LOYOLA UNIVERSITY NEW ORLEANS

CRJU-C850-051:  Seminar in Criminology

(Criminal Offenders:  Typologies, Profiles and Victims)

SUMMER 2003


Instructor:  Dr. William E. Thornton
Office: Stallings Room 124
Phone: 504-865-2134
Dept. Phone:  504-865-3323
E-mail: thornton@loyno.edu

Class Location:  Monroe Library Room LI-134, Multimedia 1
Dates and times:  Monday, May 19th - Friday, May 23rd, 2003; 8:00a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Attendance:  Roll will be taken at the beginning, and possibly the end, of each class.  Issues, discussions, and student presentations require attendance and participation at all scheduled class meetings.

Assignment prior to first class session:  Review as much of the course materials described in numbers 1-6 below as possible (e.g., 1. Early Typologies, 2. Crime Typologies)  from the Course Outline section below.  This includes reading materials from Miethe and McCorkle (Crime Profiles) and John Douglas, et al (Crime Classification Manual).

I.  Course Description:

    The course examines an area in the field of criminology dealing with classifying or otherwise categorizing criminal offenders.  A typology is an organizing device for categorizing large amounts of information into mutually exclusive categories, as in a biological system of taxonomy or the chemical periodic table.
A number of typologies are used in the field of criminology, but to date no universally accepted typologies of offenders or legal categories exist.  Many of the typologies used are based on legal or semi-legal definitions of crime committed by the offender, in addition to information related to the seriousness of the offense, the psychological characteristics of the offender, the career patterns of the offender (e.g., first time, part-time, or “professional” criminals), the places that offenders hunt their victims, the situational contexts of offenders’ crimes, offender motivation, offender versatility, and the victims of offenders.  Violent crimes – murder in its different manifestations, sexual assault, armed robbery and the like – strike the most fear in citizens because individuals are brought face to face with an offender in an interpersonal violent transaction. Violent crimes have in common the element of the infliction (or attempted infliction), of physical/psychological injury and/or death to the victim.  Some crimes such as armed robbery are both “crimes against the person” and property crimes. Robbery involves violence and the element of force (e.g., a gun, knife, or other weapon is used) or threat of force. The recent crime of “car jacking” would similarly fit this category.  Other types of crime such as child abuse, parental abuse, and spousal abuse are classified as violent crimes. More covert types of violence (which result from corporate, political, or organized syndicate criminality) fit the category of violent crimes. As we shall see, there are many types of criminals other than violent offenders.  However, causal models of criminal violence are among the most numerous in the discipline of criminology. This is interesting in that research, e.g., Uniform Crime Reports, self studies, and victims surveys, show us that violent crime is the least likely crime to occur yet it is the type of crime most often to be studied, reported and discussed.   This may be due to the great cultural popularity of violent crime topics (e.g., television and movies), the relative ease of obtaining crime data and the specificity of legal definitions (criminal codes).  Much of this course will be devoted to the study of the classification of violent crimes and offenders.  One particular classification scheme devised by FBI profilers John E. Douglas and Robert Ressler (see Crime Classification Manual) will be discussed where the researchers have extended the crime typology for use in the investigation of violent crimes and possible apprehension of violent offenders.

    By far the largest number of crimes committed n the United States in any given year are “crimes against property” and include offenses such as theft (e.g., motor vehicle theft, larceny/thefts – shoplifting, employee thefts), burglary, embezzlement and false pretenses  These offenses, numbering well in to the millions, have in common the motive of obtaining money, securities, merchandise, property, and/or other tangibles that can be quickly converted into cash.  Recent advances in technology have opened  up a new form of property crime, the stealing of information or data by illegal access to computers.  Adaptations of this technology, to the banking industry for example, have fostered thefts from automatic teller machines, the embezzlement of client's funds and fraudulent stock manipulations. The history of the development of criminal laws pertaining to property offenses shows a lag between the law and the methods of illegal acquisition of property. Probably the most important decision affecting the modern law of theft was made in England some 500 years ago with the Carrier case. Before 1473, a theft could not legally occur unless there was an overt taking of goods from another person's possession without the person's consent (with trespass).  Merchants who constantly had goods “stolen” by bailsman who carried the goods from the port of entry to their shops inspired a change in the law.  The law defined the breaking of bales, or conversion of property legally acquired, as simply a “breach of trust,” which was a civil and not a criminal matter.  Judges in the Carrier case ruled that “breaking bale” did indeed constitute an illegal theft – it was accompanied by the necessary “trespass.”  This extension of the law opened the door to inclusion of many other behaviors that had been treated as civil rather than criminal. By the 1700s, laws regarding the receiving of stolen property, obtaining goods by false pretenses, and embezzlement formed a substantive body of criminal laws that still exists today.   Property crimes today are usually differentiated from “crimes against the person” on the grounds that the offender's chief motive for committing the crime is to obtain money or property.  If in the case of the commission of a conventional property crime the victim resists, violence may occur.  As we shall see in the course, one differentiating factor between “professional” or career property offenders and “amateur” or occasional property offenders is the presence or lack of violence in carrying out the crime.  However, the distinction between property crimes and crimes against the person is somewhat artificial and is made for heuristic purposes.

