Forensic Psychology For Dummies (66 page)

I explore attempts to treat sexual offenders in Chapter 15.

Murder

Murder
is, of course, a catch-all term, and it’s more useful in forensic psychologist work to understand and use more precise terms:

Homicide
is the killing of one person by another. This act may not be murder if the killing is lawful, such as in self-defence.

Apparently, ten or more legal ways exist of killing someone in the state of Texas.

Contract killing
is when a third party is hired or urged to kill a person on behalf of another person. Films make much of the professional contract killer who’s anonymous to the person who hires them and who moves around the world killing to order. Although such people undoubtedly exist in organised crime syndicates, more usually the contract killer is someone known to the person hiring him or at least known to someone they know. Quite often, though, unwittingly the ‘friend of a friend’ is actually an undercover police officer who has insinuated himself into a criminal network in order to find out who’s trying to supply contract killers. He then has the evidence to convict the person who asked him to kill.

Serial killers
kill a number of people (most experts require three murders before they place a criminal into this unattractive league) over a period of time, with so-called cooling-off periods in between. These cooling-off periods can be as short as a day or so, or as long as a number of years.

Spree killers
kill a number of people in one intense activity. They walk into a store and shoot everyone they can before being stopped. School shootings, like the one at Columbine, Colorado in 1999, are typical of the activities of spree killers.

Mass murder
is the sort of thing that violent dictators perpetrate, killing hundreds, thousands or even millions of people. They can’t do this slaughter on their own of course, and so it tends to be part of an organised process in which many killers participate. Sometimes it’s a cult that kills all its followers, as happened at Jonestown, Guyana in 1978, or the cult may set out to kill members of the public, like the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway transport system in 1995.

Murder can occur in a number of different situations, and understanding these helps to clarify the nature of the particular killing:

Domestic violence:
Although this usually involves the man killing the woman, vice versa also happens. This violence can arise out of an enduring violent relationship in which both people involved attack each other from time to time, or circumstances in which one partner is habitually violent. The violent person’s behaviour may be aggravated by the use of alcohol or other drugs that reduce normal inhibitions.

Juvenile homicide:
This typically emerges out of a group event in which the victim and the killer could just as readily be the other way round, if one had been quicker or slower to react. Of course, this can happen with adults too, but usually it happens with gangs of youths. These homicides often emerge out of masculine competitiveness, perceived defence of reputation and the quest for respect.

Confrontational homicide:
This can result from criminal challenges and is often embedded in violent subcultures in which honour and machismo
are at a premium. The offenders can be directly instrumental in the desire to remove a competitor or to demonstrate power over others.

Crime-related homicide:
This is when a significant witness, as to a rape or bank robbery, is killed in the belief that this act reduces the likelihood of being caught and convicted. Sometimes, this category of murder involves a threat that gets out of control.