Psychiatric and Forensic Differences Between Men Charged with Sex Offences and Men Charged with Other Offences

Studies on differences between individuals convicted of sexual offences and nonsexual offences are sparse and there is an on-going debate as to whether sexual offenders differ from other offenders. The primary aim of this study was to determine demographic characteristics, prevalence of mental disorders, alcohol and drug use at the time of the crime and the criminal responsibility of individuals charged with sexual offences, compared to nonsexual crimes, with the aim of bringing awareness to the similarities and differences between men charged with sex offences and those charged with other crimes. This is a single-institution retrospective study of subjects charged with sexual offences and sent for institutional psychiatric evaluation to a Forensic Psychiatric Centre in an urban, academic, tertiary-care center. The control group consisted of individuals charged with nonsexual offences referred to the same center. Results showed significant differences between individuals charged with sexual offences and nonsexual offences. Men charged with sex offences more frequently committed their crimes alone and victimized children equally as often as adults. They also less frequently pleaded guilty in court. They were more likely to be abused in childhood and more often had antisocial personality disorder and paraphilias and less often substance-related disorders. The majority were considered criminally responsible. Our results show that sex offenders are different from nonsex offenders in many characteristics of their personal history, offence characteristics and forensic evaluations and these particular differences warrant different approaches to the prevention of future re-offending, compared to nonsex offenders.     

The relationship between verdict, defendant characteristics, and type of crime in sex-related criminal cases

In an earlier study, we unexpectedly found that defendants charged with sex crimes were four times less likely to be convicted than were all other defendants. We now report that failure to convict for rape was associated with failure to come to trial and that minor sex crimes were tried, but often continued without a finding, even when the judge found sufficient facts to make a guilty finding. Whether a minor crime involved a victim and whether the defendant has a criminal record both relate to verdict, but psychiatric history did not. The implications for understanding "acquittal of the guilty" are discussed.     

The Motivation Behind Serial Sexual Homicide: Is It Sex,Power, and Control,or Anger?*

Controversy exists in the literature and society regarding what motivates serial sexual killers to commit their crimes. Hypotheses range from the seeking of sexual gratification to the achievement of power and control to the expression of anger. The authors provide theoretical, empirical, evolutionary, and physiological support for the argument that serial sexual murderers above all commit their crimes in pursuit of sadistic pleasure. The seeking of power and control over victims is believed to serve the two secondary purposes of heightening sexual arousal and ensuring victim presence for the crime. Anger is not considered a key component of these offenders' motivation due to its inhibitory physiological effect on sexual functioning. On the contrary, criminal investigations into serial sexual killings consistently reveal erotically charged crimes, with sexual motivation expressed either overtly or symbolically. Although anger may be correlated with serial sexual homicide offenders, as it is with criminal offenders in general, it is not causative. The authors further believe serial sexual murderers should be considered sex offenders. A significant proportion of them appear to have paraphilic disorders within the spectrum of sexual sadism. "sexual sadism, homicidal type" is proposed as a diagnostic subtype of sexual sadism applicable to many of these offenders, and a suggested modification of DSM criteria is presented.     

Policy-makers’ perceptions on their sex offender laws: the good,the bad,and the ugly

The views and attitudes that lawmakers have about sexual offenders and sexual victimization can be influential in criminal lawmaking. And given the popularity of sex offender laws, policy-makers are central players in how state justice systems respond to sex crimes. Therefore, state-level policy-makers from across the country, who sponsored and passed at least one sex offender law in their state, (n?=?61) were interviewed about sex offenders and sex crimes. Policy-makers believe sex offender laws are too broad. The laws extend to nonviolent offenses, low-risk offenders, and thus dilute the law enforcement potency of sex offender registries. Policy-makers view existing sex offender laws as necessary to enhance public safety and as proof that lawmakers are responding to the needs and concerns of the public. Sex offender laws were also discussed as a source of political capital; a way to help ensure reelection. The sexual victimization of children and the media’s coverage of sex crimes were instrumental in these state-level policy-makers’ decisions to sponsor sex offender laws. Policy and research recommendations are offered.     

Racial and ethnic disparity in pretrial criminal processing

This study uses data on the processing of felony defendants in large urban courts to analyze racial and ethnic disparities in pretrial processing. There are three major findings. First, racial disparity is most notable during the decision to deny bail and for defendants charged with violent crimes. Second, ethnic disparity is most notable during the decision to grant a non‐financial release and for defendants charged with drug crimes. Third, when there is disparity in the treatment of Black and Latino defendants with similar legal characteristics, Latinos always receive the less beneficial decisions. These findings are consistent with the theoretical perspective offered, which suggests that stereotypes influence criminal processing when their specific content is made salient by either the concerns relevant to a particular processing decision or the crime type of a defendant’s primary charge.     

A False Sense of Security: Moral Panic Driven Sex Offender Legislation

Data collected from correctional files of sex offenders managed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation were analyzed to explore the degree to which sex offender behavior meets the assumptions of the legislation intended to regulate their behavior. The study asked where offenders commit their sex crimes and the likelihood of choosing a known vs. a stranger victim. The concept of moral panic is used as a framework to discuss possible motivations for current sex offender legislation.     