    The development of criminal typologies is no easy task, especially in view of the changing nature of crimes and laws.  Many new variations of crime have emerged in our highly technical society.  Early criminology texts were mainly about street violence, theft and drug abuse. Criminologists now also devote attention to the study of organized crime; white collar; corporate, and political and terrorist crimes, as well as human rights violations and other more globally oriented types of criminality.  Many of these typologies will be discussed in the course.

    In the context of classifying criminal offenses and offenders, the role of the victim is often relegated to a subscript within the offender classification scheme.  Victims have for too long been a secondary subject in criminology.  The reason for the late-developing interest in victims by criminologists lies largely in the structure of society and its influence on the system of justice.  In early history, the victim and the victim's family played an integral part in the adjudication of crime.  In many pre-industrial societies, restitution – paying back the victim or the victim's family for wrongdoing  - was a direct way to avert vendettas or bloodletting between disputing families.  Even violent crimes were handled by property compensation to the victim's family. The victim's role in adjudication diminished with the advent of larger governments. Crime was eventually treated as a disruption of public order. The “state” was legally defined as the wronged party. Harm to the victim may have started the wheels of justice turning, but controlling the criminal's conduct and attitude and the victim's rage and revenge (both of which were seen as disruptive) became the focus of the criminal justice system. In the middle of the 20th Century, criminologists rediscovered the “lost” victim. The first typology of victims by Hans von Hentig (1948) and Benjamin Mendelsohn (1956) broke ground for more recent typologies.  Criminological typologies of victims normally have one or two fundamental bases or variables, specifically, the relative responsibility of the victim for the crime (to what degree is the victim culpable for the actions of the offender) and the relative vulnerability of the victim to crime (what social conditions or environments lead to more or less risk of crime for the person).  Investigative typologies of violent crime victims generally focus on other variable such as: (1) Was the victim known to the offender?, (2) What were the victim's chances of becoming a target for violent crime?, and (3) What was the type, style, and number of victims, etc?
 

II.   Course Objectives:

III. Course Materials (all books in Loyola Bookstore)

Abbreviations used to distinguish between texts:

IV.  Course Outline

History of Crime Typologies and Classification Systems  CP, chp. 1, CCM, introduction
1.  Early Typologies (some examples)
  • Cesare Lombroso
  • Charles Goring
  • Healy and Bronner
  • Early clinical-categorical psychological strategies
  • Marshall Clinard and Richard Quinney
    • 2. Crime Typologies  CP, chp. 1
  • Legal-Based Typologies
  • Offender-Based Typologies
  • Victim-Based Typologies
  • Situational Context-Based Typologies
  • Multi-Trait Typologies
    • 3. Major Dimensions Underlying Crime Types  CP, chp. 1 4.  Sources of Data About Offenders 5.  Homicides  and Assaults   CP, chp. 2 6.  Crime Classification Manual 7.  Sexual Assault   CP, chp. 3 8.  Personal and Institutional Robbery  CP, Chp. 4 9.  Residential and Nonresidential Burglary    CP, chp. 5 10.  Motor Vehicle Theft (MVT)    CP, chp. 6 11.  Occupation and Organizational Crime CP, chp. 7 12.  Public Order Crimes, CP, chp. 8 13.  Crime Control and the Anatomy of Dangerous Persons, Places, and Situations    CP, chp. 9 14.  Victimology (all readings from Victimology)

