LOYOLA UNIVERSITY NEW ORLEANS
CRJU-C850-W01: Seminar in Criminology
(Violent Criminal Offenders: Typologies, Profiles and Victims)
Summer 2012
Instructor: Dr. William E. Thornton Office: Monroe 559, Phone: 504-865- 2134 Dept. Phone: 504-865-3323 E-mail: [email protected]
Online Format: The course is offered in an online format spread over an eight week period. The reading materials, discussion questions, course assignments as well as all other information for the course (e.g., power points, web links) are posted on the course Blackboard site for each week. Students should follow the schedule for the course on a weekly basis. Discussion questions are posted for each week of the course and your responses should be given by the assigned date.
I. Course Description:
The course examines an area in the field of criminology dealing with classifying or otherwise categorizing violent offenders. A typology is an organizing device for categorizing large amounts of information into mutually exclusive categories, as in a biological system of taxonomy or the chemical periodic table. A number of typologies are used in the field of criminology, but to date no universally accepted typologies of offenders or legal categories exist. Many of the typologies used are based on legal or semi legal definitions of crime committed by the offender, in addition to information related to the seriousness of the offense, the psychological characteristics of the offender, the career patterns of the offender (e.g., first time, part-time, or “professional” criminals), the places that offenders hunt their victims, the situational contexts of offenders’ crimes, offender motivation, offender versatility, and the victims of offenders. Violent crimes –
1 murder in its different manifestations, sexual assault, armed robbery, aggravated burglary and the like – strike the most fear in citizens because individuals are brought face to face with an offender in an interpersonal violent transaction. Violent crimes have in common the element of the infliction (or attempted infliction), of physical/psychological injury and/or death to the victim. Some crimes such as armed robbery are both “crimes against the person” and property crimes. Robbery involves violence and the element of force (e.g., a gun, knife, or other weapon is used) or threat of force. The recent crime of “car jacking” would similarly fit this category. Other types of crime such as child abuse, parental abuse, and intimate partner violence (IPV) are classified as violent crimes. More covert types of violence (which result from corporate, political, or organized syndicate criminality) fit the category of violent crimes. There are many types of criminals other than violent offenders but this course will focus on violent offenders. Causal models of criminal violence are among the most numerous in the discipline of criminology. This is interesting in that research, e.g., Uniform Crime Reports, self studies, and victim surveys (National Crime Victimization Survey), show us that violent crime is the least likely crime to occur yet it is the type of crime most often to be studied, reported and discussed. This may be due to the great cultural popularity of violent crime topics (e.g., television, a movies, and internet), the relative ease of obtaining crime data and the specificity of legal definitions (criminal codes). This course will be devoted to the study of the classification of violent crimes, offenders, and victims. One particular classification scheme devised by FBI profilers John E. Douglas and Robert Ressler (see Crime Classification Manual) will be discussed where the researchers have extended the crime typology for use in the investigation of violent crimes and possible apprehension of violent offenders.
Specialty typologies in the field of sexual crimes, sexual offenders and their victims have more recently evolved which have been extremely useful in both treatment and management practices of offenders and victims, as well as in the apprehension of sexual offenders. The theoretical and empirical research on sex offenders is immense, yet conflicting, which suggests that further research is needed in the field. We review this area in detail in the course focusing on violent sexual offenders in particular.
The development of criminal typologies is no easy task, especially in view of the changing nature of crimes and laws. Many new variations of crime have emerged in our highly technical society. Early criminology texts were mainly about street violence, theft and drug abuse. Criminologists now also devote attention to the study of organized crime; cybercrime; white collar; corporate, and political and terrorist crimes, as well as human rights violations and other more globally oriented types of criminality. Many of these typologies will be discussed in the course. Select material from Frank Hagan’s work on Crime Types and Criminals will be provided online in the course.
