PROFILING EROTOPHONOPHILIA

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 1 PROFILING EROTOPHONOPHILIA EROTOPHONOPHILIA: LUST MURDER Current research defines lust murder (erotophonophilia) as a type of murder involving apparent sadistic actions based on sexually motivated behavior and its associated psychological desires (Arrigo & Purcell, 2001; Beauregard & Proulx, 2002; Brittain, 1970; Ferguson, White, Cherry, Lorenz, & Bhimani, 2003; Money, 1990). Therefore, the actingout of sexually motivated behaviors and desires results in the murder of the victim. A number of contemporary researchers in homicide studies employs lust murder as a subtype of serial homicide, which is itself a subcategory of homicides (Arrigo & Purcell, 2001; Purcell & Arrigo, 2006). The subclassification, whether a single incident or a series, is distinguishable from other forms of murder through the modus operandi (MO) and signature of the offender, including (1) violence committed against the victim and (2) indications of offender psychological construct determined through the analysis of the crime scene and offence objects. Lust murder is most frequently described not as the behavior of

2 2 EROTOPHONOPHILIA a person acting at random nor as symptomatic of a disorganized mind or psychological deficiency; rather, contemporary researchers suggest that the actions and behaviors of lust murderers satisfy their psychosexual needs. The primary purposes of the development of the characterizations and typologies of an offender profile are to assist in the identification of a suspect pool, to focus the criminal-investigative process, and to increase the likelihood of the offender s apprehension. Jackson and Bekerian (1997) provided the most illustrative definition and value of an offender profile, stating: [A] profile is assumed to involve the construction of a behavioral composite based on the premise that the proper interpretation of crime scene evidence can indicate the personality type of the individual(s) who committed the offence. It is assumed that certain personality types exhibit similar behavioral patterns that can assist in the investigation of the crime and the assessment of potential suspects. (p. 3) Offender profiling represents the creation of an empirically and descriptively based arrangement of available facts, evidence, and information concerning a type of homicide offender based on available evidence and its interpretation. Crime scene evidence includes, but is not limited to, physical evidence, victim injuries and wounds, victim identification, and the behavior of the offender at the crime scene. The earliest theoretical model for serial and lust murder that was used as a tool in the identification of suspects came from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and was based on interviews conducted with 36 serial murderers and lust murderers incarcerated in the 1980s. The model has since been discredited. Contemporary research on lust murders has indicated that the offenders criminal activity is planned and repetitive, and, in the instance of serial predation, the offenders appear to gain in their sophistication of tactics in acquiring and disposing of the victims. Moreover, that increased

3 Profiling Erotophonophilia 3 sophistication usually causes the offender to exhibit increasing levels of violence and control over the victim. Therefore, lust murder is not a random act, nor is it assumed symptomatic of either a disorganized mind or the indication of some underlying psychological deficiency. It is instead an arrangement of intentional behaviors used to satisfy the offenders psychosexual needs (Kocsis, Cooksey, & Irwin, 2002b; Meloy, 2000; Skrapec, 2001). The planning and preparation in lust murder increase the likelihood of the offender escaping subsequent detection by law enforcement, thus increasing the number of unsolved homicides in the United States. The contemporary erotophonophilia (lust murder) researchers Godwin (2000), Holmes and Holmes (2002), Keppel and Walter (1999), and Kocsis, Cooksey, and Irwin (2002b) developed typologies to identify offenders profiles. The typologies represent a unique application of the classification and depiction of lust murderers based on analyses of their psychosocial histories, crime scene activities, and offence artifacts (evidence). Unfortunately, little research has examined the practicality or reliability of the models used by investigators and researchers and whether the models complement or conflict with one another. The critical goals of the current study are to determine the utility of the classification typologies as a practical tool for the homicide investigator, and, through the examination of the selected case studies of Theodore Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Dennis Rader, to determine the various models agreements or dissimilarities. Therefore, this book examines the research of lust murder in order to develop a more comprehensive characterization of the lust murderer that combines the similar features of current classification systems as developed by Godwin (2000), Holmes and Holmes (2002), Keppel and Walter (1999), Kocsis, Cooksey, and Irwin (2002b), and Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas (1988). Through the construction and merging of the theoretical mutually supportive features of the typologies, a practical tool for the investigation of lust murder is sought. However, before turning specifically to the typologies themselves, the development of associations and processes associated with the features of lust murder and violent sexualized homicides must be constructed.