Consistency in crime site selection: An investigation of crime sites used by serial sex offenders across crime series

PurposeKnowing sites used by serial sex offenders to commit their crimes is highly beneficial for criminal investigations. However, environmental choices of serial sex offenders remain unclear to this date. Considering the challenges these offenders pose to law enforcement, the study aims to identify sites serial sex offenders use to encounter and release their victims and investigate their stability across crime series.MethodsThe study uses latent class analysis (LCA) to identify victim encounter and release sites used by 72 serial sex offenders having committed 361 sex offenses. Additional LCA are performed to investigate the stability of these offense environments across offenders' crimes series.ResultsDistinct profiles of crime sites that are recurrent across crime series are found, suggesting that serial sex offenders present a limited diversity of victim encounter and victim release sites. Encounter sites representative of longer crime series are also identified. Specifically, the use of sites known to "attract" potential victims decreases over series and offenders become more risk-taking in regard of sites used to encounter their victims.ConclusionsThe study identifies patterns of site- selection for the victim encounter and release in cases of serial crimes. Implications for crime linkage and police investigations strategies are discussed.     

Juvenile sex-only and sex-plus offenders: an exploratory study on criminal profiles

In this study, research was done on the criminal profiles of a large group of juvenile sex-only and sex-plus (sex and other offenses) delinquents (N = 4,430) in the Netherlands. Use was made of information from police records. Results show that sex-plus offenders start their careers earlier, that more of these offenders are of non-Dutch origin, that they commit more crimes, and will partly continue their criminal career after their adolescence. Juvenile sex-only offenders rarely go on committing crimes. In sex-plus offenders, sexual crimes play only a minor role in their total crime repertory. As time goes by, their criminal career will develop into the direction of property crimes. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study will be discussed.     

Negotiating Nolle Prosequi at Nuremberg: The Case of Captain Zimmer

It is well known that plea bargaining as such was not providedfor by the Nuremberg Charter, nor is there any instance of pleabargaining in the trials conducted by the occupation tribunalsunder Control Council Law no. 10. However, as shown in thispaper, in connection with war crimes committed in the SecondWorld War, there were negotiations between the Allies and personswho could have potentially been charged with war crimes. Thecase of Captain Guido Zimmer is exemplary in this respect. Hecould have been accused of war crimes and tried by a competenttribunal: instead, since he cooperated with the Allies (in particularwith US intelligence), the decision not to prosecute him wastaken.     

Exploring the possible link between childhood and adolescent bestiality and interpersonal violence

Bestiality is a serious although less frequently occurring form of animal cruelty that may be linked to subsequent aggression against humans. This investigation examines whether a perpetrator's race, childhood residence, education, commission of a personal crime, and the number of personal crimes committed affects acts of bestiality committed during childhood or adolescence among a sample of incarcerated males. The results show that respondents with less education and those who had been convicted of committing crimes against people on one or more occasions were more likely to have had sex with animals during their childhood or adolescence than other respondents in the sample. These findings lend some support to the sexually polymorphous theory that among these perpetrators sex and aggression have become mutually inclusive and that bestiality as a form of animal cruelty may be linked with interpersonal human violence.     

The Requirement of an 'Express Agreement' for Joint Criminal Enterprise Liability: A Critique of Brdanin

The mode of liability known as joint criminal enterprise (JCE)has emerged in the case law of the International Criminal Tribunalfor the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a means of assigning criminalliability to individuals for activities carried out by a collective.As a result, the doctrine must be carefully defined so as notto allow it to extend a defendant's liability beyond the appropriatelimits of individual criminal responsibility. In this regard,a recent ICTY Trial Chamber decision in Branin held that, wherea defendant is not alleged to have participated in the physicalperpetration of the crimes charged but to have contributed insome other way to the commission of the crimes by a group, theprosecution must demonstrate that the defendant entered intoan express agreement with the physical perpetrators to committhe crimes charged. The author argues that this ‘expressagreement requirement’ is both conceptually unsound andpractically unhelpful. Conceptually, it would be inconsistentwith core principles of JCE liability to require an expressagreement between a defendant and the physical perpetratorsof crimes, at least in circumstances in which it is allegedthat there existed a structure of two or more overlapping JCEs.Moreover, because this structure allows the accused and thephysical perpetrators to be operating in two separate JCEs,they need not even share a common criminal purpose. On a practicallevel, arguably in a ‘system-criminality’ contextsuch as the one that developed in the former Yugoslavia duringthe time period in question, the organizers of criminal activityare unlikely to enter into express criminal agreements withthose who physically carry out crimes, because existing organizedhierarchies provide much more efficient mechanisms by whichleaders are able to ensure the realization of their criminalplans.     

