NCJ Number
190156
Journal
Reports of the National Research Institute of Police Science Volume: 39 Issue: 2 Dated: March 1999 Pages: 1-19
Date Published
March 1999
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This analysis of mutilation-murder cases in Japan examined the relationships among victim characteristics, offense characteristics, and offender characteristics.
Abstract
"Mutilation-murder" cases are defined as "those homicides where the offender tried to dismember the victim." A total of 123 mutilation-murder cases (93 solved cases and 30 unsolved cases) were investigated by organized task forces between 1947 and 1996. This study excluded 16 cases due to missing data and focused on the 77 solved cases. Victim characteristics measured were sex, age, occupation, and lifestyle. Offense characteristics measured were where the body was found, the number of bodies, causes of death, the number of body parts removed, the parts removed, removal of muscles and adipose tissues, removal of internal organs, removal of genitals, and whether the body was burned. Offender characteristics consisted of age, occupation, victim-offender relationship, whether the offender was living with the victim, the motivation for the killing, and the number of offenders. For victims less than 20 years old (eight cases), all of the cases were committed by a single offender. The offenders had no relationship with the victims prior to the homicide in 62.5 percent of the cases. Offenders killed their victims as part of sexual activities. In 25 percent of these cases, the offenders had friendly ties and some type of sexual relationship with the victim prior to the offense. In cases in which female victims were older than 19 (36 cases), over 90 percent of the crimes were committed by a single offender. In 75 percent of the cases, victims were killed by family members or lovers. In cases in which males victims were older than 19 (33 cases), 60 percent were committed by a single offender. Kinship ties were rare in these cases, and there were only two cases in which the victims did not know the offender; in both cases the offenders were serial killers. Over 90 percent of the cases involved acquaintances as the killers. 10 tables and 25 references