FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
LECTURE 6
Psychological Profiling of
Homicidal Offenders
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Recommended Reading
Schlesinger, L.B. (2000), Serial Offenders: Current Thought,
Recent Findings. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
 Brittain, R.P. (1970). The sadistic murderer. Medicine, Science and
Law. 10, 198-207.
 Meloy, J.R. (2000). The nature and dynamics of sexual homicide.
Aggression and Violent Behaviour. 5, 1-22.
 Prentky, R.A. et al. (1989). The presumptive role of fantasy in
serial sexual homicide. American Journal of Psychiatry. 146,
889-891.
 Ressler, R.K., Burgess, A.W. and Douglas, J.E. (1986). Sexual
Killers and their victims: Identifying patterns through crime scene
analysis. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 1, 288-308.
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Recommended Reading
 Satten, J. et al. (1960). Murder without apparent motive.
American Journal of Psychiatry. 117, 48-53.
 Schlesinger, L.B. (1996). The catathymic
crisis
(1912-present): a review and clinical study. Aggression and
Violent Behaviour. 1, 307-316.
 Schlesinger, L.B. Murder and Sex Murder: Psychopathology
and Psychodynamics. Lethal Violence: A Sourcebook on Fatal,
Domestic, Acquaintance and Stranger Violence (Chapter 14)
Edited by Hall.
 Warren, J.L, Hazelwood, R.R. and Dietz, P.E. (1996). The
sexually sadistic serial killer. Journal of Forensic Sciences. 41,
970-974.
 Wertham, F. (1978). The catathymic crisis in LL. Ktash, S.B.
Ktash and L.B. Schlesinger (Eds.) Violence: Perspectives on
Murder and Aggression. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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Learning Outcomes
 Consider the role of the victim in homicide.
 Explain the historical background to the study of
murder and describe the difficulties associated
with defining “serial homicide”.
 Describe characteristics that are associated with
serial murderers.
 Examine Motivational Models for Murder.
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Victimology
Study of Victims as a Science
Wolfgang (1958) – 588 murders in Philadelphia
 94% of the same race
 87% knew each other
 82% male and less than 35
 76% of victims were male
 Stabbing most common method
 66% of offenders has previous convictions
 53/54% of offenders and victims were under the
influence of alcohol (Meloy, 2000)
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Classification of Murder
 Various classifications of murder have been
offered by theorists in the forensic domain.
Serial murder, mass murder, sexual murder,
contract murder, etc.
 There are many aspects to murder and the
motivation of the perpetrator is not always
understandable, particularly in bizarre murder
cases.
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Classification of Murder
 Sexual elements in homicide cases are not always
always obvious, and may often be ignored by Law
Enforcement agencies.
 Problems in the identification of sexual murders
may be as a result of the varying definitions of
“serial murder” as well as the difficulty in
associating covert sexual dynamics in serial
murder cases.
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What Is Sexual Homicide?
 Burgess, Hartman, Ressler,
Douglas &
McCormack (1986) - sexual homicide results
when one person kills another in the context of
power, control, sexuality and aggressive brutality.
 Schlesinger (1999) “sexual homicide becomes
serial when there are multiple victims involved,
and multiple locations, following a “cooling off”
period between the murders”.
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What Is Sexual Homicide?
 Meloy (2000) “as the intentional killing of a
person during which there is sexual behaviour by
the perpetrator”.
 FBI – “Serial homicide - the killing of several
victims in 3 or more separate incidents over weeks
or an extended period”
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Historical Examples of Serial Offenders
 Jack the Ripper- Late 1800’s - killed
prostitutes.

Albert Fish , New York, early 1900’s.
Cannibalism.

DeSalvo – The Boston Strangler (1967) killed 13 women during an 18-month period in the
1960’s.
