Practical Homicide Investigation - Assignment Example

Case s A. The Death Scene Cause of Death Cause of death was asphyxia by ligature (pocketbook strap) strangulation. There were post mortem bites on the victim's thighs, as well as contusions, hemorrhages, and lacerations to the body. The killer also defecated on the roof landing and covered it with the victim's clothing. 2. Crime Scene Evidence Present - The Body 1. A young woman's nude body was discovered at 3:00 p.m. on the roof landing of the apartment building where she lived. 2. She had been badly beaten about the face and strangled with the strap of her purse. 3. Her nipples had been cut off after death and placed on her chest. 4. Scrawled in ink on the inside of her thigh was "you can't stop me." 5. The words "F you" were scrawled on her abdomen. 6. A pendant in the form of a Jewish sign (Chai), which she usually wore as a good luck piece around her neck, was missing and presumed taken by the murderer. 7. Her underpants had been pulled over her face; 8. Her nylons were removed and loosely tied around her wrists and ankles near a railing. 9. The murderer had placed symmetrically on either side of the victim's head the pierced earrings she had been wearing. 10. An umbrella and inkpen had been forced into the vagina and a hair comb was placed in her pubic hair. 11. The woman's jaw and nose had been broken and her molars loosened. 12. She suffered multiple face fractures caused by a blunt force. 3. Subsequent Investigation 1. Subsequent police investigation of the victim revealed that the 26-year-old, 90 pound, 4'11" white female awoke around 6:30 a.m. 2. She dressed, had a breakfast of coffee and juice, and left her apartment for work at a nearby day care center, where she was employed as a group teacher for handicapped children. 3. She resided with her mother and father. 4. When she would leave for work in the morning, she would take the elevator or walk down the stairs, depending on her mood. 5. The victim was a quiet young woman who had a slight curvature of the spine (kyhoscoliosis). 6. Another police investigation, revealed that another resident of the apartment building, a white male, age 15 years, discovered the victim's wallet in a stairwell between the third and fourth floors at approximately 8:20 a.m. 7. He retained the wallet until he returned home from school for lunch that afternoon. 8. At that time he gave the wallet to his father, a white male aged 40. 9. The father went to the victim's apartment at 2:50 p.m. and gave the wallet to the victim's mother. 10. When the mother called the day care center to inform her daughter about the wallet, she learned that her daughter had not appeared for work that morning. 11. The mother, the victim's sister, and a neighbor began a search of the building and discovered the body. 12. The neighbor called the police. Police at the scene found no witnesses who saw the victim after she left her apartment that morning. No one heard any screams. B. Forensic Examination 1. The medical examiners report was important in determining the extend of the wounds, as well as how the victim was assaulted and whether evidence of sexual assault was present or absent. 2. No semen was noted in the vagina, but semen was found on the body. 3. It appeared the murderer stood directly over the victim and masturbated. 4. There were visible bite marks on the victim's thighs and knee area. He cut off her nipples with a knife after she was dead and wrote on the body. 5. Cause of death was strangulation, first manual, then ligature, with the strap of her purse. 6. There were no deep stab wounds. 7. The killer used the victim's belts to tie her right arm and right leg but apparently had untied them in order to position the body before he left. C. Evidence present that belonged to the offender 1. Umbrella, inkpen and a hair comb 2. Semen 3. Feces D. What evidence was not present 1. Blunt force object the killed the victim 2. The Chi charm and chain 3. Victims purse E. Typology of the Crime. - 1. The typology of the offender appears to be one that has fantasized about assaulting defenseless victims. 2. The fantasy has ended in murder 3. Pursuant to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), this offender falls into two typologies the first one is Aggravated assault and the second is intentional murder. 4. Aggravated assault is unlawful and intentional causing of serious bodily injury, with or without a deadly weapon, here, there was a deadly weapon which is missing form the scene. 5. The second applicable typology is, of course, murder and non negligent manslaughter. Murder and non negligent manslaughter is the illegal taking of another's life. 6. Based upon the crime scene, what early assumption would you make about the offender. What typology does he fit Please explain fully. F. Typology of the Offender 1. The offender-based typologies developed byGarofalo and Ferri complement Lombroso's scheme. Focusing on the physical attributes of offenders, their criminal histories, and criminal motivations, Ferri (1917) identified five types ofcriminals: (1) the insane, (2) the born, (3) the habitual, (4) the occasional, and (5) the passionate 2. Garofalo (1914) placed greater importance on psy-chological degeneracy than physical abnormalitiesin his four categories of criminal types: (1) typical criminals, or murderers who kill for enjoyment, (2 ) violent criminals, (3) criminals deficient in pityand probity, and (4) lascivious criminals. 3. Other researchers have developed typologies and classification systems that derive from offenders' personal attributes. For example, Sheldon (1949) classified individuals according to their body physique-endomorphic, mesomorphic, or ectomorphic. The major assumption underlying this approach is that there is a strong association between physique and temperament, with mesomorphic body builds linked with a higher likelihood of aggressive and criminal behavior. 