    IV. Course Requirements

        A.  Paper on Victims of Terrorism

        As we discuss in this course, much has been written on the nature of criminal offenders and the role of crime victims in the field of  American criminology.   Research on offender and victim classification systems have, for the most part, focused on more traditional types of offenders, e.g., for profit motive types of interpersonal crimes, and victims, e.g., private individuals or employees who are assaulted or murdered for their money or other assets.  Likewise, there is abundant research on violent offenders who assault victims who are strangers or loved ones for any number of known or unknown motives.   An area that has generally been neglected, however, involves the study of victims of terrorism.  Though variously defined, terrorism generally refers to the “unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence by a group or  individual based and operating entirely within the United States (or its territories) without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” (Statement for the Record of Dale L. Watson, Executive Assistant Director, Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence, Federal Bureau of Investigation, on The Terrorist Threat Confronting the United States Before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Washington, D.C., February 6, 2002).  While domestic and foreign terrorist acts perpetrated against non-military citizens within the U.S. borders is a relatively new phenomenon (e.g., World Trade Center, New York, 1993; Oklahoma City Federal Building, 1995; twin World Trade Center Towers, New York, 2001; Pentagon, Washington, D.C, 2001), innocent victims of terrorism around the world, including Americans, are by no means new.  Whether in Northern Ireland, Palestine, or Israel, victims of terrorism have always been readily apparent, especially given publicity from powerful and vivid coverage on the news.  “Who are these terrorist victims and how do they cope with the effects and aftereffects of such devastating and traumatic events.”  More specifically, “How do those who come face-to-face with the immediate effects of terrorist acts of violence handle the psychological impact?” (Spindlove, 2003: 159).  Now that the potential number of victims and the consequences of terrorist events have reached American shores, our brief experience has taught us that the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of victims and communities persist long after the immediate crisis has been handled.

        It is a simple practical fact that guerrilla like terrorist tactics, such as the bombing of a crowded airplane, the pollution of public water supplies, the placement of pipe bombs in busy shopping centers and the like are used by groups that are comparatively far less powerful, militarily and politically, than their enemy. Insurgent groups envision a fair world, an ideal world, a righteous world, or simply their world. They are politically criminal when they willingly use violent and criminal means to evoke social change. Terrorist groups vary as much as in their short-term goals as they do in their ideologies and social conditions. Terrorist acts are dramatic, attention-getting, fear-provoking, inexpensive, simple, able to be executed by a small dedicated groups, and sometimes discrediting of the state or powers that be. Several researchers have identified the objectives and/or functions of such terrorist acts:

    (1)  Killing occupying forces such as police or military targets: The starkest example for Americans is the bombing of the U.S. Marine Headquarters in Lebanon on Oct. 23, 1983, by the Iranian Hezbollah (Party of God). The bomb killed 241 Americans, mostly Marines.  It followed the same groups bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on April 18, which killed 63 persons.  Similarly, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) has implemented this strategy.

    (2)  Hostage taking as a result of abduction or hijacking:  Hostage taking can accomplish several aims. Hostages are ransomed to raise money for the cause. Businessmen from multinational corporations are prey for insurgency groups, particularly in South America. Hostages can be swapped for fellow terrorists how have been arrested. The PLO and Israeli government have been swapping terrorists for soldiers and operatives.  Hostages can be used symbolically to display the vulnerability of the state or enemy.  Iranian Shiites poignantly demonstrated this when they took control of the country and abducted members of the U.S. Embassy in 1978, holding them captive for over a year. Our abortive attempt at rescuing them militarily only served to heighten the fervor of the Revolutionary Guards. Hostages can be brainwashed by sensory deprivation, thought reform, infantile helplessness (Stockholm Effect), monopoly of interpretations, etc. to make them part of the terrorist group or otherwise mold them to help their cause (e.g., the kidnapping and abduction Patty Hearst) (See Frederick Hacker, Crusaders, Criminals and Crazies: Terror and Terrorism in Our Time. New York: Norton Publishers, 1976)

    (3)  Vengeance and retribution by attacking an enemy's citizens or assassinating leaders who betray the cause:  A case in point is the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988, by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. There were many Americans among the 259 passengers who perished. Of course, the recent bombing of the Twin World Trade Center Towers, 9/11/2001 and the Pentagon are in this same category.


