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Body Disposal Patterns of Sexual Murderers: Implications for Offender Profiling

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Abstract

Offender profiling postulates that crime scene behavior should predict certain offender characteristics. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between offender characteristics, situational factors, and body disposal patterns. Sequential logistic regression analysis on a sample of 85 sexual murderers shows that those who were in a relationship at the time of the crime and who present organized psychological characteristics are more likely to move the victim’s body after the homicide. However, when the victim is older and a conflict with the offender occurred prior to the crime, the body is more likely to be left at the crime scene. Implications for offender profiling are discussed in light of the results.

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Notes

  1. All senior case management officers of each institution were contacted and asked to identify in their current caseload all offenders who had committed a crime that corresponded to the sexual homicide definition used in the current study.

  2. Only three offenders had committed two murders so it was decided to analyze the information concerning the first crime.

  3. Swets (1988) proposed that AUCs between 0.50 and 0.70 indicate low accuracy, AUCs between 0.70 and 0.90 indicate moderate accuracy, and AUCs between 0.90 and 1.00 indicate high accuracy.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article and Patrick Michaud for his continuous effor in collecting some of the data.

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Correspondence to Eric Beauregard.

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The views expressed in this study are not necessarily those of the Correctional Service of Canada.

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Beauregard, E., Field, J. Body Disposal Patterns of Sexual Murderers: Implications for Offender Profiling. J Police Crim Psych 23, 81–89 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-008-9027-6

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