The contract murderer: patterns, characteristics, and dynamics

A case of an independent professional contract murderer, who killed over 100 people, is reported. After eluding law enforcement for 30 years, the subject killed several associates who he believed could implicate him in various crimes. These homicides eventually led to his arrest, since the victims were individuals who could be linked to him. This hit man had a background of poverty and childhood abuse but, as an adult, had pursued a middle-class lifestyle and kept his family totally separate from his criminal career. In addition, he had a number of characteristics that helped him carry out his crimes in a highly planned, methodical, and organized manner: he had adept social judgment; personality traits of orderliness, control, and paranoid vigilance; useful defense mechanisms of rationalization and reframing; and an exceptional ability to encapsulate emotions. This case is discussed within the context of contract murder, a crime that occurs relatively frequently and is probably increasing; yet it often goes undetected, the arrest rate is low, and the offender is rarely studied.     

身份犯及其相关概念辨析

身份犯是指刑法规定的以行为人所具有的特定身份作为犯罪构成要件或量刑情节的犯罪。身份犯不同于亲手犯和不作为犯,身份犯是以犯罪主体是否具有特定身份为标准对犯罪进行分类的结果,亲手犯是根据实行行为是否可以和主体相分离而对犯罪所作的一种分类,不作为犯则是以实行行为的表现形式为标准划分的一类犯罪,三者既有区别,又有联系。     

A Catathymic Infanticide

Abstract: A case of infanticide committed by a 37‐year‐old married man, the father of three sons, is reported. Clinically depressed since adolescence, and also diagnosed with obsessive‐compulsive disorder and a dependent personality, the subject began to worry about killing someone a decade before the homicide. Increasingly disabled by his major depression, unable to work, and confined in his home, the idea that his only recourse was to kill one of his sons became fixed and frequent. Following his fourth psychiatric hospitalization, he took his 13‐month‐old son home from day care and drowned him in the bathtub. He then called the police and reported his crime. This sudden act of intentional killing was followed by a period of emotional relief and calmness, clearly illustrating the three stages of chronic catathymic homicide.     

爱滋病病毒携带者的刑事责任能力探析

当某人得知他/她携带爱滋病病毒(阳性)并与他人/她人进行亲密性行为,他/她是否应当对自己的行为承担刑事责任?争论的焦点是对该行为能否犯罪化?由于我国并没有针对该行为进行专门立法,引用我国《刑法》的有关规定对该行为进行处理可能会带来一些认定上的分歧,特别是在被害人同意的情形下,能否要求行为人承担刑事责任?根据我国《刑法》以及《刑法修正案》的相关规定,仍然可以对该行为进行刑事追究并处以刑罚,该行为符合投放危险物质罪或者过失投放危险物质罪的犯罪构成。     

指挥官刑事责任基本理论

指挥官刑事责任是指挥官因为其下级实施了犯罪而应当承担的一种共犯责任。该理论在20世纪随着一系列重要的国际刑事司法实践而逐渐形成,并在当前主要的国际刑事法律中得到了体现。要追究指挥官的刑事责任,必须证明三点:具有上下级关系;上级知道或者应当知道下级的罪行;上级指挥官未能采取合理、必要的措施阻止犯罪或者惩罚罪犯。但是,无论是在司法实践中,还是在理论研究上,人们对这个原则还有不同的认识与做法,一个科学、合理的指挥官刑事责任理论体系还有待建立。     

“机关”不宜规定为单位犯罪的主体

机关应否规定为单位犯罪的主体,在1996年修订《刑法》时即存在争论。我国1997年《刑法》第30条明文规定"机关"可以作为单位犯罪的主体,但争论并未因此而停止。通过对"机关应否规定为单位犯罪主体的争论"和"机关规定为单位犯罪主体的得失"的评析,可以看出将国家机关规定为单位犯罪的主体弊大于利,因而虽有规定,却没有执行,实际成为置而不用。据此,"机关"不宜规定为单位犯罪的主体,《刑法》第30条中的"机关"一词还是取消为好。     

