Criminal, Antisocial, and Temporal Patterns in the Histories of Serial and Non-Serial Sexual PDF
Preview Criminal, Antisocial, and Temporal Patterns in the Histories of Serial and Non-Serial Sexual
CCiittyy UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff NNeeww YYoorrkk ((CCUUNNYY)) CCUUNNYY AAccaaddeemmiicc WWoorrkkss Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 2012 CCrriimmiinnaall,, AAnnttiissoocciiaall,, aanndd TTeemmppoorraall PPaatttteerrnnss iinn tthhee HHiissttoorriieess ooff SSeerriiaall aanndd NNoonn--SSeerriiaall SSeexxuuaall MMuurrddeerreerrss Victoria Blair Mesa The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit you? Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2240 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Criminal, Antisocial, and Temporal Patterns in the Histories of Serial and Non-serial Sexual Murderers by Victoria Blair Mesa A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2012 © 2012 VICTORIA BLAIR MESA All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _________________ ________________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Louis Schlesinger, Ph.D. . __________________ ________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Maureen O’Connor, J.D., Ph.D. . William Gottdiener, Ph.D. . Philip Yanos, Ph.D. . Ali Khadivi, Ph.D. . Charles Amrhein, Psy.D. . Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT CRIMINAL, ANTISOCIAL, AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS IN THE HISTORIES OF SERIAL AND NON-SERIAL SEXUAL MURDERERS by Victoria Blair Mesa Advisor: Dr. Louis Schlesinger Despite its having been the subject of clinical and scholarly inquiry for more than two centuries, empirical research regarding the phenomenon of sexually-motivated homicide remains limited. In particular, relatively few prior studies have focused on perpetrators’ criminal and antisocial backgrounds, and these often examine only the data found in official arrest and conviction records, which frequently provide incomplete accounts of offenders’ histories. Even fewer researchers have investigated whether temporal patterns exist in the offense histories of sexual murderers. The current study included data on 46 serial and 93 non-serial perpetrators of sexually-motivated homicide, obtained from a large archive. Data collection and coding methods were selected to allow for the use of comparative and multivariate statistical analyses to determine whether the serial and non-serial offender groups differed significantly on the measured variables. Results indicated that multiple offense types were found more frequently in the backgrounds of serial sexual murderers than in non-serial offenders. Few sexual murderers in either group produced temporal patterns in their offense histories. Subsets of victim, offender, and historical variables were used to develop predictive models that could be helpful in distinguishing serial from non-serial sexual homicide offenders. Implications for clinical practitioners, researchers, and law enforcement agencies are discussed. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit for coordinating access to the data used in this research. Any opinions, statements, and conclusions are my own and not an endorsement by the FBI for any policy, program, or service. I also want to thank my committee members for their patience and guidance through the years. In particular, Dr. Lou Schlesinger has been a reliable source of advice, insight, and clinical wisdom. Thanks are also due to those who assisted in data collection and gathering references. Thanks to Shari Rodriguez-Vasquez for helping me clear hurdles large and small. I am very grateful for my multi-state friends and family who provided emotional support, intellectual feedback, funny anecdotes, junk food, and motivation even when I was not receptive to it. Shea was with me on this from the beginning, tolerated my idiosyncrasies, and somehow still lets me call her my friend. My grandmother has been one of my loudest cheerleaders my whole life, and I would not have made it without her. I cannot thank her enough for being the one person in my life who will answer the phone and listen to whatever is on my mind at 4:00 a.m. Sheila and Gabe quickly became part of my Florida family, and have been fantastic sources of laughter, advice, companionship, and foods I will not eat. To Dave, words alone cannot convey how much you mean to me, and how much I appreciate you for always being right beside me, regardless of what I may have dragged you into. Thank you for being my partner. I am also grateful to my mother, Taylor, and many friends at John Jay College and Florida State Hospital who have supported me as I worked to complete this research. Peanut has been my faithful and constant companion from the start, and she deserves extra treats for still being excited to see me every day. Finally, thanks to the crew at Starbucks on Columbus Avenue, who saw me more often than they should have and kept me fueled. v DEDICATION My sister Haley has been inspiring me to do great things ever since she was born. Throughout this process, there were many times when she was my main source of motivation, always believing in me and reminding me that someone looked up to me and completely expected me to succeed. She provided unwavering support and encouragement, and made me stop working long enough to have fun every now and then. I dedicate this dissertation to Haley, as proof that a little girl from a small town can do big things. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE…................................................................................................................................i COPYRIGHT PAGE.......................................................................................................................ii APPROVAL...................................................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................v DEDICATION..............................................................................................................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES..............................................................................................x LIST OF APPENDICES................................................................................................................xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE.................................................................................7 Definitions of Sexual Homicide..........................................................................................7 Differences between types of multiple murder.......................................................8 Prevalence of Sexual Homicide..........................................................................................9 Frequency of non-serial sexual homicide...............................................................9 Frequency of serial sexual homicide.....................................................................10 Offender Characteristics....................................................................................................14 Developmental features.........................................................................................15 Mental illness........................................................................................................16 Sadistic sexual fantasies........................................................................................17 Victim Characteristics.......................................................................................................18 Offense Characteristics.....................................................................................................19 vii Modus operandi and signature..............................................................................21 Offender Profiling.............................................................................................................22 Spatial Factors in Sexual Homicide..................................................................................26 Sexual Homicide Typologies............................................................................................27 The FBI’s organized/disorganized typology.........................................................28 Other offender typologies.....................................................................................31 Motivational typologies........................................................................................32 Motivational Dynamics.....................................................................................................33 Publicity, Media Attention, and Public Perceptions.........................................................37 Criminal and Antisocial Backgrounds of Sexual Homicide Perpetrators.........................41 Difficulties associated with use of official records...............................................44 Recidivism and risk assessment............................................................................46 Offense specialization...........................................................................................49 Temporal Features in the Histories of Sexual Homicide Perpetrators..............................53 Aims of the Current Study................................................................................................56 CHAPTER III: METHOD............................................................................................................59 Dataset and Sample Selection...........................................................................................59 Coding Procedures for Criminal and Antisocial History Variables..................................61 Coding Procedures for Temporal Variables.....................................................................65 Statistical Analyses...........................................................................................................68 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS...........................................................................................................70 Results for Full Sample, Combined Groups.....................................................................70 Offender and case characteristics.........................................................................70 viii Frequency of criminal and antisocial acts............................................................70 Characteristics of sexual homicide victims..........................................................73 Prevalence of offenses by type.............................................................................74 Temporal characteristics.......................................................................................74 Results for Split Samples, S versus NS Group.................................................................78 Offender and victim characteristics......................................................................78 Criminal and antisocial background characteristics.............................................81 Temporal characteristics.......................................................................................85 Multivariate Analyses......................................................................................................88 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION.......................................................................................................97 Offender Characteristics...................................................................................................97 Victim Characteristics......................................................................................................98 Offenders’ Criminal and Antisocial Histories................................................................102 Temporal Features and Patterns.....................................................................................108 Development of Predictive Models................................................................................113 Strengths.........................................................................................................................116 Limitations......................................................................................................................119 Recommendations for Future Studies............................................................................122 Conclusions....................................................................................................................124 APPENDIX A ..........................................................................................................................129 APPENDIX B............................................................................................................................130 APPENDIX C............................................................................................................................133 REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................134 ix
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