4 4 EROTOPHONOPHILIA Counting Serial and Lust Murderers The FBI in the 1980s stated that approximately 35 to 100 serial killers operate in the United States at any one time (Eager, 1984), meaning serial killers may be responsible for approximately 200 to 300 murders a year, or only 2% of the annual U.S. homicide rate. However, the 2% figure may be quite misleading as each year since 1980, 6,000 or more homicides go unsolved. Six thousand unsolved homicides represent 33% of the current annual homicide rate of 18,000 as recorded between 1996 and 2006 (McClellan, 2007), and in those cases where the offender has not been identified and the victim was subjected to violent sexual assault, the specter of lust murder haunts. I undertook the task to determine the validity or refutation of the claim made by the FBI in the 1980s about the existence of 35 to 100 serial killers operating in the United States at any one time. To do so, I conducted a search using LexisNexis Academic and a similar search using the FindArticles.com guided news search to compile a list of serial murderers in the United States for the years A second search of smaller newspaper outlets was conducted using FindArticles.com that provided further information regarding persons charged with serial murder. The FindArticles.com search included the use of key words, specific names of known offenders, and trial outcomes. Key words used in the search included serial killer, serial murder, mass murder, and the names of known arrested and accused serial killers. The review of the search included over 2,500 articles associated with the key words used and the identification of 63 serial murderers apprehended, charged, and/or arraigned during the years 1997 to The data confirmed the relative soundness of the 1990 FBI claim regarding the magnitude of serial killers and killings in the United States. For the period 1997 to 2007, I identified 63 serial killers responsible for approximately 750 homicides during their time at-large committing homicides. The serial killers and their offensive behavior further provided for an examination of their demographics, crime scene activities, and basic victimology/target information. Through a simple descriptive review of the data available about the 63 who were at-large from 1997 to 2007, it was found that

5 Profiling Erotophonophilia 5 75 persons were killed annually (predominantly females, at 94%), and the average number of homicides committed per serial killer was 12 a year. The data also revealed that 19 of the serial offenders remained free (unapprehended) for more than 10 years, 8 were free more than 15 years, 29 were free 2 8 years, and only 18 were free less than a year. Historical and contemporary researchers over the past 20 years have correlated the decrease in the solvability and clearance rates of homicide in the United States to an increase in recidivist perpetrators and the presence of structural and organizational bias associated with lower socioeconomic groups, race, and ethnicity. Additional support of the arguments is to be found in the more recent research of Borg and Parker (2001), Lee (2005), and Regoeczi and Miethe (2003). The correlations and concerns presented in the historical and contemporary research identify three significant factors associated with the decline in homicide solvability and clearance rates of homicide investigation. Those factors include 1. a change in the nature of homicide; for example, stranger (recreational and/or lust murderers) vs. relationship murders (Litwin, 2004; Puckett & Lundman, 2003; Regoeczi & Miethe, 2003); 2. the reduction in police investigative effectiveness (Borg & Parker, 2001; Lee, 2005); 3. an increase in recidivist perpetrators, for example, serial killers. (Egger, 1990) Notably, in 2002 a Harvard School of Public Health (2002) article suggested that women are at the highest risk of murder by relatives, significant others, and most particularly strangers. In a related study regarding persons who are vulnerable to violent male offenders, Chang, Berg, Saltzman, and Herndon (2005) found that homicide deaths of women exceeded all other causes of injury, including accidents at home or work, automobile accidents, and all other noninterpersonal injury-related causes. Risk factors noted in the study included being under the age of 20 and of African American ethnicity. For victims who were pregnant at the time of their murder, they typically had not received prenatal care during

