The Identification of sexual murderer’s schemas

1. The Identification of sexual murderer’s schemas Anthony Beech, University of Birmingham, U.K Tony Ward, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ Dawn Fisher, University of Birmingham, U.K. Contact: a.r.beech@bham.ac.uk

2. Number of sexual murderers in the U.K. • In the United Kingdom, as of March 2003, there were around 3500 men serving a conviction for murder or manslaughter • Current estimates would suggest that approximately 200 of these have committed a murder with an apparent, or admitted, sexual motivation (Adam Carter, Lifer Unit, HM Prison Service, U.K., personal communication, May 2003) • Which would account for a level of 6% of sexual murder in the U.K. prison population of men who have a conviction for murder • It may still be an underestimate of the actual level of sexual killing, as at the crime scene analysis level forensic evidence for sexual motivation can be very difficult to discover (Grubin, 1994)

3. Definitions of sexual murder • Most definitions of sexual murder emphasize that the killing is intentional and contains sexual behavior • However, both the intentional and sexual aspects of the killing can be open to debate • Clear evidence of sexual assault is sometimes available, either before or after death, and derived from forensic or crime scene analysis • Sometimes the offender will admit to the killing, but consistently denies any sexual motivation to his crime • Therefore, if a sexual element is indicated by crime scene analysis, it may only be confirmed by the offender’s openness in treatment (Clarke & Carter, 2000) • If treatment is available or the offender is willing to undertake treatment

4. Example cases • F. was convicted of the murder of a 23 year old female whom he had met at a nightclub. She had returned to his flat with him where he strangled her with her underwear. After death, he bit her face and breasts and stabbed her through the neck with a kitchen knife. He left her naked with two knives inserted into her vagina • C. was convicted of the rape and murder of an 18 year old female, whom he met at a fair where he worked. Forensic evidence indicated that the victim was raped then killed. Forensic evidence indicated that his attack on her was extremely violent. Her clothes were ripped off • Z committed The offence on school premises where the victim worked as a cleaner. Mr Z sexually assaulted the victim, hit her on the head with a brick and then strangled her. The cause of death was asphyxiation from strangulation by a ligature. Forensic evidence indicated that both vaginal and anal intercourse occurred

5. Have we got enough information to understand motivations of these offenders at the crime scene analysis stage? Probably not!!!

6. Sample description • There were 28 participants in this study; all were serving a life sentence for murder • The murder was judged to have a sexual element such that they were offered treatment for sexual offending • Twenty-four had committed their offenses(s) against adult women, three against girls (mean age 12, range 9 to 14) and one against a nine-year old boy • 13 men (46%) had committed offenses against a stranger; 2 (7%) against an ex-wife/ ex-partner; 3 (11%) against a family member; 9 (32%) against a friend/ acquaintance; and 1 against a prostitute.

7. Data gathering • A semi-structured interview was used for this study • Typically questions in the first part of the interview would be about: who they had offended against • Whether they knew the victim prior to the offence(s) that they had committed and what had led up the offence • Other areas covered in the interview were • their feelings at the time of the offence towards their victim (if known) and others in their lives • distal and proximal antecedents of their offending including fantasies around sex and violence; sexual behaviours they had committed in the offence/s, and the modus operandi of the killing • Where appropriate, questions were also asked about their previous offences. Other prompt questions were asked of the offender on the basis of their answers to these questions • The interviews were recorded on audiotape and transcribed verbatim into written text • Two independent coders

8. Coding framework (ITs in sexual aggressors, from rapist research) • Dangerous world - If women are perceived as threats, they may become victims of sexual abuse • Women are unknowable/ Women as dangerous - women seen as inherently different from men • Women as sexual objects - here offenders see women existing in a constant state of sexual reception and believe that they have been created to meet the sexual needs of men • Male sex drive is uncontrollable - According to this IT, women denying sexual access is one cause of loss of control for men. • Entitlement - In this IT the desires and beliefs of the offender are paramount and those of the victim ignored or viewed as only of secondary importance.

9. Results: Implicit theory content • An analysis of the interview protocols using the five rapist ITs supported the research hypothesis, that the way the sexual murderers’ viewed themselves, the world and their victims could be coded into the five ITs • In other words, there were no appreciable differences in the kinds of ITs exhibited by rapists and individuals who had committed a sexual murder • We will report the results for each of the five ITs by how common these were in the sample

12. Group 1- Sadistic group • The reported motivation in this group for sexual murder was to carry out fantasies • These were reported by members of this group as being around a prior intention to kill, violent and sadistic thoughts and fantasies, and by some thoughts around control and domination • Here the most common method of killing was either strangulation or stabbing. Victims of members of this group significantly more likely to be targeted strangers than the other two groups combined • Mutilation of the body was significantly more likely to have happened in this group than the other two groups combined

13. Group 2- Violently motivated group • Most men in this group reported that their motivation to offend was grievance driven due to anger and resentment towards women • The most common method of killing was beating the victim to death by the use of a blunt instrument • This group were the most likely to have known their victim; one being a sexual partner, one a relative (sister), and two had killed an acquaintance or friend • This group were the least likely to have sexually mutilated their victim after death although sexual interference of the body after death was found in a third of cases. This group had the highest level of convictions for non-sexual/ non-violent offences making this group the most criminally minded of the three groups

14. Group 3- Sexually motivated group • Most of this group reported that their thoughts and fantasies prior to the murder were around the prospect of having sex • Here it should be noted that this group had targeted adult women (age range 18 to 56), which was a narrower age range than found in Groups 1 and 2 • Men in this group reported that their motivation to murder was either to keep their victim quite during their offence or in order to avoid detection by making sure that the victim was not around to subsequently identify them • This group has the lowest level of targeting a stranger in the three groups and the lowest level of sexual interference with the victim after death and history of violence towards women • None of this group were rated as high or very high risk on the measure of static risk used in the study (RM 2000 (Thornton et al., 2003).

15. Example cases • F. was convicted of the murder of a 23 year old female whom he had met at a nightclub. She had returned to his flat with him where he strangled her with her underwear. After death, he bit her face and breasts and stabbed her through the neck with a kitchen knife. He left her naked with two knives inserted into her vagina • C. was convicted of the rape and murder of an 18 year old female, whom he met at a fair where he worked. Forensic evidence indicated that the victim was raped then killed. Forensic evidence indicated that his attack on her was extremely violent. Her clothes were ripped off • Z committed The offence on school premises where the victim worked as a cleaner. Mr Z sexually assaulted the victim, hit her on the head with a brick and then strangled her. The cause of death was asphyxiation from strangulation by a ligature. Forensic evidence indicated that both vaginal and anal intercourse occurred

16. Main references • Beech, A., Ward, T., & Fisher, D. (2005). Sexual murders’ implicit theories. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20, 1366-1389. • Beech, A., Oliver, C., Fisher, D. & Beckett, R.C. (2005). STEP 4: The Sex Offender Treatment Programme in prison: addressing the needs of rapists and sexual murderers • Available electronically from www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/assets/documents/