        Your assignment is to research the topic of victims of terrorism from any perspective that interests you.  I am looking for a well-researched and documented 20 - 25 page paper with an outline and bibliography.  I want you to include in a separate folder copies of your research (e.g., journal articles, internet research – hard copies and website, government reports, etc.)   A list of possible topics is given below.  More about the assignment will be discussed in class.  I would like each class member to select a different theme to explore on the topic.

         As noted earlier, there has been a lot of works published on the topic of crime victims in general, but until recently not much on victims of terrorism.  Keep in mind that terrorism can be both domestic as well as foreign.  Characters such as Timothy McVeigh are “home grown” terrorists while Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda followers are foreign terrorists. In their own right, these individuals are cut from the same cloth by both their tactics and their true belief that the killing of innocent individuals is key to their higher political/religious causes.

    Possible topics:

    Website Resources:

    http://www.lib.umd.edu/GOV/terrorism.html

    http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/pdftxt/NCJ183949.pdf  (Requires Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader)

    http://www.emergency.com/bin-oped.htm

    http://www.emergency.com/2001/fema-terror-factsheet.htm

    http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/

    http://www.usis.usemb.se/terror/
     

    B.  Annotated Bibliography on Religious Crime Offenders and Victims in the Church

        With 63 million adherents, America's Roman Catholic Church is the third largest in the world.  Yet, the church has dwindling numbers of priests, experiencing a steady decline since the mid-1960s.  Additionally, church converts also have been leveling off from relatively large numbers in the 1950s to smaller numbers in the 2000s.  Added to problems affecting the Church has been the revelation that perhaps hundreds of now older priests sexually assaulted hundreds of young children in archdioceses throughout the United States.  Certain priests have been accused of molesting literally dozens of children throughout their years in the priesthood with little or no consequences even though their crimes were known by the Church hierarchy and by other priests.  For example, former Boston priest John J. Geoghan has been accused of molesting as many as 130 young victims over a period of 30 years.  The Boston Globe reported that the Archdiocese of Boston moved Geoghan, whom it knew to be a pedophile, from parish to parish over 30 years. The cardinal, who had previously defended the archdiocese's handling of the case recently apologized to the victims, now adults.  The Globe further reported that the archdiocese had quietly paid $10 million to settle about 50 of the cases against Geoghan.  The cardinal apologized and, according to people familiar with the situation, turned over to state authorities the names of between 60 and 70 priests who had been accused of abusing children over the past 40 years.   Two years ago, in response to publicity about priest pedophiles, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops held a conference on the sexual abuse of minors.  The conference reported that at the present rate, child-sexual-abuse settlements would cost the Church $1 billion over the next 10 years. The conference advised that the public be dealt with honestly and openly.

        Experts long ago abandoned the notion that priests could be cured of pedophilia.  The goal of treatment has generally been to prevent a relapse. About a half dozen major treatment centers across the country are used by the Roman Catholic Church to treat pedophile priests.   Treatments range from monitoring and attempting to alter priests’ arousal levels to prescribed antidepressants and drugs like DepoProvera to suppress sexual appetites. In all, treatments can last a few months to a year, at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 a month. If treatment managers decide that a priest is ready after treatment – based on close observation and psychological testing – the Church decides where he goes next.

        Little systematic research has been done on the phenomenon of sexual assault and other crimes committed by Church personnel.  It should be noted that priests have no monopoly on pedophilia and other sexual crimes.  Clergymen from all denominations have attacked children and adults and have been arrested and convicted.  To be attacked by a priest or minister is, according to victims, a double betrayal; the victims harbor the outrage and shattered innocence of a child abused by a parent  (Newsweek, March 4, 2002: 42-53).

        Your assignment is to conduct research and develop an annotated bibliography with 15 sources on some type of “religious crime” involving religious personnel who sexually assault individuals - children and adults - within the confines of their religious roles.  You are free to concentrate on the offenders, possibly exploring “defining characteristics” of the offense and offender.  For example, What is the profile of the offenders as an aggregate offending group?  What risks did offenders take in perpetrating their crimes?  Were their crimes organized or disorganized?  (See Crime Classification Manual)
    You may also concentrate on the victims, i.e., the “victimology” of the offense. Were the victims known to the offenders? What were the victim's chances of becoming a target for the crimes?   Did victim precipitation or facilitation take place?  An annotated bibliography includes:

    (1)  A central theme or thesis that will be the focus of research:  This should be about 3 or 4 pages in length and detail briefly the central problem or research topic you wish to study including current documentation of the problem, a brief history of the problem, and supporting evidence of nature of the problem.