In the context of classifying criminal offenses and offenders, the role of the victim is often relegated to a subscript within the offender classification scheme. Victims have for too long been a secondary subject in criminology. The reason for the late-developing interest in victims by criminologists lies largely in the structure of society and its influence on the system of justice. In early history, the victim and the victim's family played an integral part in the adjudication of crime. In many pre-industrial societies,
2 restitution – paying back the victim or the victim's family for wrongdoing - was a direct way to avert vendettas or bloodletting between disputing families. Even violent crimes were handled by property compensation to the victim's family. The victim's role in adjudication diminished with the advent of larger governments. Crime was eventually treated as a disruption of public order. The “state” was legally defined as the wronged party. Harm to the victim may have started the wheels of justice turning, but controlling the criminal's conduct and attitude and the victim's rage and revenge (both of which were seen as disruptive) became the focus of the criminal justice system. In the middle of the 20th Century, criminologists rediscovered the “lost” victim. The first typology of victims by Hans von Hentig (1948) and Benjamin Mendelsohn (1956) broke ground for more recent typologies. Criminological typologies of victims normally have one or two fundamental bases or variables, specifically, the relative responsibility of the victim for the crime (to what degree is the victim culpable for the actions of the offender) and the relative vulnerability of the victim to crime (what social conditions or environments lead to more or less risk of crime for the person). Investigative typologies of violent crime victims generally focus on other variable such as: (1) Was the victim known to the offender? (2) What were the victim's chances of becoming a target for violent crime? and (3) what was the type, style, and number of victims, etc? More recently the field of victimology has expanded the scope of the problem facing victims of crime, the measurement of rates of victimization, the typologies of victims and offenders, victim services, legislation and the field forensic victimology.
II. Course Objectives:
• To understand the history of criminal typologies in the classification of violent offenders and their offenses
• To understand contemporary criminal typologies in the classification of violent offenders and their offenses
• To understand the unique classification of sexual offenses and sexual offenders
• To understand and utilize forensic criminological crime and offender classification schemes in the investigation of violent offenders and their victims
• To understand victim typologies involving the study of crime victims and their roles
III: Grading Scale: 93 – 100 = A; 84 -92 = B; 76 – 83 = C; 63 – 75 = D
IV: Course Assignments: See VII: Course Requirements for specific assignments and grading weights.
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V. Course Materials
(1) Terence D. Miethe, Richard C. McCorkle, and Shelley J. Listwan. Crime Profiles: The Anatomy of Dangerous Persons, Place, and Situations. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing Co, 2006 --- abbreviated CP (required book)
(2) Ann W. Burgess, Cheryl Regehr, and Albert Roberts. Victimology: Theories and Applications. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2010---abbreviated VTA (required books)
(3) Karen J. Terry. Sexual Offenses and Offenders: Theory, Practice, and Policy, Belmont, CA: Thomson, 2006 --- abbreviated SO (required book)
(4) Frank E. Hagan. Crime Types and Criminals. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010 ------abbreviated CT (excerpts online)
Abbreviations used to distinguish between texts:
. CCM – Crime Classification Manual (on reserve) . CP – Crime Profiles SO – Sexual Offenses and Offenders CT- Crime Types and Criminals VTA – Victimology: Theories and Applications
Materials on E-Reserve:
John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess, Allen G. Burgess, and Robert K. Ressler. Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes. New York: Lexington Books, 1992 --- abbreviated CCM (Excerpts of this work can be found as separate links.)
Films: (1) Charles Whitman, (2) Jeffrey Dahmer, (3) Ted Kaczynski, (4) Angel of Death: Killer Nurse, (5) Punishing the Pedophiles, (6) Violence in the Workplace
VI. Course Outline (Week 1) May 21 – May 27
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I. CLASSIFICATION OF CRIME: TYPOLOGIES
History of Crime Typologies and Classification Systems CP, Chp. 1, CCM, introduction 1. Early Typologies (some examples) • Cesare Lombroso • Charles Goring • Healy and Bronner • Early clinical-categorical psychological strategies • Marshall Clinard and Richard Quinney 2. Crime Typologies CP, Chp. 1 • Legal-Based Typologies • Offender-Based Typologies • Victim-Based Typologies • Situational Context-Based Typologies • Multi-Trait Typologies 3. Major Dimensions Underlying Crime Types CP, Chp. 1 • Offender's Criminal Careers • Offender Versatility • Level of Crime Planning • Offender Motivation • Target Selection Factors 4. Sources of Data about Offenders • Official Data – UCR, incident reports, supplemental reports • National Crime Victimization Surveys • Offender Interviews • Ethnographic studies • Autobiographies 5. Theories of Criminality and Crime CP, Chp. 2 Micro-Level Theories of Criminality Biological Theories Psychological Theories Learning Theories Social Control Theories Theories of Group Differences in Aggregate Rates Theories of Cross National Differences in Crime Rates Anomie Theory and the American Dream Macro-Level Ecological Theories Cultural and Subcultural Theories
PowerPoints: (1) Crime Typologies in Criminology; (2) Miethe and McCorkle’s Major Dimensions of Crime Types; (3) Selected Theories of Criminal Violence
5 Discussion Question for Week 1: (Answers should be posted by May 28)
Do you think the criteria used by Miethe and McCorkle for their study of crime types (criminal careers, offender versatility, level of crime planning offender motivation, target selection factors) makes sense? Explain.