6 6 EROTOPHONOPHILIA their pregnancy, further indicating their youth, poverty, lack of sufficient familial or social support, and/or immaturity (Chang et al., 2005) that put them at higher risk. Additionally, in 2002, the FBI stated that approximately one third (32.1%) of female homicide victims in this country died at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend (Chang et al., 2005, p. 11). However, what was unstated in that report was that, conversely, over two-thirds (66%) die at the hands of strangers. Therefore, the goals of the book may take on a greater significance regarding the percentage of unsolved homicides that occur annually in the United States. Moreover, the extent of violent sexualized homicides first noted by Egger (1990) and further supported by the research highlights that a number of unapprehended lust murderers significantly targets females and children. THE CURRENT LITERATURE: AN OVERVIEW Since the 1980s, the investigation by law enforcement of violent criminalhomicide offences committed by unknown assailants has included efforts to incorporate the quantification and qualification of the character and behavioral propensities of those assailants along with the more traditional investigative practices. The application of offender characteristics and behavioral inclinations incorporates the practical understanding and research of a broad array of disciplines and subdisciplines of criminal justice including those in criminology, criminalistics, psychology, forensics, criminal-investigation practices, geographic analysis, and sociology. The research in violent criminal-homicide offences committed by unknown subjects has typically included efforts to incorporate the character and behavioral propensities of those persons. Those techniques used in conjunction with the more traditional investigative practices attempt to develop suspect profiles characteristically identified through such techniques as gathering victim information, victim associations, crime scene analysis, and known-offender modus operandi. However, the typology characteristically used by investigators relies on additional

7 Profiling Erotophonophilia 7 scientific research that features known psychological predispositions of serial murderers and the ways in which those persons construct their realities. Characterizations of Violence and Violent Sexual Behavior Fromm (1973) observed that human beings attempt to control their environment by any available means in order to achieve their intended goals and assumed needs. One means used by humans to achieve their goals and needs is the use of violence. Moreover, Toch (1969) noted that when individuals discover that violent interactions increase the likelihood of successfully attaining their desired ends, the use of violence as an acceptable way to attain these goals and needs increases. The use of violence, whether motivated from psychological predisposition or learningintegrated functions, increases the probability of the chances of violent interpersonal interactions. Persistent and pervasive childhood trauma, violence, and abuse have been identified as significantly influential in the development of a lifelong predisposition for violent interactions and criminal offence behaviors. Research has also linked the effects of traumatic and/or violent histories to the psychological and psychobiological development that may predispose a person to extremely violent behavior. Lust Murder Classification Lust murder characterizations or classifications require the use of crime scene evaluation, criminalistics, and medico-legal examination of the artifacts of the offence. The primary assumptions of the researchers include the contention that the crime scene artifacts and evidence reflect the intentionalities and visible efforts of the offenders to satisfy their psychological, sexual, and emotional needs. The predatory nature of lust murder involves the intentional seeking of preferred targets of offence; opportunity or instrumental offences through planning and motivation. Lust murder indicates an offender s pathology of offensive behavior that is differentiated from the motivational models associated with

8 8 EROTOPHONOPHILIA impulsive crimes of passion (Cornell, Warren, Hawk, Stafford, Oram, & Pine, 1996; Fattah, 2000; Woodworth & Porter, 2002). Behavioral Disorders, Psychosexual Characteristics, and Fantasy Human beings anticipate and plan using imagination and fantasy (James, 2003) in anticipation of future encounters. Sexually violent fantasies have been found to provide a distinctive linkage between fantasies and lust murder (Brittain, 1970; Meloy, 2000; Zurbiggen & Yost, 2004). The fantasies are described as a prelude (leading up to) to the homicidal event and, as such, the crime scene and its artifacts (evidence) represent clues to the motivation, fantasy, and psychological predispositions of the offender. The linking of the psychological and psychosocial histories and psychobiological development to extremely violent behavior, preoccupation with violent fantasies, and their merger into offence activities are important to understand if one is to accurately interpret the crime scene artifacts and create an offender profile. Typologies of lust murder involve the selection of data, literature, and research that assist in the focusing of law-enforcement investigative outcomes rather than for the purposes of psychiatric diagnosis or treatment (Tellis, 1997). In case studies, no statistical manipulations occur. The results of the comparison of typologies with the selected case murderers are derived through descriptive and comparative analytic methods to reveal congruence in the cases (Maxwell, 2005).

9 CHAPTER 2 CHARACTERIZATIONS IN MURDER INTRODUCTION James (2003) stated that the need for a variety of scientific inquiries in the attempt to understand the causes and outcomes of human actions is central to the formulation of relatively simple explanatory principles laying beneath immediate appearances, and behind what people say are the reasons for their actions (p. 18). Because humans engage in a constant state of building and sustaining [of] mental models of reality [the] regulator and arbitrator (Donald, 2001, pp ) of the violence committed against the victim are based on the reality constructed by the offender that includes victim suitability or offender victim preference. The regulators and arbitrators of behavior in the mental models of offenders are then assumed to be detectable in violent sexualized-murder offences and to depict or represent the operational realities of the offender, making them subject to identification and analysis by the investigator.

