Victim-offender Relationship Research Articles

The Emotional Experience behind Sexually Offending in Context

Objectives: The current study focused on the role of affective states in adult sexual offending. We look at the prevalence of a range of affective states throughout sexual crime events. We break down the crime event into three stages—immediately before, during, and after the offense. We examine transitions of affective states—stage by stage—but also across victims. Finally, we investigate the impact of situational factors on affective states. Method: The sample consisted of a total of 553 adult males who had been convicted of a sexual offense. Self-report data on sexual crime events were collected from these offenders. Apart from descriptive and bivariate analysis, “affective state-switching patterns” are investigated through transition matrices. Results: Findings show large variations in affective states before, during, and after the offense but show little variation across victims. Alcohol usage and offender–victim relationship were related to affective states of offenders. Conclusions: We conclude that the found association between affective states and decision-making of sexual offenders calls for more research on within crime event variations especially, and future research should focus on causal mechanisms related to affective states.

The magnitude of the injury pattern in femicides by stabbing in Colombian women

Introducción. Estudiar la gravedad del trauma físico en las víctimas de feminicidio podría contribuir a prevenirlo de forma más efectiva.Objetivo. Determinar si el número de heridas en los feminicidios con arma cortopunzante varía respecto a la edad de la víctima y su relación con el atacante.Materiales y métodos. La población correspondió a mujeres colombianas lesionadas hasta la muerte con arma cortopunzante entre 2011 y 2013 (n=331; edad promedio 14-91 años), quienes fueron categorizadas por rangos de edad y tipos de relación con los agresores. Dos análisis ANOVA de una vía y uno factorial permitieron identificar diferencias entre los promedios de las lesiones de las víctimas y los efectos de interacción entre las categorías establecidas.Resultados. El patrón de gravedad del trauma físico fue mayor en mujeres entre los 22 y 40 años y con vínculos románticos con los agresores. Los rangos de edad y tipos de relación tuvieron efectos de interacción sobre la cantidad de heridas sufridas.Conclusión. La edad de las víctimas y el tipo de relación que tenían con el agresor son variables a considerar al diseñar políticas de prevención del feminicidio dado que su conexión con actos violentos resulta en un patrón peor de lesiones.

Sex Traffickers’ Views: A Qualitative Study into Their Perceptions of the Victim–Offender Relationship

ABSTRACTUntil now, most of our knowledge regarding sex trafficking comes from studies of victims. Only a limited number of empirical studies have focused on those who conduct the business of sex trafficking. This article examined sex traffickers’ perceptions of the victim–offender relationship. Using a grounded theory approach, verbatim interviews with sex traffickers were analyzed. Four major themes emerged: perceptions of the initiative, the (victim–offender) relationship, their own role and work methods, and on the victims who reported to the police. The results provide a complex picture that shows variations in relationships, roles, and work (control) methods over time within the same victim–trafficker dyad as well as between individual sex traffickers.

Offending patterns for serial sex offenders identified via the DNA testing of previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits

PurposeMuch of what we know about serial sex offenders is based on multiple sexual assaults linked via conviction or self-report or offenders who primarily target strangers. Our data are derived from serial sex offenders linked via DNA testing of unsubmitted sexual assault kits—which provides a more objective examination of offending patterns. MethodsStudy uses descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and sexual assault narratives to explore offending patterns for serial vs. nonserial sex offenders and crossover offending patterns by relationship, age, and gender for serial sex offenders. We examine crossover offending patterns for three groups of serial sex offenders: those who assaulted only strangers, both strangers and nonstrangers, and only nonstrangers. ResultsFindings show significant crossover offending by relationship and age. Over one-quarter sexually assaulted both strangers and nonstrangers. Serial sex offenders often vary their offending pattern across offenses. The offender-victim relationship appears particularly salient when assessing offending patterns. ConclusionsOffending patterns are not a consistently reliable link across assaults. Many of these sexual assaults had not been linked prior to DNA testing, thereby illustrating the power of the DNA testing of SAKs for identifying and linking serial sex offenders, particularly when testing is followed by a thorough investigation.

Commercial Transactions in Children: The Case of Ghana.

