A study of stranger rapists from the English high security hospitals

Abstract

Heterogeneity hinders our understanding of sexual violence; but does this problem extend to stranger rape and, if so, would the construction of homogeneous subtypes advance our understanding of this crime and aid criminal investigations and clinical practice? To answer these questions, 41 stranger rapists from the English high security hospitals were examined using version 3 of the Massachusetts Treatment Centre rapist typology (MTC:R3) and multidimensional scaling (MDS). The MTC:R3 suggested that sexual desire and opportunism were the primary motivations for these men, but that proportionately more psychopaths were violent and sadistic. In accordance with previous research, the men experienced problematic childhoods and displayed high rates of criminality and psychiatric morbidity in adulthood. However, MDS found that rapist histories and offence behaviours generally divide into sexual and violent themes. These results have important implications for theory, criminal investigations and clinical practice.     

A path analytic approach to the validation of a taxonomic system for classifying child molesters

This study examined the validity of the most recent revision of a taxonomy for child molesters developed at the Massachusetts Treatment Center (MTC:CM3). The taxonomy is distinguished both from earlier versions of this system and from other systems, by three major changes: (a) the partitioning of the regressed/fixated dichotomy into two separate factors-level of social competence and degree of fixation on children, (b) the introduction of a new type (narcissistic) to fill an empirically determined gap between the object-related offender and the antisocial, exploitative offender, and (c) the differentiation of the violence in the sexual offense into nonsadistic and sadistic components. MTC:CM3 was used to classify 177 child molesters who were committed to the Treatment Center. Variables coded from the clinical files were rationally grouped according to developmental period and subjected to principal-components analysis (PCA). The PCA-derived components then were entered into a series of regression analyses. The resulting three path models indicated that the new subtypes created by the aforementioned refinements had distinct developmental courses and adult adaptations.     

私权的层次划分与体系建构

私权的核心与实质是正当利益,利益对主体的重要性与关系紧密性决定了私权的层次性。基础性权利(元权利)、辅助性权利、救济性权利是私权的层次性体现,三者及其内含的各种具体权利成为私法的核心内容并符合逻辑地构成层次分明的私权体系。私权的层次划分与体系建构为研习私权提供了清晰的概念内涵以及新的思考方式。     

Punishment justifications in rape cases: a community study

Norway is one of the countries with the most progressive criminal justice systems in the Western world. Traditionally, the Norwegian criminal justice system has been mainly based on treatment and deterrence perspectives. While it is believed that criminal justice practices should be in accordance with public attitudes, few studies in Scandinavia have investigated public attitudes towards criminal justice sanctions in a methodologically sound manner. The current study is the first to investigate the attitudes of the Norwegian public towards punishment of rapists. In a Norwegian community sample (N = 475) from 2005, participants found the typical sentencing severity of a convicted rapist too lenient. The participants did report that as a global sentencing orientation, they preferred incapacitation. When presented with a specific rape case, their sentencing judgements were oriented towards both incapacitation and retribution, but their global orientation were not related to their specific judgements. Aggravating circumstances (e.g. violence was used) were found to influence the participants’ judgements more than when no aggravating circumstances were present (e.g. no violence was used). Few gender or educational differences were found, which indicates that these attitudes towards punishment of rapists are quite consistent across demographical groups.     

The characteristics of a geographical sample of convicted rapists: sexual victimization and compliance in comparison to child molesters

The limited research literature that relates specifically to sexual offenders against adults (rapists) would suggest that they are more likely to demonstrate a greater criminogenic profile but to have experienced fewer childhood and adult psychological difficulties than child molesters. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of an urban sample of convicted rapists (n =80), comparing them to a sample of child molesters (n = 230) on background and offense-related variables. Although there were a number of similarities between the two groups, rapists were less likely to have been sexually victimized as a child. The sexual recidivism rate was low (5%) for rapists after an average time at risk of 3 years despite a trend toward them being less compliant in the community. This article comments on the treatment needs of those with a range of psychological difficulties and indicates future directions for research.     

Crime scene analysis and the escalation of violence in serial rape.

