Investigation of cremations and severely burned bodies

Among the most difficult cases for law enforcement and medicolegal investigators to investigate are those in which victims have been deliberately burned to cover up a crime, or those in which cremation has resulted from an accident or suicide. This difficulty arises from the fact that the bodies may be destroyed or fragmented. The major objective in these investigations are twofold: The first task is to identify the body using every means available, including the aid of such experts as forensic pathologists, forensic anthropologists, dentists, toxicologists, and serologists as well as fire investigators, who can contribute to the investigation by providing information about the course of the fire.     

Mass murderers in the United States: predictors of offender deaths

Objective: many mass murderers appear to care more about harming others than they do about protecting themselves, and they often commit suicide or refuse to surrender and are killed by police. The present study offers the first in-depth investigation of differences between mass murderers who live and die as a direct result of their offenses. Method: data on 308 offenders in the United States from January 2006 to May 2014 are subjected to quantitative analysis, including logistic regression. Results: findings suggest that those who die are older, less likely to have co-offenders, and more likely to commit public mass killings or family killings, which corresponds with Durkheim’s theories of suicide in numerous ways. Conclusion: ultimately, several specific improvements in suicide prevention strategies could potentially help to reduce the prevalence of these high-fatality crimes.     

International sex offender registration laws: research and evaluation issues based on a review of current scientific literature

In many jurisdictions, anyone convicted of a sexual offense is required to register with police, often for life. Nine different countries have now implemented sex offender registries in an attempt to protect the public from the perceived threat posed by sexual offenders. Yet such laws have been criticized as being overly inclusive, tying up limited law enforcement resources to track many offenders who pose little risk of sexual reoffending. This paper considers the available research evidence relevant to the effectiveness of such laws for the deterrence of sexual offending and the investigation of sex crimes. It is concluded that significant gaps persist in our knowledge of whether existing laws effectively reduce sexual offending or reoffending and that large-scale, well-designed studies of the impact of sex offender registration on rates of offending, the collateral consequences to offenders and their families, and the costs of such laws are needed.     

Crime from the keyboard: organised cybercrime,co-offending,initiation and knowledge transmission

This paper examines a predominantly Australian sample of computer crime offenders involved in fraud and/or unauthorised access. This paper focuses on the extent to which offenders are involved in organised crime, the nature of the relationship between co-offending, initiation and knowledge transmission, and how the online environment facilitates organised crime and co-offending. This qualitative analysis draws from interviews with self-identified offenders, law enforcement officers who investigate these offenses, and court documents, providing a unique understanding of organised crime involving computer systems.     

An analysis of self-reported suicide attempts and ideation in a national sample of incarcerated individuals convicted of sexual crimes

ABSTRACT

Suicide is the leading cause of preventable death in US jails and prisons, with rates three to nine times higher than those of the general population. Although suicide in correctional settings has been recognised as a serious problem, the research on suicide among incarcerated individuals remains limited. Individuals who have committed sexual offenses may be at an elevated risk for suicide. Specifically, they have been found to report high rates of hopelessness and depressive mood, and approximately 14% of individuals convicted of sexual offenses have reported a suicide attempt at some point in their lives. Most of these data are based upon official reports and may represent an underreporting of the true prevalence of the problem. The current study provides an analysis of the prevalence and factors associated with self-reported suicidal thoughts and behaviours in a large national sample of individuals convicted of a sexually based crime. Overall, 17.9% of the offenders reported an attempted suicide in their lifetime, 15.1% reported experiencing suicidal ideation but never made an attempt. Risk factors for suicide attempts and ideation for this population are reported. The findings are discussed in the context of suicide prevention and intervention efforts among those who have committed sex offenses.     

