Premium
Making sense of senseless murders: The who, what, when, and where?
Author(s) -
Reale Kylie S.,
Beauregard Eric,
Chopin Julien,
Wells Nathan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.2513
Subject(s) - homicide , criminology , poison control , commission , human factors and ergonomics , phenomenon , empirical research , suicide prevention , injury prevention , offender profiling , occupational safety and health , psychology , sample (material) , process (computing) , computer security , computer science , medicine , medical emergency , political science , law , data mining , mathematics , physics , statistics , chemistry , chromatography , quantum mechanics , visualization , operating system
The phenomenon of “senseless” or “motiveless” homicide refers to homicides that lack an objective external motivation. Despite the unique challenges these homicides pose to police, few empirical studies have been conducted on the topic and existing studies are limited to clinical studies using small samples. To overcome existing empirical shortcomings, the current study used a sample of 319 homicide cases where no motive was established during the investigation to describe the “who” (offender and victim characteristics), “what” (modus operandi, crime characteristics), “where” (encounter, crime, and body recovery associated locations), and “when” (time of the crime) of the entire criminal event. Findings provide insight into the entire crime‐commission process and suggest a different dynamic to “senseless” homicide from what has been described in previous literature. Implications for police investigative practice are discussed.