    (2)  A list of 15 citations to books, journal articles, web sites, and other documents.  Each citation is followed by a brief (200-300 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph(s), the annotation.  The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

    (3)  When possible, include a hard copy of the source (articles, copies of web material, etc., NOT books).

    The following is a sample annotated bibliography entry for a journal article:

        Goldschneider, F.K., Waite, L.J. (1986). Non-familily living and the erosion of traditional family orientations among young adults. American
        Sociological Review, 51, 541-554.

        The authors, researchers are the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women
        and Young Men to test their hypothesis that  non family living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans, and expectations, moving
        them away from their belief in traditional sex roles.  They find their hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while the effects were fewer
        in studies of young males.  Increasing the time away from parents before marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in
        attitudes about families. In contrast, an earlier study by Williams cited below shows no significant gender differences in sex role attitudes as a

        result of non-family living.   (The annotation here should be a bit longer.)

    C.  Profiling Violent Offenders: Russian Crime

        View the film entitled "The Red Ripper" on reserve in the Loyola Media Center.  This film details the life and times and apprehension of Andrei Chikatilo, a notorious Russian serial killer.  Based on the reading material and our discussion of serial murder profiling, write a five page paper indicating the clues and other characteristics of Chikatilo gleaned from the film that would have either alerted you to the fact, assuming that you were an investigator, that he was a serial killer. Likewise, discuss those aspects of his routine, the nature of the crimes, the nature of the victims, the crime dumping sites, etc. that might possibly have lead to his apprehension.  Also point to problems that the Russian police agencies encountered in the apprehension of Chikatilo.  Do you notice any differences in the profile of this serial killer compared to American serial killers?

    Further Reading

    Bartol, Curt R., Criminal Behavior: A Psychosocial Approach, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995

    Canter, David, “Offender Profiles,” Psychologist, 2, 1989

    Canter, David, Criminal Shadows: Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer, London: Harper-Collins, 1994

    Canter, David, “Offender Profiling and Criminal Differentiation,” Legal and Criminological Psychology (2000)

    Douglas, John. E., Burgess, Ann W., Burgess, Allen G., and Ressler, Robert K, Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes, New York: Lexington Books, 1992

    Douglas, John and Olshaker, Mark, The Anatomy of Motive, New York: Scribner, 1999

    Douglas, John and Olshaker, Mark, Journey into Madness: The FBI’s Premier Investigator Penetrates the Minds and Motives of the Most Terrifying Serial Killers, New York: Pocket Books, 1997

    Groth, Nicholas, and Birnbaum, Jean H., Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender, New York: Plenum, 1979

    Grubin, Don, “Offender Profiling,” The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 6 (1995)

    Hazelwood, Robert R., Ressler, Robert K., Depue, Roger L., and Douglas, John E., “Criminal Personality Profiling,”  in Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation, edited by Robert R. Hazelwood and Ann Wolbert Burgess, Boca Raton, Fla: CRC Press, 1993

    Hickey, Eric W., Serial Murderers and Their Victims, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1997

    Holmes, Ronald M. and Holmes, Stephen T., Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996

    Holmes, Ronald M. and DeBurger, J., Serial Murder. Newbury Park: Sage, 1988

    Knight, R.A., “A taxonomic analysis of child molesters,” in Human Sexual Aggression: Current Perspectives, edited by R.A. Prentky and V.L. Quinsey, New York: New York Academy of Science, 1988

    Ormerod, David, C., “The Evidential Implications of Psychological Profiling,” Criminal Law Review (1996)

    Pinizzotto, Anthony J. and Finkel, Norman J., “Criminal Personality Profiling,” Law and Human Behavior 14 (1990)

    Ressler, Robert. and Shachtman, Tom, Whoever Fights Monsters. Lexington, MA: Lexington, 1992

    Ressler, Robert., Burgess, Ann., and Douglas, John, Sexual Homicide. Lexington, MA: Lexington, 1988

    Salfati, Gabrielle C. and Canter, David, “Differentiating Stranger Murders: Profiling Offender Characteristics from Behavioral Styles,” Behavioral Sciences and the Law 17 (1999)

    Voigt, Lydia,  Thornton, William E., Barrile, Leo, and Seaman, Jerry, Criminology and Justice, New York: McGraw Hill, 1994