10 10 EROTOPHONOPHILIA Violence is one of the many interactions in which people engage. People rationalize their violent acts through the lens of their experiences and expectations that frame (Goffman, 1974) and organize their analyses of those interactions that are familiar to them. Therefore, to understand violence and its extremes, the researcher must consider the offender s construct of reality that displays, depicts, and asserts the rationalization of violent interactions with others and the pathological constructs of the offender. The Toch (1969) study provided for the possibility of a set of stages of interaction and reaction fundamental in the interpersonal encounters culminating in violent acts. Definitions of the stages include Stage 1: the classification of the other as object or threat; Stage 2: an action (real or perceived) that forms the basis of the classification of the other; Stage 3: the other may attempt to preserve their personal integrity by responding to the perceived threat; Stage 4: the violent-prone person commits violence against the other. (p. 184) The subclassification of lust murder as homicide, whether ascribed to a single incident or serial events, provided a way to distinguish the modus operandi or signature of the violence committed against the victim and the offender s psychological predispositions through the analysis of a crime scene. Lust murder is the acting out of aggressive ideologies described by investigators as cruelty, torture, or other acts sexual in nature that ultimately culminate in the death of the victim and includes those acts of homicide commonly referred to as sexual sadism. However, unlike Hazelwood and Dietz (1992), in this definition the suffering of cruelties and injuries of the victim caused by the offender does not require that the victim retain consciousness or life during all or part of the violent behavior by the offender. This more broadly inclusive definition of sexualized torture includes conscious, unconscious, live, or dead victims. The rationale for a more inclusive definition arose from Hazelwood and

11 Characterizations in Murder 11 Dietz (1992), who stated that fantasy is a central feature and, as such, exists in the mind of the offender and does not require the active presence of anyone other than the one who fantasizes. The consciousness or life of the victim is not a prerequisite for the offenders in the conduct of their violent, torturous, or sexualizing activities against the objects of their attacks. In this study, victims, alive or dead, conscious or unconscious, are presumed to have suffered and been tortured, mutilated, or otherwise harmed by a lust murderer when such facts are apparent through the wounding and control techniques discernible on the person of the victim. Lust murder is indicated when offences exhibit a sexualization in the types of violence committed against the victim. In the last 25 years, since the study and examination of lust murder and serialized lust murder was initiated by Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas (1985), and continuing with a more recent book by Purcell and Arrigo (2006), researchers have focused on the criminal, psychological, and developmental aspects of offenders who engage in violent sexualized homicide. Egger (1984) defined the classification of serial murder as the following: One or more individuals (males, in most known cases) commit a second murder and/or subsequent murder and/or subsequent murder; is relationshipless (victim and attacker are strangers); occurs at a different time and has no connection to the initial (and subsequent) murder; and is frequently committed in a different geographic location. (pp. 8 9) Essentially, the study and exploration of lust murder involve the analysis of a specific type of human aggression, violence, motivation, offence behavior, and medico-legal reports containing specific and detailed information regarding explanations or interpretations of injuries, wound patterns and sequence of events [play] a major role in the process of case analysis because the results were of central importance for the case reconstruction and further deductions (e.g., offender aims, organized/disorganized components, escalation). (Schroer, Trautmann, Dern, Baurmann, & Puschel, 2003, p. S243)

12 12 EROTOPHONOPHILIA Arrigo and Purcell (2001) noted that the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) compiled annually by the FBI does not mention sexual homicide; sexual homicide is generally indexed under Unknown Motive because federal and state law enforcement agents are largely unaware of the underlying sexual dynamics of criminal conduct (p. 6). This lack of recognition, frequently the result of inaccurate medico-legal (autopsy report) information, further complicates the identification and investigation of lust murder offences and serial sexualized homicide. However, Skrapec (2001) cautioned against a general acceptance of an apparent sexual assault on homicide victims in the behavior analysis of lust murderers as interpreting the sexual violation of victims as primarily sexual in nature (p. 51). Investigators who view sexual violation of victims as sexual in nature frequently become sidetracked and confused regarding the motivation of the offences, ignoring the facts that cruelty, wounding, and terrorization are the primary motives rather than the offender s sexual gratification. Additionally, Salfati (2003) observed that impulsive behavior is not out-of-character behavior but reflects habitual responses (p. 491) and those behaviors that have been learned during the actor s earlier development persist into adulthood [to be] used as guides for behavior and social problem solving (p. 491), including violent interactions that result in homicide and display a sexualization of the offence. Keppel and Wies (1994) noted that offenders may gratify their sexual desires by demonstrating their control over their victims by or through the use of (pp ) devices such as bondage, sadism, acts of torture, necrophilia, and posing victims in intentionally degrading or humiliating positions done to shock or appall those who discover the body. In that manner, the offender continues their control over the violence and the victim. However, control and manipulation, not gratification, are the central features of the offender s activities and intent. Berner, Berger, and Hill (2003) argued that cruel, violent, and sadistic behavior is reflective of the character of the offender. Therefore, it is important to remember that, character is only a mirror of drives (instincts), and character tendencies of perverse people may be only another manifestation of the same instinctual urges, therefore visible and symbolic signs of perversions (p. 386).

