Motivation For Crime Research Articles

Crime and satanism: Mutual relationship and characteristics of criminal acts

This paper explores the relationship between Satanism and criminal acts related to that sphere which are frequent in criminal and judicial practice. Author proposes two definitions of a criminal act connected with the contemporary occultism, as well as definition of occult-related crime. He offers a review of the already existing classifications of the Satanism-related crime, after which he presents additional, legal-oriented typology. It is concluded that the crime associated with Satanism is extremely heterogenous and comprehensive category which includes many criminal acts which presence in practice varies a lot. Those criminal acts could be directly and primarily motivated by some kind of Satanic doctrine; however, in most cases, real motivation for a crime lies outside of that matter. Author divides most common crimes into four wider categories, analyzing particular crime motives, modus operandi and other elements relevant from legal, criminalistic and criminological perspective. The author points out that the most frequent criminal acts associated with the domain of Satanism/pseudosatanism are various types of vandalism (for example: graffiti containing Satanic and anti-Christian messages, grave desecration, church vandalism, as well as damaging or destruction of varios religious monuments, sacred items and sacred places connected with Christian religion), which usual perpetrators are adolescents. Regarding ritual sacrifices, in vast majority of cases, object of criminal act is some sort of animal. Unlike popular speculations, human sacrifices connected with Satanic ceremonies are extremely rare in practice. Absolute majority of registered murder cases (and other crimes against life, physical and sexual integrity, rights and freedoms of man and citizen) which were initially (in the early stages of investigation, or simply by sensationalist media informing) pointed out as a possible examples of 'ritualistic satanic crimes', proved not to be primarily related with real or presumed Satanic interests of the perpetrator. Even in those cases which were indirectly connected with some elements of Satanism, personal characteristics and general life perspective of the perpetrator proved to play crucial role in the domain of motivation for a crime and its realization (f.e. existence of some of the common pragmatic crime motive, presence of various personality disorders, presence of psychosis etc.). Author presents and analyses satanic-related clues typical for all sorts of crime, as well as clues which are significant for particular criminal acts. He underlines the existence of wide varietry of occult/satanic indicators, which could vary from the satanic and anti-Christian symbols, textual messages, illustrations, numerological aspects etc., to the less visible indicators concerning time, place, method, means, purpose of particular criminal act and the like. Among other things, author concludes that proper recognition of those clues and indicators could be an important step towards understanding and successfully solving individual criminal case.

INTERPRETATION OF HATE IN CRIMINAL LAW OR QUANTUM CRIMINOLOGY

In an article about criminology is disclosed not very widespread method related to the hate essence and harmfulness, when it comes to the hate interpretation in criminal justice. Considering that to describe the feelings, emotions and passions is quite complex, the author is using fiction and theological reference for the existing knowledge, to show a hatred as manifestations of emotions existence and harmfulness. As a result, the author comes to the conclusions: 1. Hatred is the human expression of feelings, that is directed against a specific object (a person, a group of people, processes, phenomena), characterized by evil, ill-will and that is persistent, with a great intensity and destructivity. 2. Hatred as a crime motive is not included in any Latvian Criminal Law intended to be as a mandatory element for a criminal offense. 3. A controversial question is whether the religious motive is hatred or intolerance motive. In the author's opinion religious motive is human mental functioning internal incentive, passion, disposition, which is based either on a religion preached values or against opinion expressed by the religion. 4. In the author's opinion the fact about instigation of hatred, is basically a crime target materialization, bringing towards a significant level of harmfulness, as it greatly threatens the legally protected interests of public safety and public order, undermining tolerance and integrity. 5. Deep aversion, fear and hatred, could be materialized into defined action, shown as evidence of wrongdoing, which possess a seriousness of a criminal offense.