The current study examines the crime scene behavior manifest by 108 serial rapists responsible for the perpetration of 565 rapes across various cities within the US. The goal of the current study is to identify which aspects of crime scene behavior reported to law enforcement by the victim are most useful in predicting, early in a series of offenses, which rapists are most likely to escalate into higher and, at times, life threatening levels of violence. Using 58 scales that quantify the verbal, physical, and sexual behavior manifest by a rapist in his interaction with his victim during his first reported rape and 36 modal variables that summarized approach, timing, demographics, and weapon usage across the series of rapes, the study attempts to differentiate between those rapists who escalate in their use of blunt force (Increasers) from those who do not (Non-Increasers). A logistic regression indicates that rapists who are white rather than of minority status and who, at the time of their first reported rape, rape their victims for longer periods of time and use more profanity are more likely to escalate in their level of blunt force than those rapists who do not exhibit these behaviors. The relevance of this type of predictive framework for law enforcement in its attempts to prioritize particular investigations is discussed.     

Treating high-risk rapists in a New Zealand intensive prison programme

The focus of this article is on the pilot development and implementation of a prison-based intensive treatment programme for high-risk adult-victim rape offenders in New Zealand. Advances in actuarial risk assessment enabled the identification of a group of high-risk adult sex offenders for whom no dedicated treatment programme existed. Based on a review of the treatment literature for rapists, a pilot programme was developed called the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme (ASOTP). The programme, based on the risk–need–responsivity and cognitive behavioural therapy principles, also used an adaptation of Young's schema therapy to address personality responsivity issues and specific idiosyncratic schema associated with participant offence pathways identified by the Massachusetts Treatment Centre classification (Version 3 for rapists). Measures of responsivity and dynamic risk administered in the ASOTP indicated some success in addressing treatment needs for the pilot participants (n=10). The programme has subsequently been expanded across prison specialist treatment unit sites and delivered to a further 52 participants. Although intermediate measures continue to indicate change in dynamic risk, recidivism outcome evaluations have not yet been possible, due to low numbers of paroled participants.     

Statistical discrimination of liquid gasoline samples from casework

The intention of this study was to differentiate liquid gasoline samples from casework by utilizing multivariate pattern recognition procedures on data from gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A supervised learning approach was undertaken to achieve this goal employing the methods of principal component analysis (PCA), canonical variate analysis (CVA), orthogonal canonical variate analysis (OCVA), and linear discriminant analysis. The study revealed that the variability in the sample population was sufficient enough to distinguish all the samples from one another knowing their groups a priori. CVA was able to differentiate all samples in the population using only three dimensions, while OCVA required four dimensions. PCA required 10 dimensions of data in order to predict the correct groupings. These results were all cross-validated using the "jackknife" method to confirm the classification functions and compute estimates of error rates. The results of this initial study have helped to develop procedures for the application of multivariate analysis to fire debris casework.     

A test for carrion fly full siblings: a tool for detecting postmortem relocation of a corpse

We propose a genetic test for full sibship for a pair of carrion flies that could reveal the postmortem relocation of a corpse. A carrion fly larva is sometimes left behind when a corpse is moved. The discovery of full sibling larvae of approximately the same developmental stage at two locations would strongly suggest that a corpse was moved between those two sites. Distributions of pairwise comparisons of relatedness (R) coefficients were generated using amplified fragment length polymorphism profiles for nine samples of laboratory-generated full siblings as well as for a reference sample of nonfull sibling Phormia regina (Diptera: Calliphoridae). The mean relative R coefficient, a pairwise measure of the proportion of shared alleles, was 0.479 (±0.289 SD) for full siblings, close to the theoretical expectation of 0.5. A likelihood ratio (LR) test was based on observed distributions of R. R >0.55 corresponded to an LR >1000 favoring full sibship for that pair of individuals.     

Sexualization and lifestyle impulsivity: clinically valid discriminators in sexual offenders

Following clinical observations in this study a comparison was undertaken between nonsexualized rapists, sexualized rapists, and pedophilic child molesters in terms of psychometric measures, criminological data, and DSM-IV diagnoses following the authors' hypotheses that nonsexualized and sexualized rapists differ in respect of psychiatric comorbidity and criminal history and sexualized rapists and pedophilic child molesters are more similar as regards to psychiatric comorbidity (anxiety, depression, and aggression) and criminal history variables than nonsexualized and sexualized rapists are. Preliminary findings confirmed the hypotheses: the authors found significant differences between paraphilic and sexualized sex offenders on one hand--regardless whether they had offended against minors or adults--and a group of sex offenders exhibiting a history of high lifestyle impulsivity on the other hand. From a psychiatric clinical point of view, paraphilic or sexualized rapists could be shown to resemble more the pedophilic child molesters. Therapeutic approaches should take these findings into account.     

