NCJ Number
213022
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2006 Pages: 33-54
Date Published
February 2006
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether crime-scene behaviors in Finnish homicides were linked to differences in offenders' psychiatric diagnoses (five mental disorders).
Abstract
Consistent with previous studies, this study found that homicide victims of schizophrenic offenders were often relatives. The findings suggest that it is important to link crime-scene behaviors to particular types of mental illness or to no significant mental illness in order to help significantly in identifying suspects. The previous finding that schizophrenic offenders were less often intoxicated at the time of the homicide was only partly supported by the current study. The crime-scene behaviors of offenders with a personality disorder were similar to those of alcoholics or those without a psychiatric diagnosis. Killing linked to another crime was significantly more prevalent among drug addicts. All alcoholic offenders were intoxicated at the time of the offense, although the reliability of such a determination is usually questionable. Offenders without a psychiatric diagnosis were more likely to kill a relative and less likely to kill an acquaintance. Compared to offenders with a psychiatric diagnosis, they more often used firearms as weapons. Study methodology involved the analysis of a sample of homicide offenders' forensic-psychiatric-examination statements obtained from the National Authority of Medicolegal Affairs archives. The sample consisted of 50 offenders from 4 diagnostic groups: schizophrenia, alcoholics or drug addicts with no other serious mental illnesses, offenders with personality disorder, and offenders with either no diagnosis or a less serious disorder. The forensic-psychiatric-examination statements were content analyzed to reflect the crime-scene behaviors and the offender and victim characteristics. 8 tables and 62 references