opportunity; and probation and parole violators who should not be revoked to prison or jail. The strongest objection to the LVRP proposal is the fear of racial or other unacceptable biases in its apportionment of reduced-incarceration benefits. Given current high levels of disproportionality in prison and jail populations, however, there is reason to think that the benefits of LVRP would be especially pronounced in disadvantaged communities.     

Delinquenzverläufe jugendlicher Sexualmörder

Sexual homicides by juvenile offenders are statistically rare and until now only a few studies explored this phenomenon. Studies on forensic psychiatric court reports and follow-up data from federal criminal records were used to investigate the delinquency of a sample of 19 juvenile sexual homicide perpetrators from their childhood up to the mean age of 45 years of age. More than the half (58%) committed or attempted sexual assaults prior to the sexual homicide. Seven from 13 who were released from custody (54%) committed sexual or violent reoffences. In a long-time analysis as much favourable as unfavourable developments were found. The results suggest that most of the persons who commit sexual homicides as juveniles already committed sexual offences before and have a high risk of sexual and violent reoffending even a long time after the homicide.     

Authoritarianism and social distance attitudes towards offenders released from prison

It was hypothesized that authoritarian individuals maintain attitudes of greater social distance towards (a) violent offenders, (b) violent young offenders, (c) non-violent offenders, and (d) non-violent young offenders released from prison. Correlations of scores on Boehm's Legal Attitudes Questionnaire for the offender groups supported the hypothesis. Subjects were 48 students in management science. Apparently high authoritarians would like to maintain attitudes of greater social distance from violent offenders than non-violent offenders released from prison.     

Criminal Recidivism Among Hong Kong Male Juvenile Probationers

Hong Kong juvenile probationers are scarcely studied. The purpose of this study was to explore the 6-month short-term recidivism rate of 92 male juvenile probationers (aged 14–20?years), with and without controlling for their index crime. Generally, 30% of the juveniles reoffended within the 6-month follow-up period (82 and 18% were adjudicated of a nonviolent and violent offense respectively). Eight personality and psychosocial properties (self-esteem, life satisfaction, social bond, positive and negative affect, impulsivity, pro-offending attitudes, and self-perceived life problems) were assessed in both Wave 1 and Wave 2 periods. Only three properties (negative affect, self-perceived life problems, and self-esteem) yielded significant changes within the 6-month period. Beyond the exploratory analyses, another aim of this study was to identify significant predictors of recidivism in these rarely sampled juvenile probationers. Results indicated that type of crime, onset age of delinquent behavior, frequency of delinquency involvement in the past year, social bond, negative affect, impulsivity, and pro-offending attitudes were significant risk factors for recidivism. These findings highlight the need for social workers and other youth justice personnel to prioritize the intervention resources for juvenile probationers in light of the high estimated lifetime cost of crime for young offenders. Cognitive-behavioral treatment modalities with emphases on family functioning and problem-solving strategies were found to be an effective intervention approach for juvenile offenders. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

What works for serious juvenile offenders? A systematic review

This study examines the outcomes of best available empirical research regarding the effectiveness of treatment programs implemented in secure corrections to prevent the recidivism of serious (violent and chronic) juvenile offenders (from 12 to 21 years old). In this review 30 experimental and quasi-experimental studies are analyzed, comparing 2831 juveniles in the treatment groups and 3002 youths for the control groups. The global effect size of these 30 studies in terms of standardized mean difference was d = 0.14 in favour of the treatment groups. This size effect, in terms of "r" coefficient reached the value of 0.07, of low magnitude. The cognitive-behavioral methods of treatment were the most effective in decreasing recidivism. These results report that the rehabilitation programs for serious offenders achieve to reduce the general recidivism in comparison with the control juveniles in approximately seven percent.     

Jugendliche Gewaltdelinquenz,psychosoziale Merkmale und Migrationsstatus

As part of the longitudinal study ?Chances and risks during the life course“, the emergence of deviant and delinquent behavior is studied. The data basis of the present study consists of self-reports of male ninth grade pupils from Dortmund and Nuremberg schools (n?=?726). Particularly, data applying to perpetration of an offence in the past year were analyzed, including dark-figures data for violent offences. The indices for violent crime were related to several psychosocial characteristics (e.g. violence-approving attitudes, self-centered personality traits and corporal punishment by parents), considering type of school and migration background. From a developmental psychopathology perspective, these psychosocial characteristics can contribute to juvenile delinquency and violence. Overall, the empirical findings suggest that juveniles with migration backgrounds show significantly more violence and peer delinquency than juveniles without migration backgrounds. Furthermore, there seems to be empirical evidence that there are significant differences between violent offenders and non-violent offenders or young people with migration backgrounds and young people without migration backgrounds, respectively, with regard to various psychosocial characteristics. Additional results refer to school type specific analyses. Limitations of the present study and implications of the findings for future research on juvenile violence are discussed focusing on violence prevention and interventional approaches.     