Interconnection of Substantive and Procedural Significance of Motive and Purpose of Crime

The article highlights the lack of uniformity in the scientific approach to the definitions of motive and purpose of crime as elements of a subjective aspect of crime, their procedural and substantive significance in the law doctrine and the law enforcement practice.A clear legal definition and significance of motive and purpose or forming a clear position on these issues in the court of the highest resort are to eliminate the contradictions that currently considerably affect certain criminal proceedings.It is specified that definition of the motive and purpose of the crime charged as a mandatory element of proof on the stage of arraignment and trial can take place only if the disposition of those crimes contain these elements or they clearly result from the nature of the act. Also this definition of motive and purpose of crime may, at a will of prosecution, be taken into account in sentencing.It is noted that the motive of crime may occur only in premeditated crimes, whereas motivation is found in all acts, including socially dangerous.It is specified that absence of motive or purpose of crime in the indictment cannot result in returning one to the prosecutor, and should be considered by the court as proof or lack of proof of constituent element of crime in the act of the accused or taken into account in sentencing.

WORK, INCOME SUPPORT, AND CRIME IN THE DUTCH WELFARE STATE: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY FOLLOWING VULNERABLE YOUTH INTO ADULTHOOD

Life‐course criminological research has consistently suggested that employment can reduce criminal behavior. However, it is unclear whether the financial aspects of employment or the social control that inheres in employment best explains the relationship between employment and reduced offending. By using longitudinal information on a sample of men and women (N = 540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the 1990s, this study examines the effects of employment as well as the different types of income support on crime. Random‐ and fixed‐effects models show that for men, both work and income support are associated with a reduction in the rate of offending. For women, however, although employment is correlated with a lower offending rate, receiving income support, and in particular disability benefits, is correlated with a higher offending rate. The findings support both theories that stress the financial motivation for crime as well as theories that emphasize the importance of informal social control for reducing offending.

The revenge motive in delinquency

Revenge is a well-recognised motive for crime and violence. In sociological research, this topic has been pursued primarily in ethnographic studies of street offenders or gang conflicts. Psychologists have studied revenge behaviour experimentally in laboratory settings and revenge ideation with community samples. Despite these contributions, we know very little about the prevalence and correlates of revenge-motivated offending in representative mainstream population. Most studies focus on violence, ignoring the role revenge may play in non-violent offending. Drawing on a Finnish youth crime survey ( n = 5373), this research describes the prevalence of the revenge motive in delinquent behaviour and explores correlates of revenge-motivated delinquency (RMD). The findings indicate that approximately one-half of interpersonal assaults are motivated by revenge and that a significant proportion (10–20%) of running away from home and vandalism is also related to revenge. Narrative evidence from incident descriptions suggests that roughly one in four RMD incidents reflect social/altruistic offending on behalf of a friend or a relative. In correlational analysis, girls, victims of school bullying and those expressing pro-revenge attitudes were more likely to be motivated by revenge when engaging in delinquency. The findings suggest that social learning, situational strain and deterrence theories are promising directions for further research in this area.

The Design and Application of the Intelligent Vehicle Inspection System Based on RFID

Our country has many serious problems such as fake-licensed vehicle, stolen vehicle, overloaded vehicle, over speed vehicle and so on at present. This paper designs and realizes a kind of intelligent vehicle inspection system based on RFID technology in order to solve these problems. This system obtain the all kinds of vehicle information by recognizing electronic label card and deal with all kinds of information in the background in order to manage vehicle. The system has changed the traditional manual vehicle management mode and realized automated inspection without parking. It can reduce the work intensity of law-enforcement personal and take the initiative to call the police when meet all kinds of illegal vehicle, stolen vehicle etc. It can eliminate the crime motive and behavior. It provides the great help for social and economic development.