Homicide–Suicide in China: an Exploratory Study of Characteristics and Types

This study explores 63 homicide–suicide cases that include two or more homicide victims, in the People’s Republic of China. This is the first study to examine homicide–suicide in the Chinese context, following calls to develop a research strategy outside of the USA and Europe. Data are derived from a content analysis of Chinese news sources from 2000 to 2014. Findings show homicide–suicide offenders are likely to be married males living in rural cities who kill their intimate partners and/or children inside a residence using knives. Intimate partner conflict and extramarital affairs are precipitating factors in almost half of the incidents. Patterns of homicide–suicide in China are comparable to those in high-income countries, except that firearms are not the primary means in China and there is no evidence of “mercy killing” among older persons, as described in western homicide–suicide studies. Findings are related to the social and economic structure of Chinese society. Clinical and policy implications include the need for greater transparency and a nationwide homicide and suicide tracking system in China, stricter domestic violence laws, postmortem studies of the brains of homicide–suicide offenders, and psychological autopsies on homicide–suicide perpetrators.     

Theory and Practice of Regulatory Enforcement: Occupational Health and Safety Regulation in British Columbia*

Data about the activities of occupational health and safety officials in British Columbia is utilized to explore competing explanations for the overwhelming prevalence of persuasion over punishment in regulatory enforcement. By plotting the compliance histories of individual firms, this study demonstrates that many offenders repeatedly commit the same infraction. Few of these repeat offenders are punished. These findings suggest that the very limited use of penalties is not a result of the vast majority of firms being good apples induced to comply by mechanisms of social control other than punishment. Rather, there appears to be institutionalized tolerance of widespread violations. The enforcement deficit may be partly explained by such aspects of regulatory structure as the ongoing relationship between regulated firms and field officers who are the gatekeepers of the penalty process.     

Business offenders in the criminal justice process

How are various types of business offenders treated by criminal justice institutions? Focusing on a range of “crimes against consumers” under Food, Trading Standards, and Weights and Measures laws, this article concludes that a variety of interrelated factors affect agencies' enforcement tactics and the disposition of cases. The nature of the offences involved, the form of law involved and its pattern of enforcement, and the identities and types of offenders all affect the course and outcome of the process. Few neat generalizations can be made about such factors, and simple allegations of agency bias are difficult to sustain. Significant “structural advantages” do, however, work to the benefit of some classes of offenders, such as large and established businesses, and these advantages are compounded as cases move from stage to stage. There are no simple remedies available for such contrasts in treatment, but the analysis does point to the need to consider basic concepts of crime and law enforcement within their ideological contexts.     

Cleaning up your act: Forensic awareness as a detection avoidance strategy

Purpose

Although rational choice researchers has investigated how offenders successfully commit certain crimes, there is a lack of research looking at the factors explaining the use - or not - of certain detection avoidance strategies. This study introduces the concept of “forensic awareness” as a detection avoidance strategy, and proposes to examine the effect of disinhibitors, target selection behaviors, and acts that may potentially leave evidence at the crime scene on its use.

Methods

Factors influencing forensic awareness are tested using logistic regression models on a sample of 222 rape events collected from offenders incarcerated in Canada.

Results

Offenders exhibit less forensic awareness when under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. However, offenders who show some form of target selection are more likely to take forensic precautions. Finally, offenders who break and enter in the victim's residence, and undertake specific sexual acts during the crime are also more likely to exhibit forensic awareness.

Conclusion

Despite the increasing use and knowledge of forensic evidence by law enforcement, offenders are inconsistent in their forensic awareness and they direct most of their efforts toward protecting their identity, neglecting to either destroy or clean up DNA that could be recovered at the crime scene.     

Factors associated with contact child sexual abuse in a sample of indecent image offenders

Abstract

This study explored a sample of 244 UK adult male offenders convicted of offences involving indecent images of children (IIOC): 120 had a previous contact child sexual offence (defined as dual offenders) and 124 had no evidence of an offence against a child (defined as non-contact offenders). Offender groups were compared regarding their socio-demographic characteristics, previous convictions and IIOC possession. Key discriminatory factors that differentiated dual offenders were: access to children, previous offence history, sexual grooming and possession of IIOC that depicts similar-aged victims. In contrast, non-contact offenders could be identified from their greater amount and wider range of IIOC possession. The results suggest a homology between Internet behaviours, IIOC possession and victim selection. Implications for law enforcement agencies are discussed in terms of assisting investigative prioritisation by identifying those most at risk of committing sexual abuse against children.     