The current article represents an examination of commercial transactions involving the sale of children in contemporary Ghana. It presents the results of a criminological analysis of 20 cases of commercial transactions in children in Ghana. It describes the sociodemographic characteristics of offenders and victims, victim-offender relationships, offender motivations, public reactions to the phenomenon, as well as the criminal justice system's responses to the crime. The data were extracted from Ghanaian print and electronic presses. The data show that more boys than girls were sold and that the ages of the victims ranged from 1 month to 19 years, although younger, prepubescent children were more likely to be sold than adolescents and younger adults. The results further show that the relationship between the offender and the child victim was a primary one, with parent-child relationships being dominant, followed by uncle-nephew. Pecuniary reasons were the primary motive for the crime, with offenders invariably expressing the need for money to satisfy pressing financial needs or personal enrichment. The data show that offenders were subject to prompt arrest, prosecution, and incarceration. A summary is provided for each of the 20 cases analyzed in the study.

A Typology of Sex Offending Against Minors: An Empirical Study of Rape and Molestation Cases in China.

Efforts to classify sexual offending and offenders continued to evolve over the years based on criteria such as offender and victim characteristics, offender-victim relationships, the nature of sexual offenses, and other situational factors. This current study draws up a typology of sexual offending against minors based on 436 adjudicated rape and child molestation cases in China. Specifically, sexual offending against minors is classified into six major categories, including opportunistic offenses, serial offenses, dating couple offenses, educator abuses, gang/party offenses, and incest offenses. Based on this empirical typology, a number of crime prevention measures are suggested. These suggestions aim at involving multiple players and institutions to focus on education, target hardening, and crime investigation. This study makes a significant contribution to comparative studies in this field, and the results could be potentially applied in other cultures.

Examining Differences in Bias Homicide Across Victim Groups

Little is known about how situations of bias homicide might vary dependent upon who is targeted. Drawing from doing difference theory, we comparatively examine several event-level variables for bias homicide involving three different target groups. Data on bias homicide occurring in the United States come from the U.S. Extremist Crime Database (ECDB). Our findings reveal significant differences across bias victim groups, specifically regarding weapon use, location of incidents, victim–offender relationships, and victim and offender demographics. The results of this study have important implications for the theoretical and methodological advancement of empirical research on bias crime and for law enforcement responsible for identifying and investigating bias crimes.

The Rural/Urban Divide: Examining Different Types of Assault Through a Social Disorganization Lens.

Most studies of social disorganization theory focus on urban communities. In addition, these studies largely ignore more intimate crimes, such as intimate partner violence. Yet, results from extant studies are often generalized to explain all types of crime in all types of communities, thus potentially ignoring the dynamics surrounding intimate crimes and rurality. The current study expands on previous research in two ways. First, this study examines whether characteristics of social disorganization can predict assault across various victim-offender relationships. Second, this study applies social disorganization predictors to both metropolitan (or urban) and nonmetropolitan (or rural) counties. The sample consisted of 690 counties located across 13 different states. Results from the Poisson regression models indicate higher levels of ethnic heterogeneity and concentrated disadvantage were associated with increased rates of assault across various victim-offender relationships. Furthermore, the measures of social disorganization functioned in the expected direction in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. These results highlight the importance of controlling for community structures when examining rates of violence, including intimate partner violence. Programs and policies designed to reduce intimate partner violence should include neighborhood components as these affect rates of violence within a community.

The Victim–Offender Relationship and Police Charging Decisions for Juvenile Delinquents

While research has established how victim–offender relationship (social distance) relates to police decision-making, comparatively little research has examined this relationship among juvenile delinquents. This article examines how the social relationship between victim and offender has a main and moderating relationship with police charging decisions among juvenile delinquents in Canada. Incidents recorded using the Uniform Crime Reporting Incident-Based Survey ( N = 130,090) are modeled using logistic regression to predict the odds of police laying a charge. Independent variables include nature of the victim–offender relationship as well as demographic, geographic, and offense-specific variables. Main effects models show that incidents involving current intimate partners are most likely to result in arrest, followed by incidents involving strangers. Importantly, stratified models suggest that social distance conditions how other legal and extralegal factors relate to police arrest decisions. Similar to the adult offending population, victim–offender relationship shapes the way criminal incidents are officially addressed in complex ways.

Reappraising the Impact of Offending on Victimization: A Propensity Score Matching Approach.

Existing evidence clearly supports an empirical connection between offending and victimization. Often called the "victim-offender overlap," this relationship holds for both sexes, across the life course, and across a wide range of countries and cultural environments. In addition, the relationship is sustained regardless of the study sample and statistical methods applied in the analyses of the sample data. However, there has yet to be a study that examines this relationship for violent and property crime using quasi-experimental methods accounting for a wide range of potential confounders including individual differences and cultural contexts. This study subjects the victim-offender relationship to testing through propensity score matching for both violent and property crimes using an international dataset. The results show that previous violent and theft offending increases the odds of victimization when matching on individual and contextual factors. This finding supports previous literature and suggests that delinquent behavior may act as a "switch" that exposes one to subsequent violent and theft victimization.