Film: Theodore J. Kaczynski: The Unabomber
(Week 2) May 28 – June 3
6. Homicides and Aggravated Assaults CP, Chp. 3 Definitions of crime types Trends over time and social correlates Offender Profile Offense Specialization and Escalation Victim Profile • Situational Elements and Circumstances Motivational and circumstances for murder and assault The victim-offender relationship • Situational Dynamics Temporal and spatial patterns Weapon use Co-offending patterns Target-selection strategies • Specialized Types of Homicides and Assaults Interpersonal disputes Instrumental felony offenses Youth group offending Chronic Violent offenders School Shootings Workplace Violence Honor Murder --Multiple Murderers --Serial Murderers Prevalence, Characteristics of serial killers, Etiology, Victims of serial killers, Historical and contemporary studies, Profiling serial killers - IPP article, CCM, p.p. 21-22, Case studies Politically motivated violence Violence Prevention and Intervention Strategies
7. Crime Classification Manual
. The Classifications CCM, Introduction, Chp. 1 Defining Characteristics
6 Victimology Crime Scene Indicators Forensic Findings Crime Classification Sample Worksheet
. Homicide CCM, Chp. 1 Criminal Enterprise Homicide Personal Cause Homicide Arguments/Conflict Murder Authority Killing Revenge Killing Non-specific Motive Killing Extremist Homicide Mercy/Hero Homicide Hostage Murder Sexual Homicide Organized sexual homicide; Disorganized sexual homicide Group Cause Homicide Arson CCM, Chp. 2 . . Crime Scene Investigation: Detection and Staging and Personization at Scene, CCM, Chp. 4
. Modus Operandi and Signature Aspects of Violent Crime, CCM, Chp. 5
PowerPoints: (1) Homicides and Assaults; (2) Crime Classification Manual; (3) Serial Murder Introduction
Discussion Question for Week 2: (Answers should be posted by June 4)
For violent crimes such as homicide and assault, the distinction is made between instrumental and expressive motivations for the commission of the crime. On the surface, this distinction does not appear to be such a big deal. However, in actual practice, such as the distinction between voluntary manslaughter (e.g., heat of passion) and first degree murder is made based on the motive. Also in civil liability suits a distinction is often made regarding the foreseeability of crimes which are expressive and crimes which are planned in assessing the duty of a business owner to provide protection for invited customers. Discuss other reasons why you think it may be important to focus on these two motivational distinctions in trying to ascertain why a violent crime was committed.
Film: Charles Whitman; Angel of Death: Killer Nurse
7 (Week 3) June 4 – June 10
8. Personal and Institutional Robbery CP, Chp. 5 Definition of crime types Trends over time and social correlates Offender Profile Victim Profile Situational Elements and Circumstances Specialized types of robberies Chronic, Professional, Intensive and Occasional Armed Robbers Bank robbers Convenience Store robbers Street robberies Home invasion robbery Carjacking Robbery Prevention and Intervention Strategies
9. Residential and Nonresidential Burglary CP, Chp. 6 Definition of crime types Aggravated Burglary Trends over time and social correlates Offender Profile Victim Profile Situational Elements and Circumstances Specialized types of burglaries Novice burglars Professional burglars Burglary Prevention and Intervention Strategies 10. Occupational and Organized Crime, CP, 8; CT- material on blackboard site Definitions of crime types Trends over time and social correlates of white collar crime Offender profile Victim profile Situational elements and circumstances White collar crime syndromes White collar crime Prevention and Intervention strategies
11. Crime Control and the Anatomy of Dangerous Persons, Places, and Situations CP, Chp. 10
The offender profile Temporal and spatial distributions Situational elements and circumstances Crime control strategies CCM, Chp. 5
8 PowerPoints: (1) Robbery and Burglary; (2) Carjacking
Discussion Questions for Week 3: (Answers should be posted by June 11)
A statement is made in the Crime Profiles book that “the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in curbing personal and institutional robbery rests on the certainty and severity of criminal sanctions” (77). In Louisiana the sanction for armed robbery is “imprisonment at hard labor for not less than ten years and for not more than ninety-nine years without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. When a dangerous weapon is used in the commission or attempted commission of armed robbery, an additional five years is added to the sentence. Armed robbery in all its variations is a very prevalent crime in the United States? So are the text authors wrong in their initial statement about how best to control armed robbery? Elaborate.
