Intelligence Test Scores. Performance and .... the reader to ask further questions about murder and to ..... Free Press,. Hook, E. ..... Sinhalese (Buddhists, 69 percent of the population, and ...... the higher classes, and those lower down in sibling.
,-,
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER
AMS Studies in Modern Society, Political and Social Issues, No.19 Other Tit/es in This Series,
--
I
:
No. 1. Jackwell Susman, ed. Drug Use and Social Policy. 1972. 616 pp. No. 2. Helen Wortis and Clora Rabinowitz, ed. The Women's Movement: Social and Psychological Perspectives. 1972. 151 pp. No. 3. Yonah Alexander and Nicholas N. Kittrie, eds. Crescent and Star: Arab & Israeli Perspectives on the Middle East Conflict. 1973. 486 pp. No. 4. Virginia Paulus. Housing: A Bibliography, 1960- 1972. 1974. 339_ pp. Na. 5. Henry John Steffens and H.N. Muller, eds. Science, Technology and Culture. 1974. 204 pp. No. 6. Parker G. Marden and Dennis Hodgson, eds. Population, Environment, and the Quality al Lile. 1975. 328 pp. Na. 7. Milton F. Shore and Fortune V. Mannino, eds. Mento/ Health and Social Change. 1975. 330 pp. Na. 8. Nicholas N. Kittrie, Harold L. Hirsh, and Glen Wegner, eds. Medicine, Law, and Public Policy. 1975. 605 pp. No. 9. William Barclay, Krishna Kumar, and Ruth P. Simms, eds. Racial Conflict, Dis crimination, and Power: Historical and Contemporary Studies. 1976. 437 pp. Na. 10. Hugo Adam Bedau and Chester M. Pierce, eds. Capitol Punishment in the United States. 1976. 576 pp. Na. 11. Ethel Toboch and Harold M. Proshonsky, eds. Genetic Destiny: Scientific Controversy and Social Conflict. 1976. 163 pp. No. 12. Virginia P. Robinson. The Development of a Professional Self: Teaching and learning in Professional Helping Processes. Selected Writings, 1930-1968. 1978. 438 pp. No. 13. David G. Gil, ed. Child Abuse and Violence. 1979. 614 pp. No. 14. Ronald J. Kase, ed. The Human Services. 1979. 353 pp. Na. 15. Anthony M. Scacco, Jr., ed. Male Rope: A Casebook of Sexual Aggressions. 1982. 326 pp. No. 16. Roger E. Schwed. Abolition and Capital Punishment: The United States' Judicial, Political, and Moral Barometer. 1983. 227 pp. No. 17. James H. Humphrey, ed. Stress in Childhood. 1984. 340 pp. Na. 18. Anita J. Faatz. The Nature of Choice, and Other Selected Writings. 1985. 347 pp.
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER A Review of Research
David Lester
ISSN 0275-8407
AMS PRESS, INC. New York
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lester, David, 1942-
The murderer and his murder.
(AMS studies in modern society; no. 19) Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Murder literature. 2. Murder literature- United Stales. I. Tille. II. Series. HV6515.L45 1986 364.1 '523'0973 85-48007 ISBN 0-404--61626-7
Copyright © 1986 by AMS Press, Inc. All rights reserved
Published by AMS Press, Inc. 56 East 13th Street New York, N.Y. 10003
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES Of AMERICA
to Gwen and Linda with affection
Vi i
CONTENTS 'INTRODUCTION Introduction
General Theories of Violence Ethology
3 5 5
Genetics
6
Brain Damage and Aggressioh
8
Psychoanalysis and Developmental Theories
10
A Socio-Psychological Approach
11
Summary
14
SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES
Epidemiological Studies of Homicide
19
Victims
19
Marital Status
20
Class
20
Young Victims
21
Murderers
21
Studies of Cities
21
Murder-Victim Similarity
23
Era
24
Time to Death
25
ix
Vi i i
Importance of Homicide as a Cause of Death Summary
4.
Cultural Patterns of Homicide Murder in Other Cultures
Murder in Primitive Societies Discussion
Temporal and Meteorological Correlates of Homicide Lunar Variation Season and Month
Daily and National Holidays
6.
26 28 28
Amok
5.