Motivations for gun possession and carrying among serious juvenile offenders

Though the prevalence of gun possession and carrying among juveniles is now fairly well documented (at least among non-serious offenders), little research has examined juveniles' reasons for possessing and carrying guns beyond noting that youth who report robbery and assaultive behavior have higher rates of gun and other weapon possession than do non-violent youth. The present study examines the question of motivation behind gun possession and carrying by criminally-inclined youths through analysis of survey data collected from juveniles incarcerated in maximum security reformatories. The findings support the popular fear that juvenile offenders are heavily involved in gun-related crime, though the same findings point to multiple needs and uses for guns. Using a number of measures—reasons for carrying guns, for using them during the commission of crimes, for purchasing them, etc.—it appears that the primary reason for gun possession and carrying is the juvenile's perception of the need to be armed for protection. This is the case even among those who were involved in such predatory crimes as armed robbery prior to incarceration. Thus, legislative attempts to dissuade youth from obtaining guns to commit crimes are likely misplaced, since the guns eventually used in crime are usually obtained for protective purposes. Only when firearms are perceived as no longer needed can we expect a serious drop in gun-related offenses among youth.     

Psychopathy in Italian female murderers

Over the years, the number of homicides in Italy has progressively decreased, ultimately becoming one of the lowest rates in Europe (357 = 0.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, according to ISTAT 1 ISTAT: Italian Institute of Statistics.
). The number of homicides committed by women was about 9% of the total number of homicides during our study period. The percentage has increased in recent years because the total number of homicides has decreased without a proportionate decrease in the number of female homicides. Indeed, murder is an unusual type of crime for a woman and is often associated with a mental disorder, so when a woman committed a homicide, a psychiatric assessment was often performed. A forensic psychiatry expert was assigned to investigate the offender's psychopathology and mental state at the time of the offense. The root causes of the crime remained unexplained, however, due to the lack of a psychiatric precedent to justify this kind of assessment. The role of psychopathy in homicide has seldom been studied in female offenders, even though psychopathy has an important role in violent crimes. The investigators examined, clinically and historically, a sample of women who committed murder with different levels of criminal responsibility (female homicide offenders found not guilty by reason of insanity, having partial criminal responsibility, and convicted as criminally responsible and sentenced to prison) to identify the prevalence of the psychopathic dimension and its possible role in this sample. Prevalence and degree of psychopathic traits were examined in these female offenders using the Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised. This study showed that females who had committed homicide were likely to suffer from mental illness; most of the homicidal acts were committed impulsively; and most female homicides occurred within the family, especially among women who were psychotic, but less so if they were psychopathic. Psychopathy tended to co‐occur more with personality disorders than with psychotic psychopathology. Psychopathy was more evident among female homicide offenders who had been abused or traumatized. Psychopathic women who killed had high factor F1 scores and low antisocial component of factor F2.     

Young patients detained under the Lieutenant Governor Warrant in Ontario

Few studies have focused on mentally ill juvenile offenders who end up on warrants of the lieutenant governor (LGW). The present study arose out of a larger study (1982) of all patients (N = 332) being held on lieutenant governor warrants in Ontario, Canada. Of this group, 24 were placed on warrants as juveniles (18 years and younger). The characteristics of this group, who are predominantly males with histories of psychiatric illnesses, diagnosed mainly as antisocial personality, and who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges primarily of murder, or attempted murder, are described. In light of the proposed Young Offenders Act, a further study of all juveniles held on warrants of the lieutenant governor in Canada is proposed.     

Verläufe bei sexuellen Tötungen

This article summarizes main results of studies on forensic psychiatric court reports on 166 men who had been persecuted between 1963 and 1991 for a sexual offence leading to the death of the victim. Comparing perpetrators with a single victim and those with multiple victims we found similar results as in two previous studies with smaller samples: Multiple sexual homicide perpetrators showed more often sexual sadism and other paraphilias, as well as antisocial, schizoid and sadistic personality disorders. Follow-up data from the federal criminal records could be obtained for 139 offenders. Ninety perpetrators had been released after a mean detention of 12.2 years, whereas the 49 offenders who were still in prison or forensic psychiatric hospitals had been detained for a mean period of 20.6 years. The non-released offenders showed more often paraphilias as well as antisocial and sadistic personality disorders than the released perpetrators. Paraphilias and antisocial personality traits are empirically well proven risk factors for criminal recidivism with sexual reoffences. In addition, the non-released sexual homicide perpetrators had higher scores in all applied risk assessment instruments (PCL-R, HCR-20, SVR-20, Static-99). Among the released offenders only 1.1% (n=1) reoffended with a completed homicide and 2.2% (n=2) with attempted homicide. The recidivism rates with sexual and other violent reoffences in this sample of sexual homicide perpetrators were similar to those in a large meta-analysis on recidivism in sexual offenders by Hanson and Morton-Bourgon (4). Since well established risk factors had apparently been “used-up” for the decisions about release or non-release, in the follow-up data about the released offenders only age at the sexual homicide and age at the time of release were found as risk factors for recidivism with any violent (sexual or non-sexual) reoffence, i.e. the younger the offender at the time of the homicide and the younger at the time of release, the more likely is the risk of violent reoffending.     