Social change, crime, and culture: The defense of provocation

What is here labeled ``a culture defense of provocation' describes a crime committed by a person who in anger kills someone forgravely insulting him, his family, or his cultural community. The defendantblames his crime on cultural dictates that compelled him, he contends, totake violent offense at the harm his victim caused. While few if anyjurisdictions accept such claims as formal grounds for exculpation orextenuation, many jurists will spare the culturally compelled killer his lifeand reduce the maximum sentence allowed, provided that he belongs to anunassimilated cultural minority group, or that his motives otherwise meritsympathy. The paper traces historical trends involving crimes, laws, anddefenses of provocation, focusing on problems associated, first, withdetermining the assimilation status of cultural defendants and, second, withincongruities between the law's expanding restrictions on killing in the nameof honor or in the heat of passion and the penchant in practice of givingculture defendants of provocation a legal break.     

犯罪：环境诱因与人格缺陷的结合——杨佳案件心理分析

近十几年来,中国发生过不少起恶性的暴力杀人案。这些案犯的作案动机和理由不外乎恶意报复,或心理变态,或黑社会的亡命之徒恣意妄为。唯独杨佳案,因其作案对象、作案地点、作案手段等众多的特殊性,而令其作案动机蒙上一层迷雾。那么,究竟是什么原因导致了杨佳的残暴的犯罪行为？对于了解杨仕的犯罪心理和犯罪行为,如果从环境诱因和人格缺陷的结合的角度来探讨,可能可以给我们一些启示,并为预防此类恶性案件的再次发生有所帮助。     

Offender Theme Analyses in a Crime Narrative: An Applied Approach

There is a great deal of research on the structure of narrative and its mode, and on the narrative positioning and counter positioning of the actor in legal and social contexts. In offender narratives, personal experiences are embedded for observation and analysis of particular realities that contextualize a disposition of the perpetrator being ‘an undergoer’ rather than an ‘effector’ of actions. This is evaluated in the shift from a narrated action to a speaker utterance in prospection and also in anticipation of the criminal act. Using ‘grammatical logic’, it is also possible to demonstrate how the crucial event (the crime) is not a cause, but an effect of a personal theme that encapsulates pattern of circumstances when the narrative outcome in criminal narrative becomes the product of its discursive practices. This is the ‘story of intentionality’ (my term) in crime narratives, characteristically embedded within the 1st the story of crime, the 2nd is the story of investigation [14, 20]. Using techniques from functional grammar and critical stylistics for discourse analysis, I intend to show an effective approach for the search of offender theme that underlies an act of crime. These disciplines provide the analyst with the linguistic material to analyse intersentential cohesion in a chain of semantically linked sentences (in written or spoken discourse) that explore the ways in which things are ‘made to look’ in the structure and functions of the English language. As a case study, I am using an offender narrative from Tony Parker’s book Life After Life: Interviews with Twelve Murderers (1990) showing an effective approach for the search of personal themes underlying the act of crime. Offender theme analyses are also valuable for evaluating the changing nature or development of offender characteristics pre or post crime.     

Enucleation in psychosis associated with aqueductal stenosis

Reports of self-enucleation are frequent in medical literature, but cases of enucleation towards another are rare. We report the case of a man, 20 years of age, who suffered from psychosis with hydrocephalus and aqueductal stenosis that required a forensic psychiatric investigation to ascertain whether he was of unsound mind when he assaulted and enucleated the right eye of an officer and led to the surgical enucleation of the victim's left eye. Based on his clinical interviews and hospitalization record, we conclude that at the time of the assault, he was suffering from a delusional disorder with religious and demonic content, visual and auditory hallucinations, illusion phenomena, delusional interpretations, imaginative elements, a feeling of terror, and command hallucinations that compelled him to perform the act of aggression.     

