NCJ Number
225080
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 12 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2008 Pages: 381-398
Date Published
November 2008
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Building on recent research on multiple homicide offenders (MHOs), the current study examined the degree to which such offenders are more specialized in their offending careers than other homicide offenders.
Abstract
The findings do not indicate that MHOs are specialists in murder. Instead, the MHOs exhibited criminal careers that were indistinguishable from those of homicide offenders who had murdered only one victim. The broad conclusion of this study is that MHOs can be viewed through criminological theory as the same as other offenders. Four implications are drawn. First, future research should determine whether offenders with a previously varied criminal career escalated to the crime of murder and persisted in this behavior as a part of their criminal repertoire. Second, since a younger age of onset of crime was a better predictor of diversity for MHOs than for single homicide offenders (SHOs), it is possible that low self-control is more likely to be present in MHOs, making them less able to restrain their behaviors when thwarted or challenged. Third, since older offenders were more likely to be MHOs, this suggests they have more time to commit diverse offenses as well as repeat their offenses. Fourth, the classification of criminals into types by the offenses they commit may be unwarranted, given the prevalence of diversity in most offending. The data used in this study were part of DeLisi and Scherer’s (2006) study of 654 incarcerated homicide offenders from 8 States across the Southern, Midwestern, and Atlantic Coast areas of the United States. The dataset included variables relevant to the criminal career paradigm, such as offender age, race, and age at onset of offending. Ten measures of previous convictions were used: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, molestation charges, burglary, theft, weapons charges, and drug use or sale charges. 3 tables, 9 notes, and 71 references