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Currently, no research is available for behavioural investigative advisors’ to provide justifications to infer from the crime scene that an offender is a UK or non-UK national. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Data were obtained from National Crime Agency and consisted of 651 stranger rapes, 434 UK nationals and 217 non-UK nationals. All cases were coded for 70 offence behaviour variables. χ² analyses were conducted to identify significant associations between offence behaviours and offender nationality. Significant associations were then entered into a logistic regression analysis to assess their combined predictive ability of offender nationality.

Analyses revealed 11 offence behaviours with significant associations to offender nationality: confidence, darkness, offender kisses victim, victim performs sex acts, requests sex acts, apologises, destroys forensics, block entry/exit, weapon – firearm, vaginal penetration – hands/fist/digital, and violence: minimal. From this, seven variables held predictive ability within the logistic regression, with five predicting the non-UK grouping and two the UK grouping.

Future research should test the distinctions between UK and non-UK national stranger rapists and explore the impact of length of residency.

Results indicated that on the whole UK and non-UK stranger rapists display similar behaviours, but there were some distinct behaviours within stranger rape crime scenes, particularly the use of firearms. The ability to use crime scene behaviours to narrow suspect pools by criminal conviction is only useful when police have access to full criminal histories. Unfortunately, the ability to access and search non-UK databases is not always possible. Therefore, this study may be the first step for BIAs to utilise in identifying the likely offender nationality, before using further models that narrow down to criminal history.

This is the first study to examine whether it is possible to differentiate stranger rapists nationality using their offence behaviours.

Within controlled environments such as prisons or forensic facilities, strong sanctions and other factors can inhibit the expression of offence-linked behaviours otherwise observable in community settings. For example, institutional restrictions may distort the offender’s habitual expression of aggressive behaviours such that the individual’s aggressive characteristics are less intense or observable. Thus, the influences of controlled settings can make it difficult for staff to capture idiosyncratic evidence of change or lack thereof over time or with treatment. The purpose of this paper is to describe an assessment and measurement framework that can be used to assist treatment and correctional staff collectively focus attention on relevant characteristics and behaviours idiosyncratically linked to offending.

The authors use the terms “offence analogue behaviours (OAB)” to describe proxies of offence behaviours observable in controlled settings and “offence replacement behaviours (ORB)” as the contrasting positive, pro-social skills and strategies that the individual implements to change and manage problem areas linked to aggression and criminality. This paper discusses the application and practical utility of the framework and an associated assessment and measurement tool; the Offence Analogue and Offence Replacement Behaviour Guide (Gordon and Wong, 2009-2013).

The OAB and ORB Guide has shown to be useful by directing the attention of treatment personnel to the here-and-now offence related behaviours displayed by offenders in custodial settings. In the absence of such focused attention, relevant proxy behaviours can often be masked in these highly controlled environments. The Guide is therefore a useful adjunct to identify such behaviours for treatment and for assessing treatment-related changes.

The OAB/ORB Guide was developed based on a conceptual framework derived from the empirical literature on correctional treatment, risk assessment, psychological theories and clinical practice. While there has been some positive pilot use of the Guide’s utility and preliminary research, at this point, empirical evidence is still lacking.

The OAB/ORB Guide provides quantified and structured guidelines to assess offence proxy and offence replacement behaviours observable day-to-day within controlled environments, such as during custody or supervised release to the community.

This guide was developed to assist staff with the identification, documentation and measurement of idiosyncratic negative and positive offence-related proxy behaviours observable across custodial or supervised contexts. Accordingly, the authors suggest that OAB/ORB guide information can be used to evaluate changes in risk over treatment and/or time. Further, the authors describe how this framework may enhance the efficacy of multi-disciplinary treatment and management teams. Two cases are used to illustrate the application of the Guide.

The idea that criminal behavior is a function of the offender's personality, also called the Homology hypothesis, has a long history in forensic psychology and criminology. This assumption, however, has been decried as lacking empirical support. In spite of much social concern relative to sexual offenses, there is virtually no research looking at the stability of offending pattern in sex offenders of adult women. This paper aims to fill some of the gaps.

Latent structure analyses were conducted on a secondary dataset including 145 serial rapists. A cross‐sectional, discrete time‐series design was used including a sequence of three offenses.