Werk, uitkeringen en criminaliteit - Kwetsbare jongeren gevolgd van 18 tot 32 jaar

This study examines effects of employment as well as different types of income support on crime, using longitudinal information on a sample of vulnerable men and women (N = 540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the 1990s. Results show that, although the vast majority of the sample is employed at least once during the observation period, a large number of men and women receive income support at some point during the observational period as well. In addition, the majority of the sample engages in serious criminal behavior in adulthood. Random effects and fixed effects models show that for men, both work and income support are associated with a reduction in the rate of offending. For women, however, those employed show a lower offending rate, while receiving income support, and in particular disability benefits, is associated with an increase in offending. These findings suggest that for men, income from either work or social security can reduce the financial motivation for crime, whereas for women, desistance may primarily result from social control associated with being employed.

Employing mixed methods to explore motivational patterns of repeat sex offenders

PurposeUnderstanding the motivation of sex offenders plays a key role in societal perception of victim culpability and offender responsibility. This study identified patterns of offender motivation, assessed motivation stability across offenses, and estimated the influence of offense/victim specific factors on motivation in comparison to offender factors. MethodsEmploying mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design, the study utilized confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to identify motivational factors underlying 346 crime events. Second, motivation stability was assessed across offenses committed by 69 offenders. Finally, interview data were reviewed to assess whether offender types emerged corresponding to CFA results. ResultsA motivational typology was identified comprised of five offender groupings built upon two underlying constructs, one driven by sexual gratification and the other linked to anger/aggression. Minimal change in motivation was observed across offenses committed by the same offender against different victims. Offense/victim specific influence (22-23%) and offender related influence (77-78%) were similarly distributed with both sexual and anger-driven motivation. ConclusionsMotivation plays a key role in offending. Offense/victim specific factors have similar proportional influence on crime motivation in comparison to offender factors irrespective of the type of motivation. Contrary to popular public perception, victim blame is not warranted regardless of what motivates offenders.

Exploring Female Motivations for Drug Smuggling on the Island of Barbados

Within international discourse, female motivations for crime have received relatively little attention when compared to male offenders. Feminist contributions have shed light on this underresearched area with the majority of studies being conducted in the developed world. Using a sample of inmates convicted for drug smuggling on the island of Barbados, this article seeks to provide culturally specific data on the subject. Using a qualitative methodology, the study finds that in keeping with feminist research in the field, the motivations of the women were dominated by various forms of victimization that accounted for their present incarceration.

Status Concerns as a Motive for Crime?

Status Concerns as a Motive for Crime?

Blame Attribution in Court: Conceptualization and Measurement of Perpetrator Blame

Drawing on legal and psychological theory of blame, the present study evaluates psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Blame Scale (PBS; Rayburn, Mendoza, & Davison, 2003) across crimes of varying severity (i.e., misdemeanor assault, felony assault, and murder) and motivation (gay hate crime victim versus heterosexual victim perceived as gay). Results revealed support for a single-factor model of perceptions of perpetrator blame in a panel of jury-eligible community members. Perceptions of blame in this study moderated the impact of crime motivation on the sentencing decision. Results are discussed with regard to legal and psychological perspectives of blame in a jury research paradigm.

‘It’s what you have to do!’: Exploring the role of high-risk edgework and advanced marginality in a young man’s motivation for crime

By focusing on one young man’s self-presentations in a secure care unit for young offenders in Denmark, this article explores how his contradictory and incoherent self-presentations can be analysed as meaningful. Drawing on Stephen Lyng’s theory of high-risk edgework and Loïc Wacquant’s theory of advanced marginalization, it is argued that this young man’s engagement in youth crime cannot be fully understood by focusing only on the criminal experience itself. Also, specific social and symbolic relations must be integrated into the analysis to understand his engagement in crime. The article argues that although edgework theory is compelling, it needs further development if it is to capture the full complexity of young people’s motivation for crime.