(Week 4) June 11 – June 17
II. SEXUAL OFFENSES AND OFFENDERS
Part l: Sexual Offenses, Offenders, and Victims
1. Sexual Offenses and Offenders, SO, Chp. 1 (Readings from: Sexual Offenses and Offenders (Karen J. Terry’s book – SO)
What is a sexual offense? Prevalence and scope of sexual offending Criminal justice data Victimization data Social service data Research estimates Telescoping
2. Sexual Assault CP, Chp. 4 (Note this reading comes from Crime Profiles book); Rape and Sexual Assault CCM, Chp. 3 (Note hits reading comes from the Crime Classification Manual on E reserve)
Definition of crime types Trends over time and social correlates Offender Profile Victim Profile Situational Elements and Circumstances Specialized types of sexual assaults
9 Serial sexual-homicide offenders Child molesters Adolescent Sex offenders Date rape and intra-familiar sexual assault ` Sexual Assault Prevention and Intervention Strategies
3. Types and Typologies of Sexual Offenders, SO, Chp. 5
PowerPoints: (1) Who are Sexual Offenders; (2) Pedophile Presentation
Discussion Questions for Week 4: (Answers should be posted by June 18) What makes a sex offense a sex offense?
(Week 5) June 18 – June 24
4. Historical Perspectives on Sexual Behavior, SO, Chp. 2
5. Etiology of Sexually Deviant Behavior, SO, Chp. 3
6. Cycle of Sexual Offending, SO, Chp. 4
7. Juvenile Offenders, SO, Chp. 6
8. Victims, SO, Chp. 7
PowerPoints: (1) Who are Sexual Offenders; (2) Sexual Offenses and Offenders: Juveniles
Discussion Questions for Week 5: (Answers should be posted by June 25 Why do individuals commit sexual offenses? Support your answer based on some of the common etiological explanations.
Film: Jeffrey Dahmer
View the DVD on Jeffrey Dahmer. We know he was a serial murderer. Using what you have learned about “sexual offenders,” discuss the link between sex and violence for Jeffrey. When did he link these two things together?
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(Week 6) June 25 – July 1
Part II: The Response to Sexual Offending
9. Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Offenders, SO, Chp. 8
10. Management and Supervision of Sex Offenders in the Community, SO, Chp. 9
11. Registration and Community Notification Laws, SO, Chp. 10,
12. Controlling The Sexually Violent Predator, SO, Chp. 11
Part III: The Future of Research on Sexual Offenses and Offenders
13. Sexual Offending: Future Directions of Research, SO, Chp. 12
PowerPoints: (1) Paraphilias and Treatment of Sexually Deviant Behavior; (2) Sexual Offending, Treatment, Management and Law; (3) Serial Murder Paraphilia
Discussion Questions for Week 6: (Answers should be posted by July 13) We have to be careful when we classify terms as sexual offenses or offenders as sexual offenders. There is a tendency to forget that these are violent crimes that basically have nothing to do with “sex.” Why do you think we isolate these crimes and discuss them so often within the framework of “sex crimes.” Does this somehow make the offenders “different” from other violent offenders deserving more treatment? Do you think they can be rehabilitated?