Moderate support was found for the three main assumptions underlying the Homology hypothesis. Offenses tended to share a relatively similar underlying structure, with the victimology and aggression components being more prominent than the sexual dimension. The three primary profiles identified, labeled “Passive”, “Stranger‐aggressive”, and “Antisocial”, were found to be about 50 percent stable across the sequence. Finally, the presence of significant dysfunction in the family of origin predicted membership in the “Antisocial” class, as well as increased the specificity and stability of this profile. The presence of early maladjustment was not related to any of the states.

Based on the results, it is proposed that future research incorporates contextual‐environmental elements in order to increase the validity of the findings.

This study represents a unique attempt at documenting patterns of stability and variations across incidents of rape, using an institutional sample. Furthermore, it illustrates the use and potential benefits of latent structure models in criminological research.

The relationship between accessing indecent images online and the perpetration of contact child sex offences remains unclear. The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the offence process of offenders who have both such convictions.

A total of eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with older adult males who had downloaded indecent images and also had a history of contact sex offences against children. Data analysis involved thematic coding based on guidelines suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006).

Themes which emerged suggest some similarities (offence process behaviours), but also some differences (developmental factors) between the eight offenders. Data relevant to developmental factors formed two primary themes: childhood attachment difficulties and experiences of childhood abuse, both of which appeared to influence the offence process. Escalating factors generated a further three themes: adult relationships, personality problems and substance use. Five main categories also emerged with regard to offence behaviours: sexually deviant interests, lack of self-control, opportunity, the role of the internet (availability, easy access and anonymity), and cognitive distortions (justifications: interest in challenge and sexual frustration; denial: accidental access and denial of a victim, normalisation; blame: blame on the victim, new technologies and authorities and blame on other factors; and minimisation).

A better understanding of the offence process would inform clinical practice with such offenders and aid in the process of prevention.

This is the first research to date which explores the rationale provided for their behaviour by those convicted of both internet and contact child sex offences.

Traditional crime linkage studies on serial sexual assaults have relied predominantly on a binary crime linkage approach that has yielded successful results in terms of linkage accuracy. Such an approach is a coarse reflection of reality by focussing mainly on the outcome of an offence, neglecting the forceful differences due to the intricate offender-victim interaction. Only few researchers have examined sexual assaults through the lens of a sequence analysis framework. This paper aims to present the first empirical test of offence sequence-based crime linkage, moving beyond exploratory analyses.

Offence accounts from 90 serial sexual assault and rape victims from the UK were analysed and sequentially coded. Sequence analysis allowed to compare all offences combinations regarding their underlying sequence of events. The resulting comparison was transformed and plotted in two-dimensional space by multidimensional scaling analysis for a visual inspection of linkage potential. The transformed proximities of all offences were used as predictors in a receiver operating characteristic analysis to actually test their discriminatory accuracy for crime linkage purpose.

Sequence analysis shows significant discriminatory accuracy for crime linkage purpose. However, the method does perform less well than previous binary crime linkage studies.

Several limitations due to the nature of the data will be discussed.

The practical limitations are as follows: the study is a potential practical value for crime analysts; it is a complimentary methodology for statistical crime linkage packages; it requires automated coding to be useful; and it is very dependent on crime recoding standards.

The exploratory part of this study has been published in a book chapter in 2015. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the succinct test of crime linkage accuracy is the first of its kind.

Previous criminological research has examined the causes and correlates of violent juvenile offending, but failed to explore the developmental taxonomies of crime throughout history. Theoretically, developmental trajectories of offending (i.e. life‐course persistent and adolescence‐limited offenders) should be identifiable irrespective of time and place. This study aims to examine the pre‐offense characteristics of nineteenth‐century American parricide offenders.

Using archival records of two major newspapers (New York Times, Chicago Tribune), the study examines 220 offenders who committed attempted and completed parricides during the latter half of the nineteenth century (1852‐1999).

Results reveal that a small group of adult parricide offenders displayed antisocial tendencies at an early age that persisted into adulthood. These findings are consistent with the developmental literature, thus providing support for identification of pre‐offense characteristics of parricide offenders across historical periods.

The findings reported in this paper are of value to psychologists, historians, and criminologists, for they illuminate the similarities in predictors related to violent behaviors in a small subsection of adult offenders across two centuries.

This paper aims to review the clinical approach adopted in prison-based therapeutic communities (TCs) for working with residents who have committed sexual offences. It reviews recent research and practice developments and explores the implications for TCs.

This paper describes a “think tank” review process which explores and reviews practice. This paper discusses the current approach adopted by TCs when working with those who have sexually offended and explores changes in clinical approach which could be considered in the light of current developments.

