Predicting the criminal record of Hungarian homicide offenders from crime scene behaviours

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe present study explored the relationship between crime scene behaviour and criminal history in a sample of Hungarian homicide offenders. While there is a multitude of studies examining the relationship between individual crime scene behaviours and offender characteristics, this is the first study that utilized a Hungarian sample for this purpose. Data were obtained from an official Hungarian police database and contained 355 solved stranger homicide cases. Chi-square analyses were conducted to analyze the bivariate relationship between 40 crime scene behaviours and 8 previous conviction variables. Results indicated that the different killing methods and the type of injuries inflicted were amongst the most important predictors, with four killing behaviours and three injury types found to be related to six different preconviction types. Significant associations revealed by the initial analyses were then subsequently entered into binary logistic regression models. All models except for one were significant, which confirms prior studies suggesting that crime scene behaviours can be used to predict offender characteristics in homicide offences. However, inconsistencies with earlier studies suggest that the behaviour of Hungarian homicide offenders is somewhat different from that observed in other countries, which warrants cross-cultural comparisons in this area.