Film: Punishing the Pedophiles
(Week 7) July 2 – July 8
III: VICTIMOLOGY
Victimology (All material is from Ann Burgess, Cheryl Regehr, and Albert Roberts. Victimology: Theories and Applications)
11 1. Crime and Victimology (Burgess and Roberts) o Victimology and criminology o Measuring rates of victimization o Forensic victimology and investigative profiling
2. Victimology Concepts and Theories (Burgess and Regehr) o Victim typologies o Victim-offender relationship o Victim vulnerability, precipitation, and blame o Victim concept analysis
3. Victim Services, Legislation and Treatment (Burgess, Roberts and Regehr)
4. The Justice Systems (Burgess and Regehr)
5. Child and Adolescent Victimization (Burgess and Clements) o Scope of the problem o Typology of child maltreatment o Typology of sex offenders of children o Effects of traumatic events on children
6. Victims of School Shooters (O’Toole and Burgess) o Scope of the problem o Cases of school shooters o Myths about school shooters o Motivations of school shooters o Threat assessment
7. Intimate Partner Violence (Regehr and Roberts) o Scope of the problem o Legal responses o Effects of intimate partner violence on victims o Continuum of intimate violence o Batterer typologies
8. Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault (Burgess and Brown) o Scope of the problem o Typology of sexual trauma o Psychological impact of sexual assault o Classifying rapists
PowerPoints: Overview of Victimization
Discussion Question for Week 7 (Answers should be posted by July 9)
12 As noted in Victimology (chapter 7), the term intimate partner violence (IPV) usurped the earlier term, domestic violence in explaining physical, psychological, or sexual harm to someone in a relationship. Explain why you think this change in classification took place, and what are the broader implications of the change regarding such things as identifying the scope of the problem, legal responses to the problem, and impact on the victims.
Film: Violence in the Workplace
(Week 8) July 9 – July 15
9. Stalking Victims ( Regehr) o Scope of the problem o Typology of stalking o Effects of stalking on victims
10. Elder Abuse Victims ( Regehr and Burgess)
11. Homicides: Victims, Families and Communities (Burgess and Roberts)
12. Hate Crimes (Regehr)
13. Victims of Cybercrime (Regehr and Burgess)
14. Other Forms of Victimization
PowerPoints: Serial Murder Victims
Discussion Question for Week 8 (Answers should be posted by July 16) Are victims of cybercrime, e.g., stalking, bullying, identity theft, cyber terrorism, etc. really the equivalent to other types of crime victims who are physically and psychologically assaulted or otherwise harmed via interpersonal relations? Explain your response. (Burgess and Roberts note in Chapter 1 certain fundamental scientific criteria of victims including suffering (from the actual act as well as the victims and others reaction to the event), the importance of the social factor (i.e., the social implications of the injurious act), and victim attribution of injury to the culpability of another person.) ______
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VII. Course Requirements
1. Term Paper (40%): JULY 18, 2012 Paper on School Shootings: Offenders, Victims, and Situational Circumstances
Violence in the nation’s schools and institutions of higher learning are almost exclusively an American phenomenon. Although we find school shooting in other countries from time to time, these shootings take on more terrorist or religious overtones with school victims being targets for a “greater” cause, and the perpetrators exclusively being strangers from the outside who kill students and teachers to attract national or international attention for their various “causes.” These crimes generally involve the mass murder or spree killings (rampage killing extended over a period of time) of students, teachers, and others connected with an educational institution killed by either another student who attends or has attended the school. While some of these shootings are motivated by acts of revenge perpetrated against specific people, most involve generally random selections of victims for murder based on motivations such as perceived intimidation, bullying, revenge for perceived wrongs, etc. . . . Many of the school shootings that have occurred result in the perpetrator (s) killing himself after his rampage. Although there are other types of murders that take place in the nation’s schools each year such as gang violence spilling over into a public school, usually targeting specific offender-victim interactions, these types of homicide generally do not fit the “typology” of school shootings which have attracted world wide attention and numerous reports such as the mass shootings at Virginia Tech (see Virginia Tech Review Panel Report, August 2007; Report to the President On Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy, June, 2007) www.hhs.gov/vtreport.html
After each shooting in the U.S., law enforcement (e.g., FBI profilers) and other experts seek to find certain similarities among the perpetrators including elaborate “profiles” of offenders listing various social deficits in the offender’s past as well as a list of psychological disorders thought to plague such individuals. New efforts to better foresee the actions of future school shooters are brought forth by the experts and new techniques are developed to deal with school shootings when they occur again. Unfortunately, “one- size-fits-all” solutions have not been very helpful in preventing future shootings both in public and private lower schools and colleges and universities. It may be that we simply are not able to prevent school shootings, just as we are unable to prevent most other types of murders in the U.S. Or it may be that we have not focused on the right variables to zero in on the early warning signs that might point to potential school shooters. However, it almost appears that we have not left any stone unturned in our efforts to compile lists of factors thought to cause school violence. (Go to www.fbi.gov and search under school violence for the report on School Violence: Crime in Schools and Colleges. This is an interesting report which has a lot of information.)