The assassination of the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs

On September 10, 2003, Anna Lindh, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, was assassinated. The offender, a 24-year-old man, was a socially isolated, culturally and familially dislocated, yet academically quite competent young man who became enthralled with the habitual criminality of some of his relatives and their associates, and then psychiatrically decompensated in his early twenties. He had a history of serious violence before the crime, including the gross assault with a knife of his alcoholic and abusive father when he was 17, stalking, and extortion. At least a year prior to the assassination, he confided to a friend his desire to attack someone famous in front of many people. A definitive motive for the crime was not possible to establish. This was an act of intended, yet opportunistic violence toward a national political figure. The dynamics of the case are placed in the context of other attacks on Western European and U.S. politicians.     

The Case of Weak Will and Wayward Desire

In this article, I confront Garvey’s argument that a weak-willed individual deserves partial excuse for trying to resist a strong desire that pushes him toward commission of a criminal act even though in the end he unreasonably abandons his resistance and commits the crime. I attempt to refute Garvey’s argument on two counts: one, I question whether the law should indeed provide mitigation to such an offender; and two, I argue that, even if it should, this mitigation may not come in the form of a partial defense. Defenses, even partial, are desert based, and there is nothing in Garvey’s offender’s circumstances that makes him less blameworthy for the crime he committed. A court may choose to treat such an offender more leniently but it should not be mandated to do so.

妨碍信用卡管理罪行为方式探析

在妨害信用卡管理罪中,行为人明知其持有、运输的是"伪造的信用卡"或"伪造的空白信用卡"是一种对行为对象的明知,行为人虽然对"伪造的信用卡"和"伪造的空白信用卡"施加了影响,因为其不具有合法性,与刑法所保护的信用卡管理秩序也就不存在必然的本质与现象的联系,也就不能反映和体现信用卡管理秩序,因而是行为对象而不是犯罪对象.伪造居民身份证的行为与以骗领信用卡方式实施的妨害信用卡管理的行为之间构成手段与目的牵连关系,但由于刑法明确规定这种情况以妨害信用卡管理罪定罪处罚,因而虽然是牵连犯,但不能适用从一重处断的原则,而应按刑法的有关规定处罚,这是牵连犯处断原则的例外.     

论共同犯罪的转化犯

转化犯是真正身份犯。在聚众斗殴过程中出现致人伤亡但无法查清行为人情形的,应当根据行为人事前对伤亡结果的心理态度确定是否构成转化犯罪及其责任范围;集团犯罪转化犯的责任范围应当根据行为人事前对暴力、胁迫行为的心理态度来确定。间接正犯的转化犯要根据利用者对法定结果的心理态度和被利用者刑事责任能力的状态来确定;共谋共同正犯转化犯的责任范围应当根据共谋的内容是否包括转化犯罪来确定;承继性共同正犯转化犯的责任范围应当根据后参与者参加犯罪的时间来确定。在共同犯罪的转化犯与结果加重犯竞合的情况下,需要根据转化犯罪的性质来确定转化犯的责任范围;在共同犯罪的转化犯与包容犯发生竞合的情况下,应当根据行为人的行为状态来确定转化犯的责任范围。     

Familicide, depression and catathymic process

A case of familicide by a 36-year-old male is reported. After years of stable marriage, exemplary military service, and steady employment, the subject developed his first episode of depression triggered, in part, by his inability to solve a problem associated with completion of a home improvement project. As the depression intensified, and dormant conflicts regarding his competency and self-esteem were rekindled, he experienced pronounced feelings of failure. After an extended period of agonizing about his problem, the idea suddenly emerged that his only recourse was to kill his family and himself, in order to spare everyone the humiliation of his perceived inadequacy. Such a fixed idea, along with a mounting pressure to act, is characteristic of the (chronic) catathymic process, in which a subject, without apparent motive, resorts to extreme violence directed at someone close to him. A detailed discussion of this case within the framework of catathymic process adds to our knowledge of family mass murder and refines the profile of potentially familicidal men.     