Lessons from serial murder in South Africa

The systematic study of serial murder in South Africa is a newly developed field. This research demonstrates the similarities and differences between South African serial murderers and those found elsewhere. The most marked difference is the higher incidence of cross‐ethnic offending, the lower rate of ‘team killers’, and the lack of female serial murderers in South Africa. South African offenders display similar geographical behaviours to foreign serial murderers. Overall, South African offenders display more behaviour in common with their non‐European counterparts than serial murderers from the USA. South African serial murderers display certain diagnostic and developmental features that are different from those reported in North American serial murderers. Of these, the most notable is the seeming lack of sexually violent conscious fantasy. There are also fundamental similarities in experience: exposure to traumatic experiences, and profound interpersonal isolation and distance. This ambivalence is also noted in discussions of the evolution of behaviour in the offences, and in the discussion of motives in serial murder. This demonstrates areas that previous studies of serial murder need to explore further. This study also highlights the need for research into the ways in which offence behaviours are affected by the social environment. Finally, the analysis of serial murderers in South Africa suggests ways in which serial murder can be tackled. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Substance use patterns of young offenders and violent crime

The use of alcohol is a significant predictor of the involvement of young offenders in violent crime. This study found that in a sample of 300 incarcerated juveniles in New South Wales, more than 70% admitted to violent crime. Detainees from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture were less likely than other detainees to be involved in violent crime. The substances most associated with violent crime were alcohol, followed by cocaine. However, when the likelihood that the young person has initiated violence as a response to alcohol or other substances is introduced into the equation, the direct effects for alcohol and cocaine predicting engagement in violent crime disappear. The Goldstein hypothesis that the effects of a substance directly facilitate violence, thereby accounting for the relationship between substances of use and violent crime, was supported. Aggr. Behav. 29:414–422, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Hostile attributional biases in severely aggressive adolescents

Adolescent boys (N = 128) from a maximum security prison for juvenile offenders were administered a task to assess hostile attributional biases. As hypothesized, these biases were positively correlated with undersocialized aggressive conduct disorder (as indicated by high scores on standardized scales and by psychiatric diagnoses), with reactive-aggressive behavior, and with the number of interpersonally violent crimes committed. Hostile attributional biases were found not to relate to nonviolent crimes or to socialized aggressive behavior disorder. These findings held even when race and estimates of intelligence and socioeconomic status were controlled. These findings suggest that within a population of juvenile offenders, attributional biases are implicated specifically in interpersonal reactive aggression that involves anger and not in socialized delinquency.     

Girls Arrested for Murder: An Empirical Analysis of 32 years of U.S. Data by Offender Age Groups

Most studies on juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) have used small samples and have concentrated on adolescent male offenders. As a result, little is known about the population of female juveniles arrested for murder. This study utilized the Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) database to investigate age differences between younger (aged 6–12 years) and older (aged 13–17 years) females arrested for murder in the United States from 1976 to 2007. As predicted, six variables used to test seven hypotheses with respect to younger and older female JHOs in single victim incidents were significant (victim age, victim gender, victim offender relationship, murder weapon, offender count, and homicide circumstance). Regression analysis revealed that younger girls were seven times more likely than older girls to kill children aged 0–12 years. Girls aged 6–12 years were five times more likely than their teen counterparts to be involved in conflict‐related homicides as opposed to crime‐related homicides. Although approximately the same percentages of younger and older girls killed infants under the age of 1, the victims were significantly different for the two offender age groups. This article concludes with a discussion of our findings and directions for future research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the "evolving standards of decency:" perceptions of capital punishment for juveniles

This study examines whether public opinion parallels recent judicial and statutory changes limiting the applicability of capital sentences to offenders younger than 18 years old. Two hundred and thirty-five undergraduate students were administered a vignette of a capital case and asked to render a sentence of death or life in prison without parole. Results revealed that age of the defendant was not a significant predictor of sentence type; participants sentenced 16- and 17-year-old defendants similarly to 18- and 25-year-old defendants. Therefore, public opinion appears inconsistent with legal and legislative changes to abandon the practice of executing juveniles. Findings also suggested that perceived level of the defendant's responsibility and general opinion about capital sentences significantly predicted sentence type; perceptions of greater responsibility were associated with an increased likelihood of a death sentence. However, participants did not perceive differences in responsibility between juvenile and adult defendants. In addition, participants were more comfortable sentencing defendants to death compared with life in prison.