The link between unemployment and crime rate fluctuations: An analysis at the county, state, and national levels

Cantor and Land (1985) developed a theoretical model that proposed two pathways through which economic activity – as indexed by the aggregate unemployment rate – could affect the rate of criminal activity. The first is by increasing levels of criminal motivation within the population as deteriorating economic conditions affect social strain and social control; the second is by influencing the availability and vulnerability of criminal targets and thus the number of criminal opportunities. Although much empirical research has applied this theoretical model, few analyses have done so at disaggregated units of analysis. We present the most comprehensive analysis to date by empirically evaluating this model with data on 400 of the largest US counties – and examine the effects of aggregation on results as these county data are combined to the state and national levels – for the years 1978–2005. For seven Index crimes at each of the three levels of analysis, and with or without controls for structural covariates at each level, the directional effects hypothesized by Cantor and Land are found for 78 out of 84 estimated relationships. Even after taking into account the lack of statistical independence of these estimates by drawing on recently developed statistical theory, this is a very unlikely outcome. In accordance with expectations based on theory and prior research, (a) some of these relationships are weak and not statistically significant, and (b) the strongest and most consistent patterns of relationships for both the crime opportunity and crime motivation effects are found for three property crimes: burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Suggestions for further research on this topic are given.

The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself

Criminologists have long been interested in understanding why people commit crime. Perhaps an even more interesting question is what accounts for the offending of individuals who occupy white-collar positions. Most explanations of white-collar offending have relied on extant criminological theories that have been developed to account for street or juvenile offending. One theoretical explanation that was specifically developed to explain white-collar crime is the fear of falling hypothesis or the notion that the motivation for crime is the fear of losing what one has worked so hard to obtain. This study presents the results of an original data-collection effort designed to test this hypothesis. Data collected among business-experienced adults indicate that the fear of falling is inversely related to intentions to price-fix but positively related to internal and legal constraints against price-fixing. Taken together, these results suggest that the fear of falling may serve as a reminder of the attainments that could be lost, should the illegality be committed.

Police integrity surveys: a court-based survey approach

Police integrity surveys tend to focus on corruption, while convicted police officers have committed a variety of crimes that are not necessarily measured in these surveys. Based on court cases in Norway from 2005 to 2008, a revised survey instrument is developed for future empirical research into police integrity and accountability. The suggested survey instrument measures attitude towards crime category as well as crime motive.

P02-47 - Juvenile sex offenders in Switzerland: demographic factors, psychopathology, offence characteristics and recidivism

ObjectivesThe aim of the present study was to describe the population of juvenile sex offenders in the Canton of Zurich by a retrospective analysis of a consecutive sample of the police and judicial records between 2000 and 2008. Offence characteristics have been studied and compared to demographic and psychopathological factors of the adolescent offenders. Reoffence risk was assessed by the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol (J-SOAP-II) and compared to sexual and general recidivism.MethodsA youth-adapted version of the Forensic-Psychiatric Documentation System (FDPS) has been used for data collection. Recidivism has been assessed by the official crime database of the Canton of Zurich until October 2009.ResultsPreliminary results show that the population of juvenile sex offenders is of heterogeneous nature. Intensity of sexual behavior and violence varies significantly in the sample (N = 351). Mostly the juvenile offenders have been arrested after committing one criminal act (56.4%). With exception of pornographic offences (35.9%), sexual coercion (32.8%) and sexual assaults against children (27.4%) were the most frequent crimes. Psychiatric assessments of the most serious juvenile offenders found frequent behavioral (43.6%) and emotional disorders (18.1%) but only one case of paraphilia. Results of risk assessment and recidivism are in preparation and will be added to the final presentation.ConclusionsJuvenile sex offenders are a complex population and can not been compared to adult offenders according to offence characteristics and crime motivation. Developmental factors have to be included when assessing and treating juvenile sex offenders.