强奸犯类型研究及其在侦查中的应用

强奸犯罪严重侵犯公民人身权利且犯罪黑数极高,加强其侦查研究十分必要。国外学者对强奸犯类型有详细的研究,按照美国联邦调查局行为科学组的强奸犯分类对各类型的人格特质和犯罪过程特点可作深入剖析,并在此基础上析出有关的侦查对策。通过理论的借鉴,以期对强奸案件侦查研究与实务有所助益。     

The identification of sexual and violent motivations in men who assault women: implication for treatment

A qualitative analysis of interview data with 41 rapists determined that five implicit theories (ITs) underlie rapists' offense supportive beliefs/feelings/motives: (a) dangerous world (DW)-where men have feelings of generalized anger and/or resentment toward others; (b) women are dangerous-where men hold a set of attitudes that are hostile toward women; (c) women as sexual objects (WSO)-where women are seen as primarily sexual objects; (d) male sex drive is uncontrollable-where sexual urges are seen all consuming; (e) entitlement-where men feel that they can do exactly what they want. Consideration of whether DW or WSO ITs were present or absent indicated that three main groups could be identified: Group 1: violently motivated-presence of DW and/or absence of WSO; Group 2: sexually motivated-presence of WSO and/or absence of DW; Group 3: sadistically motivated-presence of DW and WSO. These results are discussed in terms of treatment needs of rapists.     

Using multidimensional scaling for the analysis of sexual offence behaviour: A replication and some cautionary notes

Abstract

Crime scene profiling has received considerable attention, particularly in popular media. First, since low inter-rater reliability would affect the validity of profiling, we tested inter-rater agreement for 33 variables often used in manuals for the coding of crime-related behaviour. Thirty cases were chosen randomly from 146 cases of assault rape with unknown male offenders in Sweden during 1990–1994. Second, we used multidimensional scaling (MDS) with all 146 cases to replicate earlier work by Canter and Heritage (Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 1, 185–212, 1990) regarding motivational dimensions in unknown assault rapists. On average, inter-rater reliability was good; physical behaviours were more reliably coded than were verbal behaviours. However, a two-dimensional MDS solution with the motivational dimensions suggested by Canter and Heritage was not replicated. We argue for better empirical support for the inclusion of specific variables in coding formats for crime scene information. This is particularly important for analyses like the MDS, since the number, representativity, and intercorrelations of such variables could affect results considerably.     

Recidivism Rates Among Child Molesters and Rapists: A Methodological Analysis

We address the high variability in sex offender recidivism rates by examining several of the critical methodological differences that underlie this variability. We used a dataset on 251 sex offenders (136 rapists and 115 child molesters) who were discharged over a 25-year period to examine changes in recidivism as a function of changes in dispositional definition of reoffense (e.g., arrest or conviction), changes in the domain of criminal offenses that are considered, and changes in the length of exposure time. The data indicate that: (a) both rapists and child molesters remain at risk to reoffend long after their discharge, in some cases 15–20 years after discharge; (b) there was a marked underestimation of recidivism when calculating a simple proportion (%) consisting of those who were known to have reoffended during the follow-up period, and (c) there was a marked underestimation of recidivism when the criterion was based on conviction or imprisonment. Forensic, clinical and policy implications of this high variability are discussed.     

Further insights into the construct of criminal social identity: validation of a revised measure in a prison population

The current study objective was to develop a revised version of the Measure of Criminal Social Identity (MCSI) with an increased number of indicators to more reliably capture three MCSI dimensions. Dimensionality and construct validity of the Measure of Criminal Social Identity – Revised (MCSI-R) was examined among a sample of systematically selected inmates (N = 2192). Four competing models of the MCSI-R were specified and tested using Mplus with weighted least squares with mean and variance adjustment estimation. Bifactor model with three meaningful factors (cognitive centrality, in-group affect and in-group ties) while controlling for the general factor was the best fit for the data. Good composite reliability of the three MCSI-R dimensions was established. The three subscales of the MCSI-R evidence differential predictive utility for prisonization, number of incarcerations, self-esteem and violent offending. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

What differentiates anal rapists from vaginal rapists?

During the daily assessment routine of the Federal Documentation Centre for Sexual Offenders, important differences between rapists who commit their offense through anal penetration and other rapists became apparent. The hypothesis following these findings assumed that these and offenders would show a more sexualized behaviour than other rapists. The following differences between these two groups could be shown: violence and hypersexual desire. And rapists show a significantly higher degree in both areas, whereas, on the other side, no difference concerning psychopathic behaviour of the offenders could be proved. The preliminary conclusions that could be drawn according to these results express that anal rapists are more sexualized and, furthermore, they have a more obsessive sex life.