Since this course examines typologies of crimes, offenders and victims, I would like you to turn your energies on studying some aspect of school shootings in the United States. You can focus on shootings in the lower schools (i.e., private and public grade schools
14 and high schools) or on college/university school shootings. There is probably more information on murder in the lower schools simply because of the sheer number of these shootings (such as the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton Colorado in 1999) but there is not a shortage of university killings (more recently Northern Illinois. University where five students were murdered and 14 others were injured in a lecture hall (Feb. 14, 2008) or Virginia Tech University in which 33 people were murdered on April 16, 2007).
In their book, Crime Profiles, Miethe and McCorkle refer to the common syndromes of a crime, defined “as combinations of offenders, victims, and situational circumstances.” The syndrome approach attempts to differentiate key distinctions in the major elements of a crime. If we focus on school shootings in a junior high school, what are some distinct differences and/or similarities in the nature of the offenders? What we do know is that all of the shooters have been males but aside from that how have these offenders differed in terms of age, race, family histories, mental health, personality traits, past offense behaviors, red flags in pre- shooting behaviors, history with firearms and explosives, types of weapons used, acquisition of weapons, peer group interactions, hobbies, sports, grades, time of day of event, partner or no partner, etc. Is there anything unique or similar about the victims of these school shooters such as age, gender, race, relationship to the offender, location at time of shooting, victim precipitation (e.g., had the victim bullied the offender), etc.? And, what do we know about the situational circumstances of shootings? What was the climate of the school like - easy going or order and control? Was their a bullying problem in the school or factions between different types of students or student groups? Was there adequate communication between students and teachers and school administrators? What security existed in the school? Were there school resource officers on duty? Had there been security problems in the school before the shooting event? Was there a history of alcohol and drug use in the school? Had there been any effort on the part of teachers or school administration to raise awareness among students about school violence in light of the publicity about school shootings that have been occurring for the past 10 or 15 years across the country? (See Chapter 6 in Burgess, Regehr, and Roberts, Victimology).
I would like you to write a research paper on one, or more, of the syndromes (offenders, victims, and situational circumstances) of school shootings. You need to focus either on lower school (grade school, junior high/high school) or campus (college or university) environments where school shooting have taken place. Below are some possible topics but I am open to others if you have your own idea or area of interest:
Develop a typology of school shooters based on select criteria. Assess profiling efforts of school shooters - have they been of use for school teachers, administrators or security? Evaluate the use of “threat assessments” in raising awareness of the possibility of school shootings occurring on campuses. Do schools have a duty to warn students and parents of potentially dangerous students in their midst?
15 Develop a typology of victims of school shootings. We know quite a bit about the perpetrators of school shootings but haven’t spent too much time examining victims. Examine and evaluate the various profiling instruments that have been developed (e.g., FBI School Shooter Assessment) to screen students who come to teachers and administrators attention as “potentially dangerous” individuals. Compare and analyze the differences in the motives of school shooters in high schools (or other levels of grade and junior high schools) and on college campuses. Are these offenders one in the same or do they differ? Do a content analysis of school shooters with respect to the psychological label (e.g., mentally ill, depression, borderline personality, psychopath, child conduct disorder) that was given to them after they were apprehended. What has been the role of the mass media and internet in influencing school shooters? While it may not be the single cause of school shootings, it certainly has some influence.
The paper should be about 20 pages long with appropriate references and a bibliography.
2. Analysis of Unabomber (20%): View the film on Theodore J. Kaczynski: The Unabomber: Due JUNE 15, 2012
Employ the major dimensions of crime types developed by Miethe, McCorkle and Listwan in Crime Profiles to analyze Theodore J. Kaczynski, aka, The Unabomber. Analyze him as to his (1) Criminal Career, (2) Versatility, (3) Level of Crime Planning, (4) Motivation, and (5) Target Selection Factors. Do this in a five page paper using the five major dimensions as headings for the paper. Feel free to obtain additional information about Kaczynski from the numerous sources about him on the internet.
