Journal Article Review
“Homicide Without an Apparent Motive”
Citation
Holcomb, W. R., & Daniel, A. E. (1988). Homicide Without an Apparent
Motive. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 6(3), 429–437. https://doiorg.lili.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/bsl.2370060310
(http://web.a.ebscohost.com.lili.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vi
d=1&sid=4fc3d33f-75bb-414f-8379-16990f394a37%40sessionmgr4007)
Hypothesis
Individuals who commit homicide without apparent motive tend to have
similar psychiatric and demographic variables.
Independent
Variable
Parental involvement/ treatment, work performance, introverted
personalities, substance abuse
Dependent
variable
Homicide without a cause
Sample
Demographics
206 males charged with homicide and manslaughter who were admitted to a
state maximum security forensic unit for pretrial evaluations, both from
rural and metropolitan areas, sample represented about 15% of all murder
and nonnegligent manslaughter committed over 1976-1981
Procedure of the
experiment
Results
General
conclusions
Sample was divided into those who committed homicide without apparent
motive/ those with a clear motive, from there they put them into motive
categories (self-defense, accidental, sexually motivated, during commission
of crime, during an argument, and no apparent motive) and compared these
to no motive. All details and variables were put into chi-square analyses to
test for differences.
● Men without apparent motive were less likely to have a history of
substance abuse
● Are more likely to commmit without motive if they are recently
released from prison
● Without motive tends to deny the crime or claim amnesia
● Without motive less likely to commit suicide, more likely to be
assessed as psychotic
● Forensic teams often find no motive homidide defendents as not
responsible for the crime during pretrial evaluations
● Often they are released when no motive, attributed to mental illness
or psychotic tendencies. Behavior described in catathymic crisis
● Rehab doesnt help often, it increases hostility
● One third of no motive compare to 15% motive recent releases
Violent prisoners need more research, negative effects of prison could help
reform in th esystems and find new ways of rehab
Better planning for violent offender discharges should be found
People who kill without motive are more likely to have a higher level of
psychopathology, evaluations are difficult because of psychogenic amnesia.
Personal
response
Further studies will be used to explore characteristics further, personality
and situational variables in homicide without motive will be used to
understand extreme violence better