25
30 32
33 36 36 36 37
Hour of Day
38
Longitude and Latitude
38
Weather
38
Conclusion
38
Sociological Correlates of Homicide Correlational Studies Age Structure
41 41 41
City Size
41
Deterrence
42
Death Rates
43
Fertility
Income Inequality and Poverty
43 44
Industrialization
46
Murdered Police Officers
46
Pol ice Strength
47
Political Stability
47
Psychological Needs
47
Status Integration
49
Religion
Southernness
Subcultures of Violence War Multivariate Studies
48 49 51
53 53
The Direction of Violence
54
The Sex Ratio for Homicide
54
The Validity of National Homicide Rates
55
Discus.sion
55
�DMJCJDE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT Homicides Committed by Police Officers Regional Variation Justifiable Homicide or Unjustifiable?
Conclusions
The Murder of Police Officers
The Effect of Police Department Firearm Policy
61
65 67 70 72
76
How are Police Officers Killed?
77
Predicting the Rates with Which Police Officers are Murdered: Gun Density
77
Police Officers Killed and the Guns Used by Criminals
79
Discussion
80
The Effects of Reduced Gun Availability
86
The Role of Guns in Murder
83
X
xi
Do Strict Gun Control Laws Reduce the Homicide Rate?
Conclusions
PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES
10.
Typologies of Murderers Empirical Typologies
Megargee 1 s Typology
11.
Discussion
89
119
92
Rorschach Studies of Murder
120
97
Race
122
Leadership Stereotypes
121
Prior Arrests
122
105
Sleep Disorders
122
107
Episodic Dyscontrol
123
99
100
Psychiatric Symptoms
122
107
Enuresis
123
Insane Murderers
108
Impulsive Murderers
123
Insane Murderers Versus Sane Murderers
109
Insane Murderers Versus Other Offenders
111
Women who Kill
Psychotic Murderers
111
Spouse Murder
Schizophrenics
112
Psychotically Depressed Murderers
112
Murder and Mental Illness The Incidence of Insanity in Murderers
Murder in Specific Psychiatric Syndromes 111
Discussion
12.
Johnson Temperament Analysis
Psychological Studies of the Murderer and His Murder Intelligence Test Scores
Performance and Verbal IQ Scores The Similarities Subtest
IQ and the Circumstances of the Murder
The Personality of Murderers Locus of Control
California Personality Inventory
The MMP!
113
115 115
116 116
Soldiers who are Violent Roles and Loss
124
125 126
129
Homicidal Threats
130
Murder as a Transaction
131
Homicidal Thoughts Recalling the Act
Amnesia in Murderers Denial of Murder
Suggestion and Murder Murder in Special Groups
131
132 132 133 133 134 134
117
Indians
118
Prisoners
135
Astronauts
136
11 8
118
118
Veterans
_Nazi Leaders
Discussion
135
136 136
xiii
Xi i
13.
The Relationship between Suicide and Homicide Sociological Correlations between Suicide and Homicide Suicides Versus Murderers Murder Followed by Suicide
Suicide and Homicide Victims
The Rorschach Ink-Blot Test as a Predictor of Suicide and Murder
Theoretical Notions 14.
Conclusions
Frustration and Aggression:
16.
141 146 148
156 156
157
17.
Henry and Short 171
Frustration, Aggression, and the Business Cycle
171 173
Sociological and Psychological Determinants of the Choice between Suicide and Homicide
177
Child Frustrations
186
Empirical Evidence
182
Conclusions
187
Abnormal Electrical Activity
189
The Brains of Murderers
191
Subcortical Atrophy
191
Lithium
191
Serotonin
1 91
Discussion
192
Alcoholism and Murder
Amphetamines and Murder
199
196
Discussion
199
The Victims of Murder
202
Young Victims
203
Child Victims
204
Victim Precipitated Homicide
202
Homicide Versus Suicide Victims
203
The Incidence of Homicide Threats
205
Infanticide
205 209
Cross-Cultural Studies
212
Infanticide in Non-Literate Societies
213
Discussion
20.
195
Drug Abuse in Victims of Murder
Infanticide in Lower Animals
19.
194
196
SPECIAL POPULATIONS 18.
194
The Homicide Risk for Addicts
Discussion
189
Epileptics
Murder and Substance Abuse Murder While Intoxicated
165
Suicide, Homicide, and the Business Cycle
15.
141
Political Assassinations
213
214 216
Presidential Assassins
216
Political Homicides in Acan, Mexico
219
Threats To Kill the President
218
Assassination in Laos
220
Discussion
Adolescents and Children Who Kill Discussion
220 222
224
xiv CONCLUSIONS 21.
Conclusions
229
Theoretical Highlights
229
Empirical Highlights
231
Areas Needing Further Investigatio�
233
Conclusion
234
AUTHOR INDEX
235
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION The topic of murder is an important one for our society since it is a major social problem.
In 1980,
there were over 20,000 murder victims in "the USA. Knowledge about murder can be roughly divided into two kinds.