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Characteristics of Serial Murderers – Kraft
Ebbing (1886)
 A male phenomenon
 Sadistic acts tend to escalate
 Lying and manipulation
 Trophies and souvenirs
 Ligatures
 Victims are tortured
 Sexual satisfaction in murder
 Troubled relationship with the mother
 Frequent use of Pornography
 No overt signs of abnormality
 Signature Aspects
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Elements of Serial Homicide
Schlesinger (2000) proposes 3 elements to serial
homicide
1.Sexual sadism
2.Intense fantasy
3.Compulsion to act out the fantasy
Either of the factors can be dominant.
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Elements of Sexual Homicide
 Brittain (1970) “rich, active fantasy life”
 Prentky et al. (1989) - fantasy affects a “primary
drive mechanism” that alters the thinking of the
perpetrator when stressed.
 Keppel (1997) - “Calling Card”
 Repetitive behaviour at the crime scene, such as
excessive stabbing, may be the acting out of the
perpetrators' fantasies.
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Elements of Sexual Homicide
 Why act out the behaviour?
Ressler (1998) – Stress factors, frame of mind and
planning.
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Motivational Models of Homicide
Burgess, Hartman, Ressler, Douglas and
McCormick (1986)
 Ineffective Social Environment - Childhood
 Influence of Formative Events -Trauma
 Patterned Responses (Fantasy and Cognitive
Mapping)
 Action towards others
 Feedback filter (internal mechanism for justifying
actions)
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Motivational Spectrum of Homicide
Revitch And Schlesinger (1989) – (See Handout)
 Spectrum of Motivational Stimuli - Based on
Clinical Experience rather than Empirical Research.
 The Catathymic Crisis – Schlesinger (1996) – Article
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Motivational Spectrum of Homicide
 Environmental
 Situational
 Impulsive
 Catathymic
 Compulsive
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Motivational Spectrum
Organic, Toxic and paranoid cases are separate
from the spectrum
 External/Exogenous
 Internal/Endogenous
In environmental offences, external factors play a
large role and exogenous stimulation is the
stimulating factor, but endogenous stimulation is
the main contributor to compulsive offences. All
of the factors can have a mixture of endogenous
and exogenous stimulation, depending on the
position that the crime falls on in the spectrum.
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Motivational Spectrum
Environmental (Sociogenic)
 Crimes that occur as a result of social or
environmental factors (Nazi Germany).
 Experimental evidence – Aggressive
Millgram study.
 Modern day – contract murder.
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Motivational Spectrum
Situational (most common type)
 Accounts for 70% of Murders
 Stress is common denominator.
 Usually only happens once.
 Reactions to stressful situations – i.e. Domestic
murder
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Motivational Spectrum
Impulsive
 Spontaneous
murders, perhaps due to
personality disorder - Poor impulse control
 History of anti-social acts.
 Tend to drift in and out of difficult situations –
offences are diffuse and poorly structured.
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Motivational Spectrum
Catathymic motivation on spectrum
 Maier 1912( in accordance with emotions).
 A psychological process disrupts logical thinking.
 Thinking has changed –conflicts (issues) –
psychodynamic process.
Schlesinger (1996) – psychodynamic process
frequently accompanied by disorganisation and
characterised by an accumulation of tension
released through a violent act.
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Catathymic Homicide
Types
 Acute – Sudden disintegration of personality
Sudden Unprovoked murder without apparent
motivation
 Chronic – Incubation Period
Violent act
Relief following the act
(Stalking Cases)
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Motivational Spectrum
Compulsive
 Involvement of psychological factors rather than
environmental sources.
 Seek out victims and the crime is usually sexual in
nature.
 Proceeded by years of fantasy and a compulsion
to commit the act.
 Need for repetition.
 William Heirens – “Catch me before I kill again!”
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Thoughts of Compulsive Sex Murderers
 Hostility to Women
 Preoccupation with maternal sexual conduct
 Incestuous preoccupation (overt or covert)
 Feelings of sexual inferiority and weakness
 Need to “possess” the victim
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