ON THE CAUSES OF "WHITE-COLLAR" CRIME: AN ASSESSMENT OF HIRSCHI AND GOTTFREDSON'S CLAIMS

This article assesses Hirschi and Gottfredson claims about patterns and explanations of White-collar crime. It points out several flaws in their analysis and shows (1) that the UCR offense categories of fraud and forgery are not appropriate indicators of white-collar or occupational crime because the typical arrestee in these categories committed a nonoccupational crime; (2) that the demographic distribution (age, sex, race) of these "white-collar" crimes is not the same as it is for most ordinary crimes; and (3) that the occurrence of these "white-collar" crimes is not relatively rare. The implications of the findings for research and theory on crime are also discussed.     

Crimes by Visitors Versus Crimes by Residents: The Influence of Visitor Inflows

Objectives

To disaggregate the crime impact of visitor inflows. There is increasing evidence that visitors can make a major contribution to levels of crime in a given neighbourhood: crimes by visiting offenders may add to those committed by local offenders, while visitors (and their property) may provide local offenders with additional opportunities for crime.

Methods

Using police-recorded crime data for a large Eastern Canadian city we determined whether individuals charged or chargeable for property and violent crimes were visitors or residents of census tracts (CT) where crimes had been committed. This information was combined with data from a large transportation survey, allowing us to estimate daily population flows into each CT for four purposes (work, shopping, recreation, and education). Negative binomial regression models including spatial lags were used.

Results

An increase in visitor inflow not only increases the number of visitors charged with crimes but also the number of local residents charged. These effects vary significantly by visit purpose: more infractions are committed in tracts where visits are for recreation and, to a lesser extent, for shopping. Findings for work and education are mixed.

Conclusions

One important implication of our results is that, because most studies of aggregate crime counts or rates fail to account for whether crimes have been committed by visitors or residents, previous research may have provided hasty, partial, or even erroneous explanations for crime concentrations.

     

Criminal defense and judicial sentencing in China's death penalty cases

Drawing upon 503 cases of violent and drug crimes involving the death penalty from three intermediate courts in China, this study explores various defense arguments, their acceptance rates, and factors that influence judicial sentencing. Our findings reveal that offenders’ post-crime good behaviors are most likely to be accepted by the court, thus helping offenders obtain suspended death penalty. In contrast, being charged with multiple violent crimes and the weight of narcotics in drug crimes are two significant factors related to an increased likelihood of receiving immediate death penalty. This article provides more empirical evidence about mitigating and aggravating circumstances considered in capital sentencing, and supports that private lawyers are not different from court appointed lawyers in China's capital defense. China's current system seemingly leaves little room for defense lawyers to make creative contributions.     

Chapter 24: Forensic Psychiatric Expert Examination of Minors

According to Soviet legislation, criminal proceedings may not be instituted against children who have not attained the age of 14 years. Juveniles between the ages of 14 and 16 may be charged only with certain crimes specified in Article 10 of the Criminal Code (murder, deliberate infliction of bodily harm impairing the health, rape, burglary, theft, etc.). Minors between the ages of 16 and 18 may be charged under any article of the Criminal Code but, if convicted, serve out their sentence, like 14-16-year-olds, in special correctional labor colonies, where they obtain the proper education and training.     

SEX CRIMES IN THE SUBWAY

This article describes the nature, extent, and empirical ramifications of nonfelonious sex crimes on the New York City subway. Nonfelonious sex crimes are defined as those offenses designated “sexual abuse” and “public lewdness” in the revised New York Penal Code of 1967. excluding sexual abuse in the first degree. Offenders are predominantly black and Hispanic; victims white, youthful, and unexceptional in looks. Contrary to psychiatric stereotypes, 50% of recidivists in rhese crime categories prove to have arrest records for violent crimes. including nonsexual ones: and sexual abuse and public lewdness recidivists tend to commit either offense interchangeably.     

Roles of Psychopathic Personality,Mental Health,and Recidivism in Criminal Behavior: Survey of Brunei Inmates

The survey investigated the contributions of sociodemographics, psychopathic personality, mental health, and recidivism to criminal behavior in a random sample of 64 Brunei convicts representing both genders. Participants committed five major types of crime related to stealing, drugs, sex, violence, and deception. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed gender, age, the inmates’ marital status and marital status of the inmates’ parents as significant demographic predictors of criminality. Multinomial logistic regression analysis identified the demographic, psychopathic, and mental health variables that were related to committing the specific crimes. Significant psychopathic predictors were interpersonal and affective (stealing-related offenses), interpersonal and affective (drug crimes), interpersonal (sex offenders), and interpersonal (violent/ aggressive felonies). The best mental health predictors included: depression and psychoticism (stealing-related offenses); depression, hostility, and psychoticism (drug crimes); psychoticism (sex offenses); and depression, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism (violence/aggression). Binary logistic regression analysis showed male gender and inmates with married parents as the main predictors of recidivism (while other variables with high odds for re-offending included age-group 30–35, inmates with primary education, affective, lifestyle, antisocial, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism). Future research which incorporates interviews with probes and appropriate interventions to address crimes were recommended.