There are clinical reports, written by
psychotherapis�s who have worked with murderers, which present anecdotal and provocative information about particular murderers.
Such reports generate many
hypotheses for future research. There is also a large body of empirical research into murder.
Research studies have been conducted by
anthropologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, sbciol ogists, and those in other disciplines. typically goes unreviewed.
This research
The major studies become
disseminated and cited, but the vast majority of the research goes unnoted. This raises the interesting question of what research has shown to be characteristic of the murderer and his murder.
What do we know?
murder supported or unsupported? been negelcted?
Are folk ideas about Which issues have
The results of a complete review are
always surprising, both in terms of what we find 3
4
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER
reported and in terms of what we find neglected.
A
review indicates our knowledge and. the lacunae in this knowledge.
It thereby serves to guide future research.
This book presents a review of what we know about murder.
It is selective.
2
It reviews research pub
lished in the English language only.
It focuses upon
research reports and neglects clinical reports.
And
although the author seeks to include all research (abstracted mainly in Index Medicus, Psychological Abstracts and Sociological Abstracts), it is filtered through his own biases. It is hoped, however, that it informs and stimulates the reader to ask further questions about murder and to find ways of putting those ideas to empirical test.
GENERAL THEORIES OF VIOLENCE ETHOLOGY The ethological position is that aggression is innate (Lorenz, 1966) and instinctive, with its own source of energy.
In animals, there are usually
environmental stimuli that allow for the release of aggression.
There are also environmental stimuli
that inhibit the expression of aggression.
It is
assumed that if �ggressive energy is not released, it will continue to build up.
Eventually, aggression
must appear, even though an appropriate stimulus is not present in the environment. Ethologists assert that men are biologically like other animals and therefore have an aggressive instinct. Since aggression must occasionally find release, the solution to the violence problem is to find legitimate and legal activities during which aggressive energy may be discharged, such as athletic sports or hostile
5
6
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER
humor.
GENERAL THEO RI ES
Aggression must be ritualized and displaced.
Catharsis (emotional �elease) must be found.
Humans
do have stimuli that inhibit their aggression, such as an opponent pleading, wearing glasses, or lying on the floor.
However, modern weapons (such as long-distance
7
was thought in the 1960s to be more prone to violent
crime than normal males.
Hook (1973) reported that only mental-penal institu
tions had been shown reliably to have more XYY males than the general population.
As to criminal behavior,
rifles) have made it possible for the aggressor riot to
Hook concluded that XYY males in penal settings were
are less likely to occur by choking than by shooting,
were similar to those of the other inmates.
perceive these or other inhib�tory stimuli.
Killings
and even less likely to occur by shooting than by bombing.
Psychologists on the whole dislike this deter ministic position.
As Goldstei� (1975) has said,
humans can behave like animals but this does not mean that they�-
Because we evolved from violent
not disproportionately dangerous, since their offenses Why then
is there an increase in the incidence of XYY males in
mental-penal settings?
Hook felt it unlikely that XYY
males were more prone to be barn into environments which lead to deviant behavior.
Physical features, such as
increases height (which may make them seem more
dangerous) and high frequency of acne (which may make
ancestors does not necessarily mean that we too are
them less physically appealing) might account for such
violent by nature.
men being given longer and different kinds of sentences,
GENET! CS
explanation based upon neurological differences .(such
but Hook felt that the evidence for this was poor.
Attempts to identify a genetic basis for some criminal behaviors have met with success in that studies of twins have shown that identical twins are more like to be criminals than nonidentical twins.
Genetic
research has focussed especially on violent crime as a result of the identification of the XYY male.
Normal
males have a pair of sex chromosomes labelled as XY.
(The female has sex chromosomes that are labelled as XX,1
Some males have a third sex chromosome, and the XYY male
An
as an increased incidence of brain damage) was also
without empirical support at the time, but remained a possibility. Recently, a methodologically sound study of crimi nality in XYY males has been conducted in Denmark.
Witkin, artd associates (1976) located all males born in Copenhagen from 1944 to 1947.
They traced 91 percent
of these who were 184 centimeters tall or higher, and among these 4,139 men they found twelve XYY men and sixteen XXY men (Klinefelter's syndrome).
Five of the
8
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER
GENERAL THEORIES
XYY men (42 percent) and three of the XXY men (19 per cent) had committed crimes, as compared to 9 percent of the normal men.
Although the three groups differed in
the incidence of crime, they did not differ in the incidence of violent crime, and only one of the XYY men had committed a violent crime.