4. Alternatively, Katz (1988) used the interplay between criminal motivations and rationalizationsin the development of the following typology: (1) novice shoplifters, (2) youthful "bad asses," (3) gangbanging "street elites," (4) "hardman"robbers, (5) "righteous" killers, and (6) cold-blooded murderers. 5. Offender classifications based on mental disorders and personality traits have been the mainstay of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. From this perspective, criminal typologies have been associated with the identification of single personality traits and groups of traits. Clinical labels like "impulsive," "antisocial," "neurotic," and "psychotic," are often used to distinguish differences within and between types of offenders. 6. Here, we have an intensely disturbed man who is an antisocial cold blooded murder. 7. The crime's style is a single homicide. The murderer's intent was to slowly destroy a handicapped Jewish girl. He is biased against Jews because he ripped off the chi. And while he ripped off the chi, he had no desire to actually touch the victim. He did not penetrate her, there was nothing to indicate that he "touched" her. He instead masturbated on her, which indicated, his satisfaction with his crime, but disdain for the victim., which makes it a crime motivated by hate. G. Typology of the Victim - Risks for the Offender 1. Another form of individualistic typologies places primary importance on the diversity of victim attributes as the major classification dimension. Previous classifications of victims derive from the following singular characteristics: 1. level of shared responsibility, 2. behavioral patterns, 2. structural position, 3. extensiveness of the victimization career. The most widely used basis for classifying victims in terms of their level of shared responsibility for the criminal act. Mendelsohn (1956). He set forth the the following categories to identify victim groupings: (1) completely innocent victims, (2) having minor guilt, (3) as guilty as offenders, (4) more guilty than offenders, (5) most guilty/fully responsible, and (6) simulating or imagining. The particular actions of victims during victim-offender encounters guide the level of shared responsibility. Sheley (1979) highlighted the relative activity of victims and offenders in his typology: (1) active offender-passive victim, (2) active offender-semiactive victim, (3) active offender-active victim, (4) semi-passive offender-active victim, and (5) passive offender-active victim. Under this scheme, victims' responsibility increases as they become more active, and offenders less active, in the commission of criminal offenses. Here, the condition of the victims body indicates that she was clearly tortured before her death. A dominant image of criminals is that they make a series of rational decisions about crime commission and target selection by weighing the relative costs and benefits of alternative courses of action (Cornish and Clarke 1986). However, criminals differ not only according to whether they exhibit rational planning and calculation but also in the importance they place on particular factorsin selecting their targets. Interviews with offendersrevealed three general target-selection factors: (1)convenience and familiarity, (2) the level of protection or guardianship, and (3) expected yield and target attractiveness (Miethe and Meier 1994). For any given crime and subsequent efforts to control it, the importance of each target-selection factor depends on the offenders' criminal careers, offense versatility, level of crime planning, and motivation for offending. For example, property alarms and guard dogs may deter novice offenders, but these protective actions may have no impact on the criminal choices of professional offenders H. Crime Assessment This victim was selected because of her weight and the curvature of her spine. She has the appearance of a slight easily handled victim who will most likely not struggle. This victim has been stalked, although it is not hard to know what her daily routine was. Clearly the killer was able to pattern whether when she would take the stairs as opposed to the elevator. Moreover, he probably waited to listen for her footsteps before charging up the stairs to attack her.She was specifically selected due to her slight frame, which means that the offender was probably smaller as well. The killer controlled the victim by restraining her with her belts. Additionally, this investigator suspects that she was alive at the time the chai was ripped off of her neck. The feces was his signature, for example: There was one offender where he would rape the victim vaginally, withdraw, and ejaculate on the victim's stomach or breasts. He would then frequently masturbate over the victim or between her breasts. He often used the victim's clothing to wipe off his ejaculate. The feces and covering it with the victims clothing are becoming the signature of this offender. The writing on the body is indicative of his hatred towards women and Jews. The placing of the earings, was a sign of remorse, it is more than likely that the earings were placed by the ears as a fleeting sign of regret after the offender defecated. Resources Practical Homicide Investigation Checklist and Field Guide (CRC Series in Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigations) by Vernon J. Geberth (November 1996) Practical Homicide Investigation : Tactics, Procedures and Forensic Techniques (CRC Series in Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic investigation) by Vernon J. Geberth (Editor) 3rd edition (June 1996) Unnatural Death : Confessions of a Medical Examiner by Judith Adler Hennessee (Contributor), Michael M. Baden (February 1992) Death Investigation : The Basics by Brad Randall (September 1997) Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation : A Multidisciplinary Approach (Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigations) by Robert R. Hazelwood (Editor), Ann Wolbert Burgess (Editor) 2nd edition (September 1995) Read More