3. Analysis of Punishing the Pedophiles (20%): Due JULY 6, 2012. Based on your reading of the various efforts to treat sexual offenders such as pedophiles including surgical and chemical castration to reduce their sexual drives, discuss some of the points made in the film about the success of such practices in changing offenders behaviors as well as the possible ethical and legal aspects of more dramatic forms of intervention including castration, use of hormone injections and other pharmacological means. Some critics suggest that these forms of treatment are in reality punishments. What do you think? Your paper should be about 3 – 5 pages in length
4. Discussion Questions: 25%. Questions are at the end of each section and posting dates are given.
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Extra Credit (Strictly Optional)
16 Annotated Bibliography: Due JULY 18, 2012
With 63 million adherents, America's Roman Catholic Church is the third largest in the world. Yet, the church has dwindling numbers of priests, experiencing a steady decline since the mid-1960s. Additionally, church converts also have been leveling off from relatively large numbers in the 1950s to smaller numbers in the 2000s. Added to problems affecting the Church has been the revelation that perhaps hundreds of now older priests sexually assaulted hundreds of young children in archdioceses throughout the United States. Certain priests have been accused of molesting literally dozens of children throughout their years in the priesthood with little or no consequences even though their crimes were known by the Church hierarchy and by other priests. For example, former Boston priest John J. Geoghan has been accused of molesting as many as 130 young victims over a period of 30 years. The Boston Globe reported that the Archdiocese of Boston moved Geoghan, whom it knew to be a pedophile, from parish to parish over 30 years. The cardinal, who had previously defended the archdiocese's handling of the case, recently apologized to the victims, now adults. The Globe further reported that the archdiocese had quietly paid $10 million to settle about 50 of the cases against Geoghan. The cardinal apologized and, according to people familiar with the situation, turned over to state authorities the names of between 60 and 70 priests who had been accused of abusing children over the past 40 years. Two years ago, in response to publicity about priest pedophiles, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops held a conference on the sexual abuse of minors. The conference reported that at the present rate, child-sexual-abuse settlements would cost the Church $1 billion over the next 10 years. The conference advised that the public be dealt with honestly and openly.
Experts long ago abandoned the notion that priests could be cured of pedophilia. The goal of treatment has generally been to prevent a relapse. About a half dozen major treatment centers across the country are used by the Roman Catholic Church to treat pedophile priests. Treatments range from monitoring and attempting to alter priests’ arousal levels to prescribed antidepressants and drugs like Depo-Provera to suppress sexual appetites. In all, treatments can last a few months to a year, at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 a month. If treatment managers decide that a priest is ready after treatment – based on close observation and psychological testing – the Church decides where he goes next.
Little systematic research has been done on the phenomenon of sexual assault and other crimes committed by Church personnel. It should be noted that priests have no monopoly on pedophilia and other sexual crimes. Clergymen from all denominations have attacked children and adults and have been arrested and convicted. To be attacked by a priest or minister is, according to victims, a double betrayal; the victims harbor the outrage and shattered innocence of a child abused by a parent (Newsweek, March 4,
17 2002: 42-53).
Your assignment is to conduct research and develop an annotated bibliography with 15 sources on some type of “religious crime” involving religious personnel who sexually assault individuals - children and adults - within the confines of their religious roles. You are free to concentrate on the offenders, possibly exploring “defining characteristics” of the offense and offender. For example, what is the profile of the offenders as an aggregate offending group? What risks did offenders take in perpetrating their crimes? Did there crimes occur over a long period of time? You may also concentrate on the victims, i.e., the “victimology” of the offense. Were the victims known to the offenders? What were the victim's chances of becoming a target for the crimes? Did victim precipitation or facilitation take place? Your assignment should include the following:
(1) A central theme or topic that will be the focus of the annotated bibliography. This should be about two (2) pages in length and detail briefly the central problem or research topic you wish to study including brief documentation of the problem. In other words, this is the topic that you will be collecting annotated bibliographic references from. If you are interested in examining the reasons that known pedophile priests gave for their offenses and who were their targeted victims, this is what the two pages will be about. Then, you begin seeking research examples that have been done in this area.
(2) A list of 15 citations to books, journal articles, web sites, and other documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (200-300 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph(s), the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
The following is a sample annotated bibliography entry for a study:
John Jay College. 2004. The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950-2002. Washington, D.C. USCCB.