The critical area appears to be the limbic system (Mark The limbic system comprises the
upper part of the brain stem called the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the cingulum, the hippocampus, the basal the septal nuclei, the midbrain,
and the
of experience, but rather a mix of these two components.) Mark and Ervin (1970) have described cases of people
Electrodes can be sunk into parts of the brain and stimulated with mild electric current.
This has been
found to elicit aggressive behavior when areas such as the amygdala and the middle of the hyopthalamus are (Electrical stimulation usually produces the
opposite effect to removal of the area.) This kind of research has led to the speculation that in some violent humans either the limbic system has become hyperactive due to some damage or else the cortical inputs which inhibit and control aggression have become ineffective.
They argue that
violence in susceptible individuals.
These cortical inputs are
This team has also
suggested that many violent offenders may be suffering from brain dysfunction and can be helped by medical treatment. Damage to the limbic system or cortex may be genetic or may be acquired by such physical experiences as a cutting off of oxygen, a head injury, a viral infection, or a tumor.
amygdala.
involved.
violence is thus neither simply one of heredity nor one
trigger areas exist in the human brain that can initiate
brain damage are associated with violent behavior.
ganglia,
(This theory of
inputs can be modified by experience.
by seizures in the limbic system ..
It has long been known that particular forms of
1970).
heavily dependent upon learning and so the cortical
in whom attacks of aggression and violence were triggered
BRAIN DAMAGE AND AGGRESSION
and Ervin,
9
Violent behavior could also occur as a
result of a functiona·l·abnormality such as epilepsy. (Epilepsy is not itself a disease; it is a symptom of .brain dysfunction and of electrical disorganization within the brain.)
The kind of epilepsy most relevant
for violent behavior is temporal lobe epilepsy. Episodes may start with distorted vision and auditory experiences, loss or lapse of consciousness, head turning, eye move ments, and lip smacking and swallowing.
There may be
emotiona'l changes such as depression or fear, and the individual may react to this fear with aggression. Few people have clearly recognizable epileptic
seizures, and the brain dysfunction is often difficult
10
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER
to observe in overt behavior.
GENERAL THEORIES
Mark and Ervin claim
that violent people maY in fact have brain dysfunctions of various kinds without having epileptic-like sei
A brain dysfunction may even be deep enough in the
so that recording electrical activity from the surface would not pick it up.
He saw aggression as a
In his view, the individual 1 s
natural spontaneous reaction to frustration was to
aggress outwardly toward others.
Later, Freud postu
lated the existence of a death instinct in addition to
the life-oriented energy at drives, and, in this later theory, he saw aggression as often spontaneously directed toward the individual himself.
The individual
had to learn to displace this inward-directed aggressi toward others.
Freud 1 s later ideas have not gained general accep Most psychoanalytic investigators have adopted
the earlier formulation and see aggression as natural outard-directed.
Aggressions are thus built into
human existence, because everyone suffers frustration. The adult has a need for intimacy with others--what Angyal (1965) has called the trend toward homonomy--and Thus, humans inevitably suffer
frustration, and the aggression that results has to be
Freud postulated the existence of only a life instinct
tance.
aggressive fantasy).
trend toward automony).
In his early statements of psychoanalytic theory,
response to frustration.
aggression, such as regression, sutrlimatipn, and
this conflicts with our own egocentric strivings (the
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES
(sexual energy or drive)�
11
The frustration-aggression theory of
Dollard and associates (1939) assumed that aggression is an almost inevitable consequence of frustration
(though frustration can lead to behaviors other than
released.
Psychoanalytic theory describes a variety
of defense mechanisms which permit the expression of aggressive urges in socially acceptable ways.
The
aggressive impuJses can be displaced onto some accep
table object, for example.
It may also be possible to
vicariously satisfy our aggressive urges by observing violence in others (catharsis), a phenomenon whose
existence is disputed by some psychologists (e.g.,
Goldstein, 1975).
Henry and Short (!954) have developed these ideas '
and they are discussed in de.tail in Chapter 14. .
A SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH Goldstein (1975) has argued that aggressive behavior is best viewed as a continuum and that all behaviors
can be seen as containing some amount of aggressiveness.
Thus, violent crime differs quantitatively (in degree) and not qualitatively from the aggression that all of
us engage in on a lesser scale.
Most parents use
12
GENERAL THEORIES
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER
physical punishment; men imprisoned for crimes of violence are frequently first offenders; and assault and battery differs from homicide only in the avail ability of a weapon. For aggression to occUr, there must be an impetus to aggress, the inhibitions against aggressing must be overcome, and the situation must be perceived as appro priate.
