A multivariate model of the offence behaviours of South African serial killers
- Authors: Hodgskiss, Brin Allan
- Date: 2013-05-14
- Subjects: Serial murderers -- South Africa -- Psychology Criminal behavior
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3169 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007793
- Description: It was hypothesised that there would be behavioural consistencies in the offences of South African serial killers. The themes underlying these observable differences can help us understand the nature of these offences. Crime scene data was ohtained from police records, and structured, in-depth offender interviews. 73 offences, committed by 13 offenders, were analysed. The analysis used Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), a Multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure. This analysis revealed systematic patterns of behaviour in the offences. It was found that the focus of these offences is an impersonal, hostile, and act-focused murder were the victim is treated as a depersonalised object. Empirical support for an underlying thematic structure to these offences was also provided. The offence themes identified relate to the nature of the actions committed during the offence, and the function these actions had for the offender. These fmdings thus support the hypothesis that these offences will display meaningful behavioural variation. These findings have direct utility in the investigation and study of serial killing in South Aflica. They also provide the basis for comparison with previously suggested typologies of serial killing, and indicate directions for future research into this phenomenon in the South African setting. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hodgskiss, Brin Allan
- Date: 2013-05-14
- Subjects: Serial murderers -- South Africa -- Psychology Criminal behavior
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3169 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007793
- Description: It was hypothesised that there would be behavioural consistencies in the offences of South African serial killers. The themes underlying these observable differences can help us understand the nature of these offences. Crime scene data was ohtained from police records, and structured, in-depth offender interviews. 73 offences, committed by 13 offenders, were analysed. The analysis used Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), a Multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure. This analysis revealed systematic patterns of behaviour in the offences. It was found that the focus of these offences is an impersonal, hostile, and act-focused murder were the victim is treated as a depersonalised object. Empirical support for an underlying thematic structure to these offences was also provided. The offence themes identified relate to the nature of the actions committed during the offence, and the function these actions had for the offender. These fmdings thus support the hypothesis that these offences will display meaningful behavioural variation. These findings have direct utility in the investigation and study of serial killing in South Aflica. They also provide the basis for comparison with previously suggested typologies of serial killing, and indicate directions for future research into this phenomenon in the South African setting. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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Bad faith: the psychological life of a satanist who committed murder
- Authors: Du Toit, Jacobus Petrus
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Murderers -- Psychology , Criminal psychology , Satanism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3152 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007483 , Murderers -- Psychology , Criminal psychology , Satanism
- Description: Traditional methods of psychological and forensic research fail to adequately provide an account of the psychological meaning that perpetrators of crime derive when appropriating their actions to Satanic involvement. In February 2001, a young man appeared in a South African High Court and testified that he had committed murder as a result of his involvement in Satanism. The aim of this study is to gain a phenomenological understanding of how this man appropriates the act of murder to involvement in Satanism. A review of literature elucidates Satanism as a context for meaning, provide a framework for defining murder as a criminal act, and situate this study in the broader field of phenomenological-existential, psychological research. An emergent design case-study approach was applied to data gathered from a single subject, by means of a three-interview series. An empirical phenomenological methodology was used during the interpretive phase to arrive at both a descriptive account of the subject's phenomenological experience and how the eidetic structure of the experience of Satanism as a context tor meaning emerged. A discussion of the subject's appropriation of murder with Satanism illustrates how the subject imposed a dichotomy of good and bad on his life-world in an attempt to derive meaning from his experience of inadequacy. Involvement with Satanism is meaningful, in that it affords its followers an increased sense of power, a safe environment to explore individuality, shared responsibility associated with exercising free choice, social situatedness and an affirmation of being through an increased awareness of finitude. The research subject experienced committing murder as an act of loyalty to the perceived gains he had been afforded as result of his involvement with Satanism.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Du Toit, Jacobus Petrus
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Murderers -- Psychology , Criminal psychology , Satanism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3152 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007483 , Murderers -- Psychology , Criminal psychology , Satanism
- Description: Traditional methods of psychological and forensic research fail to adequately provide an account of the psychological meaning that perpetrators of crime derive when appropriating their actions to Satanic involvement. In February 2001, a young man appeared in a South African High Court and testified that he had committed murder as a result of his involvement in Satanism. The aim of this study is to gain a phenomenological understanding of how this man appropriates the act of murder to involvement in Satanism. A review of literature elucidates Satanism as a context for meaning, provide a framework for defining murder as a criminal act, and situate this study in the broader field of phenomenological-existential, psychological research. An emergent design case-study approach was applied to data gathered from a single subject, by means of a three-interview series. An empirical phenomenological methodology was used during the interpretive phase to arrive at both a descriptive account of the subject's phenomenological experience and how the eidetic structure of the experience of Satanism as a context tor meaning emerged. A discussion of the subject's appropriation of murder with Satanism illustrates how the subject imposed a dichotomy of good and bad on his life-world in an attempt to derive meaning from his experience of inadequacy. Involvement with Satanism is meaningful, in that it affords its followers an increased sense of power, a safe environment to explore individuality, shared responsibility associated with exercising free choice, social situatedness and an affirmation of being through an increased awareness of finitude. The research subject experienced committing murder as an act of loyalty to the perceived gains he had been afforded as result of his involvement with Satanism.
- Full Text:
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