论无特殊身份者参与身份犯的基本界限与程度

在身份犯中,由于具备特殊身份的自然人的危害行为才可能侵犯法益,或加重、减轻法益的侵害,因此,刑法典分则将其作为一种特殊的犯罪类型加以规制。但不具备特殊身份者可以与具备特殊身份者共同侵犯身份犯保护的法益,因此,其可以成为身份犯的共同犯罪人。实行犯与正犯是两个不同的概念,具有不同的机能。对于无特殊身份者能否成为身份犯的共同实行犯之问题,须根据身份犯的实行行为分别而论。但无身份者不能成为身份犯的共同正犯,否则,"区别对待共同犯罪中的首恶者与胁从者,惩办少数,改造多数"之刑事政策就不能实现。     

Eugen Bleuler and forensic psychiatry

The list of Eugen Bleuler's writings shows that he grappled with forensic issues quite early, even before he became a full professor in 1898. Bleuler regularly prepared forensic criminal expert's reports himself until emeritus status was conferred on him in 1927. Analysis of his writings indicates that his position remained explicitly deterministic. In Bleuler's later work, that position was integrated into the natural philosophy vitalistic theory of mnemism, itself part of a more comprehensive theory, without any corrections to its content. Eugen Bleuler always remained a critic of criminal law, although it can be seen from later expert's reports that he for the most part accepted the existing system for the administration of justice for practical reasons. However, Bleuler always defended the idea that punishment should not be based on the moral guilt of the perpetrator but rather on the prospect of curing him.     

An examination of the psychological aspects of bite marks

The intent of this paper is to present some psychological threads which appear to be operative for the perpetrator of bite marks. In the catalogue of multiple motivations, there appears to be a current theme of power, control, potency, and the attempt to have a psychological symbolization of the perpetrator's omniscient capacity for absorbing life essences. In an examination of these highly complex needs, the modern perpetrator appears to act out consistently with cultural biases coupled with immediate psychological needs which have pressed for expression. Due to a pattern of psychologically expressed ritualism, the perpetrator will often inadvertently leave important psychological clues at the crime scene. The attack style, mode of death, characteristics of the victim, etc.--these components reveal the information on the type of psychological needs that the perpetrator is trying to satisfy. In the cases of bite marks associated with violent crime, it becomes crucial to an "investigator" what type of personality characteristics are welded together to form this kind of need complex. After reviewing cases reported in the literature and after conducting psychological interviews with perpetrators, three major groups of perpetrators seem to be apparent. The first group is motivated out of an anger track, the second group is motivated out of sadistic biting, and the third is out of the more traditional "cannibal complex" motif.     

挪用资金罪中“归个人使用”的教义学诠释

与挪用公款罪相比,挪用资金罪的“归个人使用”具有独特的内涵,其独特性源于该罪的规范目的,即维护“私法领域中的身份契约制度规范”的有效性。只有违反身份契约制度规范的“个人决定”,才能损害身份契约制度规范的有效性,才能凸显挪用资金罪的不法。“个人决定”是“归个人使用”要件的题中之义,是挪用资金罪中重要的归责依据。挪用资金罪的“归个人使用”是指,个人决定将本单位资金供本人、亲友等自然人或者其他单位使用,并具有“以个人名义进行的”或者“以单位名义进行,谋取个人利益的”情形。     

Review of The Victim of a Crime

Theoretical treatment of questions pertaining to the individual victimized by a crime and his behavior and role in the commission of the crime is essential for purposes of practical struggle with crime and for crime prevention. This book not only centers its attention on this subject, important for theory and practice, but also contains a further development of the subject. The authors have chosen to study questions pertaining to the victim, analysis of which was furthered by the completeness with which the subject is dealt with, the high level of scholarship, and the practical usefulness of the approach. Moreover, they did not confine themselves to questions relating to purely legal disciplines but examined a range of social relationships (criminological, psychological, and moral). The book interprets the concept of victimization-prone as "the possibility of becoming the sufferer from a crime in a situation when the outcome could, objectively, have been prevented" (p. 13). It would appear to us that the most successful aspect of the book is the treatment of the qualities and actions of the citizen leading to his being a victim and, consequently, placing him in the position of a damaged party.