Types and Causes of Criminal Homicide and Sexual Violence

Guys who, under certain conditions, utilized power, may have had more prominent reproductive success in the ancestral environment than males who did not use force. Sociobiological theories of rape are theories that explore to what degree, if any, evolutionary adaptations influence the psychology of rapists. Such theories are highly controversial, as traditional theories typically do not consider rape to be a behavioral adaptation. Some object to such theories on moral, religious, political, as well as scientific grounds.

Boys are raised to be sexually aggressive, dominant, and controlling, as a way of affirming their masculinity.

Catharine MacKinnon argues that men rape “for reasons that they share in common with those who don’t, namely masculinity and their association with masculine norms, and specifically being the individuals who initiate sex and are the individuals who socially experience affirmation through aggressive initiation of sexual interaction”.

Psychological abnormalities: Sexually violent men have been shown to be more likely to consider victims responsible for the rape and are less informed about the impact of rape on victims. Such men may miss cues given out by women in social situations and may lack the inhibitions that act to suppress associations between sex and aggression. They may have coercive sexual fantasies, and are generally more hostile towards women than are men who are not sexually violent. In addition to these factors, sexually violent men are believed to differ from other men in terms of impulsivity and antisocial tendencies.

Social learning: There is evidence to suggest that sexual violence is also a learned behavior in some adults, especially regarding child sexual abuse. Studies on sexually abused boys have shown that approximately one out of five continue in later life to molest children themselves. Such experiences may lead to a pattern of behavior where the man habitually justifies being violent, denies doing wrong, and harbors inaccurate and harmful beliefs about sexuality. Childhood environments that are physically violent, emotionally unsupportive, and characterized by competition for scarce resources have been associated with sexual violence.

Research on convicted rapists has uncovered several influential motives in the sexual aggression of males. Those motives repeatedly implicated are anger at women and a desire to control or dominate them. Additionally, as reported by some rapists, they are attracted to women’s clothing.

It is indeed often difficult to prove that the defendant raped the putative victim and it is also seemingly difficult for an innocent defendant, especially in an unaggravated acquaintance rape case, to establish his innocence to the satisfaction of an impartial third party. However, bias and the burden of proof usually resolve the defendant’s dilemma while exacerbating the rape victim’s problem.

Consent is when someone agrees, gives permission, or says “yes” to sexual activity with other persons. Consent is always freely given, and all participants in a sexual situation must feel that they can say “yes” or “no”, or stop the sexual activity at any point.

Rape law changes, instituted over the past 20 years, were intended to shift the focus of a rape case from the victim to the perpetrator. Reformers and criminal justice officials hypothesized that changes in the rules of evidence and the establishment of rape shield laws would result in less skepticism towards the claims of rape victims. This would hopefully make it less likely that the character, reputation, and behavior of the victim would influence decision-making about the case.

Around the globe, rape and sexual abuse are common violent occurrences — affecting nearly a billion women and girls over their lifetimes. However, despite the ubiquity of these crimes, laws are inadequate, inconsistent, not systematically enforced, and, in some cases, even promote violence. The findings and analyses in this report reflect information and trends emerging from our review of surveys on sexual violence laws, submitted by members of the legal profession in 82 jurisdictions, including within 73 UN member states worldwide. Explain the following as they relate to murder and homicide.

• Degrees of Murder – States have embraced several unique plans for categorizing murders by degree. The most common approach separates murder into two degrees (first and second degree murder) and treats voluntary and involuntary homicides as distinct crimes that do not constitute murder.
• Nature and Extent – Homicide data can enable the global community to gain a better understanding of the complexity of homicide and the different ways it affects the population. This is why this analysis delves deeply into the very nature of intentional homicide. As such, it presents a unique typology of homicide: homicide related to other crimes; interpersonal homicide; and socio-political homicide. It also examines the influence of crosscutting and enabling factors, such as execution mechanisms and the use of psychoactive substances.