In any situation, there are tendencies in the
individual both to aggress and not to aggress, and these tendencies can be categorized as long-term and short-term (or situational). At the sociological level, the subculture to which the offender belongs affects the frequency of crimes of violence.
Also� many youths belong to a subculture
in which the use of violence is approved (Wolfgang, 1958) and in which a wide variety of stimuli (such as a jostle, a derogatory rema�k. etc.) are perceived as justification for an attack in order to demonstrate daring and courage or to defend one 1 s statusToch (1969) has argued that acts of aggression usually are quite consistent with a person 1 s approach to life problems and his habitual patterns of behavior. In his study of assaults by civilians on police offi for example, Toch found that both participants may be partly responsible for the assault, and the role that each plays is consistent with behavior in other situa tions o
13
Many precipitants of violence can be mentjoned. Excessive drinking very frequently precedes violent acts.
Long-term high doses of amphetamines produce
panic and symptoms of paranoia, thereby facilitating the appearance of violent behavior.
Ellinwood (1-970)
reported thirteen cases of homicide and assault in people intoxicated with amphetamines.
Kinzel (1970)
measured the area around the body. into which a person does not like other people to t��spass. He found that this area was greater for a sample of violent offenders than for nonviolent· offenders.
For the violent offenders,
the area was also greater behind th€ body than in front of it, whereas for nonviolent offenders the reverse was true.
Such studies suggest short-term factors that
might trigger violence, and there are probably many other such factors that remain to be discovered. Goldstein (1975) proposed a conflict model for the onset of violence.
Given the simultaneous presenci in
a person of a number of opposing forces favoiing and opposing aggressing in any situation, the more conflict there is, the longer it will take for the individual to act, the more intense his aggression will be, and the greater will be the cognitive consequences for the per petrator of the aggression, such as his need to re evaluate the action and the victim. A currently popular developmental approach to the study of violence and aggression (and to other behaviors)
is social learning theory (Bandura, 1973).
In a long-
14
THE MURDERER AND HIS MURDER
GENERAL THEORI ES
term approach to learning less aggressive behavior,
REFERENCES
parents can be shown how to teach their children not
Angyal, A.:
to be impulsive and violent by their use of less physic
punishment or, in a positive way, by modeling fore bearance in the fact of provocation.
Some experts
endorse the common assumption that sports and the
violence in the media make people more aggressive; other students see these stim�li as cathartic.
Short-term
measures for lessening aggression include reducing
opportunities for alcoholic intoxication, controlling the availability of weapons (especially guns), and changing architectural plans for cities.
For example,
David and Scott (1973) have suggested that Toledo (Ohio) is laid out so as to facilitate property offenses,
whereas Rosario (Argentina} is arranged so as to
Neurosis and treatment.
1965.
Bandura, A.:
Aggression.
Englewood Cliffs:
Hall, 197r.-
Wiley,
Prentice-
David,P., and.Scott, J.: A cross-cultural comparison of juvenile offenders, offenses, due process and
societies.
Criminal. 11: 183-205, 1973.
Dollard, J., Doob, L., Miller, N., Mowrer, 0., and Sears, R.: Frustration and aggression. New Haven: Yale University Press� 1939. Ellinwood, E.: Assault and homicide associated with Amer. J. Psychiat. 127: 1170amphetamine abuse.
1175, 1970.
Goldstein, J.: New York:
Aggression and crimes of violence. Oxford University Press, 1975-.
Henry, A., and Short, J.: Suicide and homicide. New York: Free Press, Hook, E.:
Behavioral implications of the human XYY
genotype.
Science 179: 139-150, 1973.
facilitate assault.
Kinzel, A.:
SUMMARY
Lorenz, K.: On aggression. Jovanovich, 1966.
The goal in this chapter has been to briefly review
New York:
15
Body-buffer zone in violent prisioners.
Amer. J. Psychiat. 127: 59-64, 1970. New York:
Harcourt Brace
Mark, V., and Ervin, F.: Violence and the brain. New York: Harper and Row, 1970.
some general theories of why people behave violently.
Toch, H.:
In the following chapters, theories of violence that
Witkin, H., Mednick, S., Schulsinger, F., Bakkestrom, E.,
specifically deal with homicidal behavior are discussed in greater detail.
Violent men.
Chicago:
Aldine, 1969.
Christiansen, K., Goodenough, D., Hirschhorn, K., Lundsteen, C., Owen, D., Philip, J., Rubin, D.,
and Stockton, M.: Criminality in XYY and XXY men. Science 193: 547-555, 1976.
Wolfgang, M.: Patterns in criminal homicide. Philadelphia: On1vers1ty of Pennsylvania Press,
1958.
0
n ), r