Anogenital and Physical Injuries in Adolescent Sexual Assault Patients: The Role of Victim-Offender Relationship, Alcohol Use, and Memory Impairment.

Prior research has documented high rates of anogenital and physical injuries among adolescent sexual assault patients. Although a number of factors related to rates of injury detection in adolescents have been identified, there may be additional features of the assault that are disclosed in the patient history that could be important indicators of injury risk. The purpose of the current study was to expand this literature by examining whether factors that are salient in sexual assaults committed against adolescents-victim-offender relationship, substance use, and memory impairment-are associated with documented anogenital and physical injury rates. Results indicated that victim-offender relationship, substance use, and assault memory are significantly related to the number of anogenital injuries and, particularly, the number of physical injuries detected in adolescent sexual assault patients. These results highlight the importance of a comprehensive patient history, including assessment of alcohol and drug use and memory impairment, to guide the medical forensic examination.

Anogenital and Physical Injuries in Adolescent Sexual Assault Patients: The Role of Victim-Offender Relationship, Alcohol Use, and Memory Impairment.

Anogenital and Physical Injuries in Adolescent Sexual Assault Patients: The Role of Victim-Offender Relationship, Alcohol Use, and Memory Impairment.

Characteristics of Successful and Unsuccessful Appeals Against Conviction for Child Sexual Abuse

The current study investigated (a) the effect of legislative reforms and amendments to judges’ directions to juries in the success of appeals against conviction for child sexual abuse and (b) the role of delay between the offence(s) and the trial in these appeals. Appeals listed in the Victorian Court of Appeal in Australia between 2004 and 2014 were identified. Data were extracted for a number of variables including the appeal's success and the delay between the first offence and the trial. Of the 238 appeals identified, 118 (49.6%) were successful. Legislative reform showed the only significant difference between successful and unsuccessful appeals: There were more successful appeals than expected following legislative changes in 2006. Delay was raised as a ground for appeal in 11 of the 118 successful cases. Delay was associated with the ages of the victims and offenders, sex of the victims, and the victim–offender relationship. Overall, the results do not appear consistent with the goal of the reforms, which was to avoid appeals and retrials that may have occurred as a result of judicial error. Future research should determine whether the trend towards higher success of appeals is continuing, particularly in light of further legislative changes.

Similar sentences, similar crimes? Using deep sample analysis to examine the comparability of homicides and punishments by victim-offender relationship

Perspectives in sociology of law and criminology provide theoretical justification for expecting victim-offender relationship to affect sentencing. Screening devices used by court actors may consider factors not directly related to the crime, but grounded in dominant stereotypes about the crime and those involved. Using data from an urban jurisdiction in Canada, this study compares cases that differed by relationship to determine whether similar homicides were treated similarly at sentencing and whether stereotypes about intimate partner homicide could explain any punishment disparity. The deep sample analysis showed that disparities in sentencing appeared to be most common for cases in which an offender who killed intimate partners received shorter sentences than other offenders, despite the intimate partner homicide appearing more serious in nature. Results also challenge dominant stereotypes about intimate partner homicide that may affect punishment outcomes. Controls for offense severity in traditional, quantitative sentencing research may not effectively capture variations in homicide.

Injury Patterns for Homicide Followed by Suicide by the Relationship Between Victims and Offenders

The connection between the victim–offender relationship and injury patterns has been established in the lethal violence literature; however, this association has not been explored in the study of homicide followed by the perpetrator’s suicide. Using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), we address this research gap by examining violence inflicted on 1,718 homicide–suicide victims that occurred between 2003 and 2013. Results show some support for variation in injury across intimacy and relationship status while considering victim and offender characteristics; however, results were not as predicted. Avenues for future research are discussed.

Does the Victim-Offender Relationship Matter? Exploring the Sentencing of Female Homicide Offenders.

Empirical research pertaining to sentencing of homicide offenders has been restricted almost exclusively to samples of male offenders in the United States. To fill this void in international research and to explore questions regarding the treatment of female homicide offenders further, we examined the extent to which victim-offender relationships and motives independently affect the length of sentences imposed by analyzing a nationally representative sample of female offenders adjudicated guilty of homicide in South Korea, over the period 1986-2013. In contrast to previous studies conducted in Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States, the current study found that the victim-offender relationship has no affect on sentence lengths. Rather, the most significant predictor for the sentence lengths of the female homicide offenders was the motive for killing. We discuss future directions for international comparative research on the roles of victim-offender relationships and motives in sentencing outcomes of female offenders.