Murderous Relations

• Acquaintance Murders – An occurrence that involves a casualty and culprit who were known to each other, but were neither related nor living in a domestic relationship.
• Intimate Partner Murder – This occurs when the victim and perpetrator share a current or previous intimate relationship, including same-sex and extramarital affairs.
• Sexually Based Murder – A lust murder refers to a crime where the perpetrator seeks sexual gratification from killing someone. This form of crime typically manifests during sexual activity, or involves mutilation of the sexual organs or areas of the victim’s body, or both.
• Stranger Murders – These are incidents where the victim and offender did not know each other, or knew each other for less than 24 hours.
• School Murders – A school-related violent death is defined as a homicide, suicide, or lawful intervention death (involving a law enforcement officer) that occurs on the grounds of an operating elementary or secondary school in the United States.
• Multiple Murders – The concept of multiple murders (MM) is as old as humanity itself, but has only become prevalent in academic thought within the last three decades. Over this period, scholars have proposed two main attitudes towards multiple murders. Some suggest that multiple murders are, in theory and practice, a single concept that includes different sub-types: mass murder, spree murder, and serial murder. Other scholars argue that these “sub-categories” are entirely unique phenomena, requiring separate analysis and discussion due to their distinctiveness.
• Serial Murders – A serial murderer is typically an individual who kills three or more people, generally in service of abnormal psychological gratification, with the killings occurring over a month and involving a significant period of time between them. Different authorities apply distinct criteria when classifying serial murderers. Serial killers may be more likely to engage in fetishism, partialism or necrophilia, which are paraphilias that involve a strong propensity to experience the object of sexual interest as though it were a physical representation of the symbolized body.

Types of Serial Killers

1. Female Serial Killers – Female serial killers are rarer compared to their male counterparts. Sources suggest that female serial killers represented fewer than one in every six known serial killers in the United States between 1800 and 2004. Although motivations for female serial killers can include attention-seeking, revenge, or as a result of psychopathological social factors, female serial killers are usually categorized as killing men for material gain, often being emotionally close to their victims, and typically desire a relationship with the victim.
2. Reasons for Killing – Female serial killers are less common compared to their male counterparts. Sources suggest that female serial killers accounted for fewer than one in every six known serial killers in the United States between 1800 and 2004. Although motivations for female serial killers can include attention-seeking, revenge, or psychopathological social factors, female serial killers are typically characterized as killing men for material gain, often being emotionally close to their victims, and generally desire a relationship with the victim.
3. Understanding Them – The psychology of the serial killer is intriguing yet frightening. The decay of these offenders’ personalities often begins at infancy for many and continues through childhood and into adulthood. Serial killers tend to be neglected during key stages of infancy, where human personality development begins. As these offenders enter adolescence, they are still at a social disadvantage, often due to abuse and parental issues. Serial killers commonly lack self-control, as well as other primary traits of a law-abiding citizen. It appears that socialization plays a significant role in the development of these individuals. Several other criminological theories can be applied to the serial killer in some format, however, there still exist anomalies. The Biological Trait Theories, Psychodynamic theory, and the Organized/Disorganized theory all attempt to explain the peculiar actions of serial killers. The biological trait theories are applicable as there is a strong emphasis on infancy and childhood emotional development.
4. Mass Murders – Mass murder is the act of killing multiple people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The FBI defines mass murder as killing four or more people during an event with no “cooling-off period” between the murders. A mass murder usually occurs in a single location where one or more people kill several others.
5. Spree Killers – The general definition of a spree killer is an individual (or more than one individual) who commits two or more murders without a cooling-off period; the absence of a cooling-off period distinguishes spree killers from serial killers. However, this category has been found to be of little real value to law enforcement due to definitional issues related to the concept of a “cooling-off period”.

Nature and extent – Assault and battery are two serious violations that involve causing substantial harm or inflicting severe injury on another person. In some states, assault and battery remain two separate crimes, while others have gradually merged the two into one general offense. Since assault is an intentional act, it cannot be committed unintentionally. This means that a perpetrator must intend to cause fear in another person, or that they acted in a manner that was purposefully harmful, even if a specific individual was not targeted. Battery is defined as an intentional offensive or harmful contact with another person that is done without his or her consent. As assault is the threat of harm, and a battery is the actual act of harm, these two crimes are often charged together.