P02-83 - Assessment of young people committing sexual crimes of pedofilic origin

ObjectivesWe assessed 29 young persons (14-21 years old), who committed crimes according to article 156 of Criminal Code of Ukraine «Depravity of Minors».MethodsAssessment tools: surveillance, clinical and diagnostic interview, objective psychometric scales and test methods to identify the studied trait.ResultsEstablished 11 youth with developmental delay [5 with mild developmental delay - F70 (17.2%), 3 with moderate (10.3%), and 3 with severe (10.3%)], 12 with behavioral disturbances [2 - F91.0 (6.9%), 4 - F91.1 (13.8%), 5 - F91.2 (17.2%), 1 - F91.3 (3.4%)], 6 - were found to be mentally healthy (20.7%). Sexual benefit of committed crime (importance of satisfaction of sexual desire or relief of sexual arousal) confirmed only in 7 youth (24.1%). Most of them were mentally intact (5; 17.2%) and belonged to an older adolescent group (19-21 years). Remaining participants, who were developmentally delayed, called curiosity and desire of knowledge of sexual differences of another sex, as their most important motives for crime. Another group, juveniles with behavioral disturbances, cited physical humiliation or ritualistic punishment (particularly these were seen in oral-genital encounters) of their victims as rationale. In this group there were frequent cases of group rape, as opposed to first group where sexual encounters have been mostly individual. In the meantime the most deprived character of sexual relation was noted among mentally healthy minors.ConclusionsNone of the assessed has shown signs of diagnosis G1-G3. Diagnosis of F65.4 has been completely excluded despite the potential of some negative prognosis in future.

Criminalized Mothers

SUMMARY With the number of incarcerated women rising in the United States, scholarship and activism has focused more explicitly on the backgrounds, criminal contexts, and programming needs of the imprisoned population. This article focuses on motherhood and relies on qualitative life-history interviews with thirty women in a southwestern detention center. The women's narratives are used to further our understanding of the ways in which motherhood (1) resonates with incarcerated women's self-perceptions, (2) relates to their motivations for crime, and (3) informs therapeutic programming within the carceral1 environment. In order to address the needs of a critical, yet often ignored, correctional population, we specifically examine the ways in which gender-specific therapeutic approaches may be applied to a jail facility where continuous, in-depth programming may be challenging due to inmate turn-around and unrest.

The Determinants of Employee Crime in the UK

We present evidence on employee theft in the UK using data on actual recorded crime, in a model where employees are ‘rational cheaters’ whose theft decisions may also be influenced by individual characteristics. We produce hypotheses about the role of labour market deterrence and individual influences on employee theft. We then examine the role of these influences using regional crime data supplemented by data from the UK Labour Force Survey and the Home Office. Our results provide information on employee theft as a particular type of crime, on policy that may help to combat it, and on alternative views of the motivation for crime.

Violent Women, Blame Attribution, Crime, and Personality

Background: The attribution of blame for criminal act has an impact, both on the way the offender must come to terms with the offence and on the risk of recidivism. Blame attribution has been found to be related to the type of crime and personality. Aims: This study examined the relationship of blame attribution and feelings of guilt in violent female offenders, according to factors related to crime, background and personality. Methods: The Gudjonsson Blame Attribution Inventory (BAI) and the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) were administered to 58 violent female offenders. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), Structured Clinical Interview II for DSM-IV (SCID II) and clinical interviews were used for assessment. Results: Lower scores of guilt feelings were found in women than has been reported for men. The feelings of guilt were higher in homicide than in other violent crimes, but lower in the cases where women had committed prior violent crimes. No differences were found between psychiatric patients and prisoners. The duration of hospitalisation and incarceration did not result in differences in blame attribution and guilt, but when the victims survived, guilt feelings seemed to increase with the passing of the time. External attribution was related to motives of crime, but traumatic experiences did not have a crucial impact upon blame attribution. The attribution of blame and the amount of guilt feelings were found to be related to personality. Women scoring high on psychopathy reported less guilt than women with low scores. The corresponding result was not obtained in the group of women with antisocial personality disorder, who, however, showed an unexpectedly low use of external attribution. Conclusion: The results suggest that it might be difficult for women to cope with the violent offence and that the characteristics of psychopathy seems to have a crucial impact on the guilt feelings and consequently on coping with the crime in female offenders.