Mutilation in Korean Homicide: An Exploratory Study.

Mutilation is a rare and unusual act performed on a victim, especially in cases of homicide. Knowledge on mutilation homicide is scarce as the base rate of this type of homicide is very low. Moreover, previous studies examining this specific criminal behavior have been mainly descriptive, neglecting to look at other factors related to the act of mutilation. Furthermore, depending on the cultural context and country of origin, the infliction of mutilation pre-, per-, or post-homicide translates into different meanings. Therefore, it is important to examine mutilation homicide in the context of non-Western countries. Using crime and forensic examination reports subjected to forensic examination and convicted for a homicide between 1995 and 2011 (N = 1,200) in Korea, the rate of mutilation homicide was estimated. Based on the 65 cases (5.4%) identified, information on the offenses and offenders were described. Moreover, using a series of bivariate analyses, the current study compared cases of mutilation homicides in Korea with other countries. Findings revealed interesting differences and similarities between mutilation homicide cases from Korea and the other countries. For instance, offender-victim relationship, victim's gender, and criminal history were significantly different from the comparison groups. In addition, compared with Korea, mutilation homicide cases were significantly more likely to involve an accomplice in Finland, suggesting the need to carry the body over a long distance. Investigators and researchers need to understand the cultural context in which these acts are committed as the infliction of mutilation may serve different purposes across different countries.

Fatal Factors for Preschoolers

This research examines how victim and offender characteristics, as well as contextual factors are related to the lethality of assaults for children less than 5 years old. The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data for 2006 to 2011 were analyzed using logistic regression techniques to estimate two models designed to explore factors associated with the death of preschoolers. Results indicate that the probability of fatality is significantly influenced by victim and offender characteristics, victim–offender relationship, weapon used, time of incident, and region of the United States in which the incident occurred.

Age, Marital Status, and Risk of Sexual Victimization: Similarities and Differences Across Victim-Offender Relationships.

By now, age and marital status are well-established correlates of criminal victimization, including adult women's sexual victimization. National crime statistics, as well as a large body of scholarly literature, have specified that younger women and unmarried women are at comparatively higher risk of sexual victimization than older women and married women. Few studies, however, have examined the relationship between age, marital status, and risk of victimization across diverse situational contexts of sexual victimization. The current study used data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to examine whether the relationship between age, marital status, and risk of sexual victimization varied across victimization experiences involving three victim-offender relationships: stranger, acquaintance, and intimate partner. Results indicate both similarities and differences in the relationship between age, marital status, and risk of victimization across these three situational contexts of victimization. As expected, age was a significant predictor of victimization in all models; however, younger women's increased risk of victimization was far more pronounced for acquaintance and intimate partner victimization experiences as compared with stranger experiences. Also, consistent with prior research, unmarried women were at higher risk of victimization in all models; however, within unmarried status categories, separated women were at highest risk of both intimate partner and acquaintance victimization experiences as compared with never married or divorced women.

Adult femicide victims in forensic autopsy in Taiwan: A 10-year retrospective study

BackgroundViolence against women and adult femicides are critical medico-legal issues worldwide. Intimate partner violence is one of the leading contributory risk factors. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of femicides in Taiwan. MethodsA retrospective analysis of forensic autopsy records of adult femicide victims in Taiwan during a 10-year period was carried out. The age, victim-offender relationship, injury patterns and causes of death were analyzed. ResultsAmong the 220 adult femicide victims recruited, 114 were killed by intimate partners and 106 were killed by non-intimate partner offenders. The average age of victims killed by intimate partners (40.0 y/o) were younger than those killed by non-intimate partner perpetrators (48.6 y/o). The most common site of injuries in the intimate partner group and the non-intimate partner group was the neck and the upper limbs, respectively. The rates of bruise and intracranial injury of non-intimate partner group were significantly higher than that of the intimate partner group. The most common causes of death in both groups were strangulation and sharp force injury. The heart injury was significantly more frequent in victims offended by intimate partners than by other assailants. ConclusionsThe characteristics of adult femicides, and the patterns of injury in victims killed by intimate partners and non-intimate partner offenders were different. This data is helpful for corpus inspection in forensic casework and for strategic planning of femicides prevention.