Child abuse – Child abuse is the intentional use of physical force against a child that results in – or has a high likelihood of resulting in – harm for the child’s health, survival, development, or dignity. This includes hitting, beating, kicking, shaking, biting, strangling, burning, poisoning, and suffocating. Much physical violence perpetrated against children in a household is done with the intent of punishment.

Causes of child abuse – At the personal level, such factors include age, sex, and a personal history, while at the societal level, factors contributing to child abuse include societal norms encouraging severe physical punishment of children, economic inequality, and the lack of social safety nets. Parents who physically abuse their spouses are more likely than others to physically abuse their children. However, it’s challenging to determine whether marital discord is a cause of child abuse, or if both the marital strife and the abuse are caused by tendencies in the abuser.

Sexual abuse – Sexual abuse refers to the involvement of a child in a sexual act aimed at the physical gratification or the financial benefit of the person committing the act. Impacts of child sexual abuse on the victim(s) include guilt and self-blame, flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, fear of things associated with the abuse (including objects, smells, places, doctor’s visits, etc.), and self-esteem issues.

Parental abuse – Parents are often subjected to levels of childhood aggression in excess of typical childhood aggressive outbursts, usually in the form of verbal or physical abuse. Parents feel a sense of shame and humiliation over this problem, so they rarely seek help.

Spousal abuse – Violence or other abuse by one person against another in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation, is termed as spousal abuse. Globally, the victims of domestic violence are overwhelmingly women, who tend to experience more severe forms of violence. They are also more likely than men to resort to intimate partner violence in self-defense.

Dating violence – Dating abuse, or dating violence, is defined as the execution or threat of an act of violence by at least one member of an unmarried couple on the other member within the context of dating or courtship. It also occurs when one partner attempts to maintain power and control over the other through abuse or violence. This abuse or violence can take various forms: sexual assault, sexual harassment, threats, physical violence, verbal, mental, or emotional abuse, social sabotage, and stalking. It can include psychological abuse, emotional blackmail, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and psychological manipulation.

Calculating robber – The estimated probability of violence in a robbery incident with specified characteristics can be calculated by adding the constant and the coefficient estimates associated with each of these characteristics, converting the resulting Z-score into a probability using a standard normal distribution table.

Acquaintance robbery – This issue is explored by comparing acquaintance robberies with the typical robbery involving strangers using NCVS data. The authors find that individuals who are Black, poor, young, and single are especially vulnerable to acquaintance robbery. Their vulnerability is attributed to situational factors, and for youth, a reluctance to report incidents to the police. Evidence suggests that some acquaintance robberies are expressions of grievances, while others involve inside information about the victim’s belongings.

Hate crimes – A hate crime is a prejudice-motivated crime that occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership (or perceived membership) in a particular social group or race. Perpetrators commit hate crimes for excitement and drama. There is often no greater purpose behind the crimes, and victims are targeted simply because they have an ethnic, religious, sexual, or gender identity that differs from their attackers. Perpetrators commit hate crimes out of a belief that they are protecting their communities. These crimes are often triggered by a certain background event.

Workplace violence – Workplace violence refers to violence, usually in the form of physical abuse or threat, that poses a risk to the health and safety of an employee or multiple employees. Worker on worker, personal relationship, customer/client, and criminal intent are all categories of workplace violence. These four categories are further divided into three levels: Level one shows early warning signs of violence, level two is slightly more violent, and level three is extremely violent.

Stalking – Stalking is unwanted or repeated surveillance by an individual or group towards another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The term stalking is used with some varying definitions in psychiatry and psychology, as well as in some legal jurisdictions as a term for a criminal offense. Stalking has also been described as a form of close relationship between the parties, albeit a disjointed one where the two participants have opposing goals rather than cooperative goals. One participant, often a woman, likely wishes to end the relationship entirely, but may find herself unable to do so easily.

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