The authors, researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, collected data and provided a descriptive analysis of the nature and scope of the problem of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The study examined the prevalence of allegations and the nature of alleged offenses of child sexual abuse by priests and deacons between 1950 and 2002 in the United States. Victims made allegations against 4,392 priests, accounting for approximately 4 percent of priests who were active in the ministry for the years of the study. Abuse cases peaked in the 1970s. The cases of abuse occurred across the U.S. consistently, with an average of 3-6 percent of priests per region having allegations of abuse made against them. The study also examined the costs of victim compensation, more than $572 million per victim, paid out by the Catholic Church. In addition, the researchers examined specific information about the types of priests who were charged with abuse. The majority of abusers was diocesan priests and most had
18 the duties of pastor or associate pastor at the time of the abuse. The priests with allegation of abuse ranged in age from 18 to 90 at the time they committed their first act of abuse. The majority had one victim, though 149 priests were responsible for abusing close to 3000 victims, about 26 percent of the total. The majority of the victims, 81 percent were male and between the ages of 11 and 14. Approximately 6 percent of the victims were under age 7. This is the only age group where there were more female than male victims. Most priests committed more than one type of offense against an individual victim. Overall, they had allegations of more than 20 types of offenses. The most common offenses alleged against priests were touching under the victim’s clothes (57%), touching over the victim’s clothes (57%), victim disrobed (28%), cleric performing oral sex (25%0, and penile penetration or attempted penile penetrations (25%). Victims reported approximately 14 percent of abuse allegations to the police, most of which were investigated (Source: Terry, 2006: 232-234)
VIII. Further Reading:
Bartol, Curt R., Criminal Behavior: A Psychosocial Approach, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995
Canter, David, “Offender Profiles,” Psychologist, 2, 1989
Canter, David, Criminal Shadows: Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer, London: Harper- Collins, 1994
Canter, David, “Offender Profiling and Criminal Differentiation,” Legal and Criminological Psychology (2000)
Douglas, John. E., Burgess, Ann W., Burgess, Allen G., and Ressler, Robert K, Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes, New York: Lexington Books, 1992
Douglas, John and Olshaker, Mark, The Anatomy of Motive, New York: Scribner,
Douglas, John and Olshaker, Mark, Journey into Madness: The FBI’s Premier Investigator Penetrates the Minds and Motives of the Most Terrifying Serial Killers, New York: Pocket Books, 1997
Groth, Nicholas, and Birnbaum, Jean H., Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender, New York: Plenum, 1979
Grubin, Don, “Offender Profiling,” The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 6 (1995)
Harper, D.W., Voigt, L., and Thornton, W.E. Violence: Do We Know It When We
19 See It? Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2012
Hazelwood, Robert R., Ressler, Robert K., Depue, Roger L., and Douglas, John E., “Criminal Personality Profiling,” in Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation, edited by Robert R. Hazelwood and Ann Wolbert Burgess, Boca Raton, Fla: CRC Press, 1993
Hickey, Eric W., Serial Murderers and Their Victims, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1997 Holmes, Ronald M. and Holmes, Stephen T., Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996
Holmes, Ronald M. and DeBurger, J., Serial Murder. Newbury Park: Sage, 1988
Knight, R.A., “A taxonomic analysis of child molesters,” in Human Sexual Aggression: Current Perspectives, edited by R.A. Prentky and V.L. Quinsey, New York: New York Academy of Science, 1988
Ormerod, David, C., “The Evidential Implications of Psychological Profiling,” Criminal Law Review (1996)
Pinizzotto, Anthony J. and Finkel, Norman J., “Criminal Personality Profiling,” Law and Human Behavior 14 (1990)
Ressler, Robert. and Shachtman, Tom, Whoever Fights Monsters. Lexington, MA: Lexington, 1992
Ressler, Robert., Burgess, Ann., and Douglas, John, Sexual Homicide. Lexington, MA: Lexington, 1988
Salfati, Gabrielle C. and Canter, David, “Differentiating Stranger Murders: Profiling Offender Characteristics from Behavioral Styles,” Behavioral Sciences and the Law 17 (1999)
Thornton, W.E., Vogt, L., and Harper, D.W. Why Violence? Leading Questions Regarding the Conceptualization and Reality of Violence in Society. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2012
Voigt, Lydia, Thornton, William E., Barrile, Leo, and Seaman, Jerry, Criminology and Justice, New York: McGraw Hill, 1994
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