This paper explores the implications for TCs of the recent research and wider practice developments in interventions for those who have sexually offended.

This paper presents clinical options for working with those who deny their offence and undertaking victim empathy and offence disclosure work. It makes recommendations regarding staff training and support. It also discusses the strengths of the TC approach and how these can be built upon.

This paper makes recommendations concerning how practice could be improved which promotes safety and public protection and enhances resident well-being.

There has been no recent review of TC clinical practice for working with those who have sexually offended.

Case linkage theory and practice have received growing empirical support; however, they have yet to be examined fully within Australia. For sexual assault case linkage to be successful, it is assumed that a serial rapist will behave relatively consistently across offences yet distinctively compared to other offenders. The purpose of this paper is to test the underlying principles of case linkage, behavioural consistency and distinctiveness, as well as distinguishing accuracy.

In total, 250 solved stranger rapes by 171 offenders (46 serial rapists, 125 one-off rapists) were taken from Queensland Police Service (QPS) crime records. All possible crime pairings were created and cross-crime similarity was assessed using Jaccard’s coefficient. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to examine the ability to distinguish between linked and unlinked offence pairs.

Serial linked pairs had the highest Jaccard’s coefficient (0.456), followed by non-serial unlinked (0.253) and finally, serial unlinked pairs (0.247). Within the ROC analysis, an area under the curve value was found of 0.913, indicating excellent distinguishing accuracy. Both the underlying principles of behavioural consistency and distinctiveness were supported through theoretical and practical methods. This paper provides the first analysis of serial rape case linkage in Australia, adding validity to this practice.

The authors wish to acknowledge the support and assistance from the QPS in undertaking this research. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the QPS and any errors of omission or commission are the responsibility of the authors.

This paper provides validity to the practice of case linkage using a database within Australia. The results of this paper can be used to inform investigators of serial offender behaviours. The theories of offender consistency and distinctiveness are supported, highlighting the importance of behavioural evidence for practitioners. This paper provided a practical increase of the quantity and quality of offences uploaded on the Australian violent and sexual crimes database, which will assist further linkage efforts.

This paper is the first in Australia to examine consistency, distinctiveness and case linkage of serial stranger rape. Thus is contributes significantly not only to an increased understanding of serial rape and case linkage in Australia but also brings Australia closer to modern research practices in this field.

Traditionally, the focus in psychology has been to relieve suffering in matters such as mental illness. In forensic interventions, the focus has been similar, with an emphasis on the removal of offence‐related behaviours and thinking. That is, therapy has focused on ‘fixing’ what appears to be broken. More recent thinking in the positive psychology literature focuses on the importance of enhancing well‐being and happiness in clients and enhancing the client's own strengths and positive experiences. In turn, positive psychology adopts a strengths‐based approach to working therapeutically with clients. Positive psychology has a number of potential implications for working with forensic clients and the delivery of therapy and relapse prevention blocks. This paper will explores the potential application of positive psychology literature to offending behaviour interventions. Specifically, it focuses on the process of relapse‐prevention and self‐management, within the framework of the Self‐Regulation Model of the Relapse Process (SRM‐RP).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of adults with intellectual disabilities supported by a Community Forensic Learning Disability Team (CFT) and interventions delivered. It discusses the clinical implications of these and examines outcomes such as recidivism.

A retrospective case note review of all 70 service users open to the CFT during June 2013 was carried out, using a structured service evaluation tool.

The majority of service users (74.3 per cent) had a mild intellectual disability. Multiple mental health and/or physical health diagnoses were common, and 28 per cent had problematic drug or alcohol abuse. Almost half of service users had been victims of physical or sexual abuse, or neglect. Sexual offences were the most common index offence, followed by assault and fire-setting. A wide range of multi-disciplinary interventions were delivered within the Community Forensic Team. Following CFT involvement there was an increase in service users living in supported living in the community and a decrease in people in secure or out of area placements. Over half of service users engaged in no further offending behaviour since their referral, and those who did offend generally showed a decrease in the severity of offending behaviours. There was a large decrease in the number of convictions received.

The study shows the benefits of a multi-disciplinary Community Forensic Team for offenders with intellectual disabilities in terms of reduced recidivism and range of interventions delivered. It highlights the importance of clinicians within such a team having the skills to work with people with co-morbid diagnoses (e.g. autism) and people with trauma backgrounds and problematic substance use.

This paper demonstrates the complexity of the service users who are supported by the CFT, as well as the integral role played in supporting individuals to move to less restrictive settings, with positive outcomes.