The sex offender next door: deconstructing the United States' obsession with sex offender registries in an age of neoliberalism

In the 1990s, against the backdrop of an ascending Age of Neoliberalism, sex offender registration statutes were passed in the United States. These laws require law enforcement officials to utilize computer technologies in order to publicly identify individuals who have been convicted of sexual offenses. In this study, we conducted in-depth interviews with twenty-four respondents who were forced to register as sex offenders. All of these participants resided within Southeast Texas, which is arguably one of the most punitive regions within the United States. The vast majority of the sample reported moderate to severe forms of harassment as a result of being outed as sex offenders via computer technologies. We conclude that in the post-Keynesian United States, the Web-based monitoring of sex offenders will continue to remain a popular American pastime and may even expand to other industrialized democracies throughout the world.     

Brick Walls Facing Reentering Offenders

Citizenship is a birthright generally afforded to all members of society. Upon reentry to the community from prison, offenders are expected to assume a citizenship role; however, existing structural barriers, as well as the actions and behaviors of law enforcement and community agencies, may reinforce the outcast persona. The offender needs social and psychological support to sustain a citizenship role, and the conditions of the current criminal justice environment may serve to undermine this support. Borrowing from procedural justice theories, this paper presents some of the sociopolitical challenges to the citizenship goal for offenders and provides some options to create an environment in which the offender can thrive and maintain a role as citizen. This paper also focuses on reducing the churning of offenders and select communities and identifies mechanisms to embrace the citizenship role such as building the self‐efficacy of offenders, employment programs that assist offenders in becoming economically and psychologically independent, and systemic processes to promote fairness and equity.     

The Impact of Federal Prison Industries Employment on the Recidivism Outcomes of Female Inmates

Female offenders face many barriers to employment, including a lack of education and work experience. Correctional work programs offer skills training and exposure to work routines and norms, yet there is scant research on whether these programs can increase a woman's employability, and thus reduce recidivism, upon release. This longitudinal study examines whether employment in the federal prison industries program, UNICOR, reduces recidivism among a large sample of female inmates. Propensity scores are utilized to control for selection bias. This study finds no significant differences in rearrest or recommitment to federal prison between inmates employed in UNICOR and those who were not. Length of UNICOR employment is also not shown to have an effect on recidivism. The gender-specific needs of female offenders must be taken into account when developing correctional programming as factors other than employment may be more salient to a woman's ability to desist from crime.     

Surviving the Trenches: The Personal Impact of the Job on Probation Officers

The purpose of this study was to assess traumatic stress and burnout in probation officers who work with criminal offenders. Adult probation officers from five departments in three states (Arizona, California, and Texas) participated in this study (N?=?309). Officers completed several survey instruments including the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (Weiss & Marmar, 1997), the Compassion Satisfaction/Fatigue Self-Test for Helpers (Steed & Bicknell, 2001), and the Probation Personal Impact Scale (PPI). The results indicated officers who reported violent and sexual recidivism on their caseloads, offender suicide, and threats and/or assaults in the line of duty scored significantly higher on measures of traumatic stress and burnout than officers who did not experience these caseload events. Assessments, education, training, and stress management programs are discussed as options to mitigate negative impacts, enhance the resiliency of officers, and improve the quality of evidence-based practices.     

Use of facial composite systems in US law enforcement agencies

Abstract

Facial composite images are often used in the criminal investigation process to facilitate the search for and identification of someone who has committed a crime. Since the use of facial composite images is sometimes relied upon as an integral part of an investigation, it is important to ascertain information about the various decisions made and procedures implemented by law enforcement regarding the use of composites. A 39-item survey was developed to examine the prevalence of a number of procedures related to composite production, including the systems implemented, criteria for selecting systems, law enforcement training, satisfaction with systems, legal challenges, and procedural issues with respect to interviewing multiple witnesses and the distribution of composite images. Surveys were distributed to 1637 city, state and county law enforcement agencies nationwide; 163 completed surveys were returned. This paper summarizes our survey results and discusses the implications for investigative procedures, law enforcement training, and future research needs.     