13 Characterizations in Murder 13 There are variations in the nature of the offence of lust murder and changes in the nature of the violence done to the victims. Keppel and Wies (1994) noted that some offenders prefer to enact prolonged and ritualized assaults [where] torture and mutilation become the focus of sexual ideation [and] asphyxiation is used as a sadistic control and for purposes of arousal [such as] recreational strangulation (pp ). Those methods frequently culminate in victim wounding with the purpose of maintaining control, experimenting with the infliction of terror and torture, and the infliction of pain with blunt force devices and sharp edged instruments for cutting, biting, and object penetration during their perimortem and postmortem behavior. Although some rapists who ultimately commit murder do so in retaliation of real or perceived threats to their personal integrity (Kocsis, Cooksey, & Irwin, 2002a), the sexual violence and murder can also represent a deeply harbored anger with pre-identified or preferred target types (Hickey, 2002; Holmes & Holmes, 2002). The substitute victim comes from areas in which the aggressor may live or work while conducting routine, everyday living; the aggressor may find a potential victim who reminds him of his mother or girlfriend [When] the potential victim is selected, he will keep in mind the location and living circumstances of the victim Regardless whether the victim is alive or dead, the assault continues until the subject is emotionally satisfied. (Keppel & Walter, 1999, p. 428) Of the varieties of lust murderers, the offenders who proceed to commit numerous offences and are serial in their victimization are the offenders who plan the sexual assault and homicide designed to inflict pain and terror on the victims for gratification of the perpetrator (Keppel & Walter, 1999, p. 431). The prolonged torture of the victim energizes the killer s fantasies and temporarily satisfies a lust for domination and control the approach of the victim, exploitation of naiveté, torture, and mutilation all serve to appease the perpetrator s insatiable appetite for the process of killing. (p. 431)

14 14 EROTOPHONOPHILIA The behavior of extremely violent and sadistic sexual rapists and lust murderers (single or serial event) frequently indicated planning, concealment, movement of victim s body, and actions associated with significant organization and control throughout the offences rather than the frequently depicted frenzied, impulsive, or disordered attacks on victims. Therefore, lust murder is not the behavior of persons acting at random nor is it necessarily symptomatic of a disorganized mind. Rather, the offender s actions are intentionalities. The vagaries of behavior are intended to satisfy the psychological and emotional needs of the offender through directed purpose and planning resulting in the sexualization of the victim and the injuries of that victimization. Violence and Lust Lust murder is the acting out of sadistic ideologies by means of cruelty, torture, or other acts, sexual or sexual in their nature, that culminates in the death of the victim (Santtila et al., 2004) and the definition used includes those acts of homicide commonly referred to as sexual sadism, sexualized homicide, and rape homicide. [M]any people feel drawn towards violence because it can give pleasure. Means and ends then become fluid concepts that are inseparable. Form and meaning become the same that is its own goals, in which means and end melted together. (Schinkel, 2004, p. 19) Fromm (1973) stated that passions are the strivings to love, to be free, as well as the drive to destroy, to torture, to control, and to submit (p. 5) to the passions that are the basis of a person s interest in life, enthusiasm, and excitement. These then are essentially the dreams that fuel the passions and encompass the art, religion, myth and drama (p. 5) of the individual. Thus, the passions of human beings can create, invent, or destroy. Human beings are not simply biological automatons, but, because of their passions, they seek excitement and desire drama. The typical emotional object is either the person experiencing the emotion or another person. People are more interesting to people than anything else is (Ben-Ze ev, 2000, p. 29).