"CLUB FED" AND THE SENTENCING OF WHITE-COLLAR OFFENDERS BEFORE AND AFTER WATERGATE

This paper counterposes the common assumption that criminal justice systems are resistant to reform with the widespread belief that the sentencing of white-collar offenders became more severe after Watergate. It is argued that readjustments may be more more common than actual reforms in criminal justice systems. This paper provides an example of how such processes of readjustment can be explored in the context of sentencing decisions made before and after the unique historical experience of Watergate. It is shown with data from one of America's most prominent federal district courts that changes did occur in sentences imposed before (in 1973) and after (1975) Watergate, but with offsetting results: after Watergate, persons convicted of white-collar crimes were more likely to be sentenced to prison, but for shorter periods of time, than less-educated persons convicted of common crimes. Using a technique that corrects for sample selection processes, these effects are shown to cancel one another out. Examples are provided of the token kinds of prison sentences assigned after Watergate to white-collar offenders in several highly publicized cases and areas of enforcement.     

Bestiality in Forensically Committed Sexual Offenders: A Case Series

Although bestiality has occurred since prehistoric times, it remains a poorly understood aspect of human sexuality. Prevalence studies in the mid‐20th century suggested that bestiality was a relatively common phenomenon. Since that time, researchers have studied bestiality among specific populations, including self‐identified “zoophiles” and inmates who report a history of bestiality. Findings from inmate research suggest that bestiality may represent a risk factor for future interpersonal violence. This study presents a case series of bestiality among sexual offenders committed under forensic commitment schemes. The case series demonstrates the range of animal partners, sexual acts, and comorbid paraphilic and nonparaphilic diagnoses in individuals who report a history of bestiality. In addition, it helps clarify potential motivations for sex with animals and how such motivations may influence the forensic psychiatric assessment of offenders who have sex with animals.     

Consequences of restitution

A group of 419 adult property offenders granted probation and ordered to repay their victims for the direct monetary losses or property damage incurred as a result of their crime were matched on 28 variables to a group of 179 offenders who were not ordered to pay restitution to their victims. Compared to those not ordered to repay their victims, the offenders ordered to pay restitution had a more difficult probation experience, having more revocations filed against them and showing a greater frequency of reporting, physical health, and money problems. No difference in arrest rate or time on probation was discovered. Those offenders ordered to pay restitution but who did not pay in full had the greatest problems of all, showing the highest revocation filing and actual revocation rate, rate of convictions, and time served. Payment characteristics were described for offenders who paid all, part, or none of their restitution debt by probation's end. It was suggested that closer probation officer scrutiny of offenders ordered to pay restitution may have accounted for the more difficult experience of the restitution group and that cost of administration of restitution programs may not be worth the benefits.This research was funded in part by grant No. 76-ED-99-0027 from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. Special thanks are given the directors of Denver District Court Probation, without whose permission to enter the probation archives, and without whose day-to-day cooperation, this study would have been impossible.     

What do prisoners want? Current concerns of adult male prisoners

Abstract

Recently, positive approaches to offender rehabilitation, focusing upon offenders’ strengths, have gained prominence. Proponents have criticized existing rehabilitation models as focusing too much on offenders’ deficits. Goal perspectives, which provide a structure for therapy, may unite these two approaches. The Personal Concerns Inventory: Offender Adaptation (PCI:OA) is a semi-structured interview that identifies offenders’ current concerns or goals. The goals identified by a sample of 129 convicted adult male prisoners are reported here. A range of positive, anti-criminal goals were expressed, including stopping offending, improving self-control, finding and keeping jobs, having stable accommodation, quitting drink and drugs, changing support networks, and finding new leisure pursuits. Furthermore, prisoners expressed life-enhancing goals, such as improving their lifestyle, gaining work experience, having good family relationships, gaining skills, and getting fit and healthy. The PCI:OA may prove useful as a motivational procedure, a basis for developing positive, goal-focused interventions, and a tool for outcome evaluation.