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Organised Crime is notoriously difficult to identify and measure, resulting in limited empirical evidence to inform policy makers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of identifying a greater number of organised crime offenders, currently captured but invisible, within existing national general crime databases.

All 2.1 million recorded offenders, captured over a four-year period on the UK Police National Computer, were filtered across three criteria associated with organised crime (co-offending, commission of specific offences, three years imprisonment or more). The 4,109 “organized crime” offenders, identified by the process, were compared with “general” and “serious” offender control groups across a variety of personal and demographic variables.

Organised crime prosecutions are not random but concentrate in specific geographic areas and constitute 0.2 per cent of the offender population. Offenders can be differentiated from general crime offenders on such measures as: diversity of nationality and ethnicity, onset age, offence type and criminal recidivism.

Using an offence-based methodology, rather than relying on offenders identified through police proactive investigations, can provide empirical information from existing data sets, across a diverse range of legislative areas and cultures. This allows academics to enhance their analysis of organised crime, generating richer evidence on which policy makers and practitioners can more effectively deliver preventative and disruptive tactics.

This is the first time an “offence based” methodology has been used to differentiate organised crime offenders from other offenders in a general crime database.

Based on the previously observed link between greater facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) and interpersonal aggression in men (see Haselhuhn et al., 2015), the purpose of this paper is to test whether fWHR could differentiate among male offenders as a function of the relative aggressiveness of the crime for which they had been convicted.

fWHR measurements (n=550) were computed based on a large subset of male offenders available on a public domain database. Each offender’s index offense and possible confounding variables such as age, ethnicity, and body mass index were also recorded.

Multiple analyses yielded no evidence of a relationship between male fWHR and the comparative level of violence of their conviction offense.

Establishing an empirical basis for probable parameters of an unknown offender’s facial structure could have a considerable practical value for criminal profiling purposes. fWHR – at least as it has been most frequently assessed – does not appear to be a facial parameter that is useful for this purpose, however.

With the objective of encouraging the use of standard processes for exploring offenders' narratives two complementary procedures are discussed. One is a development of McAdams explorations with highly effective individuals, describing their life as if it were a book. This is a structured interview protocol that has been specifically produced for use with offenders, in which they describe their life as a film (LAAF). A number of studies with male and female incarcerated individuals as well as those without convictions have revealed important differences between people in how they give a free account of their past and future lives. This allows the differentiation of LAAF narratives and reveals the existence of dominant narrative forms in offenders' responses. These relate to those initially elaborated by Frye (1957) for fiction, namely tragedy, comedy, adventure and romance. The second method is the Narrative Role Questionnaire (NRQ) which elicits the inherent role that offenders saw themselves as playing during specific crimes. Completion of the NRQ by various samples reveals important differences between offences in the narratives that provide the agency for their criminal actions. The roles central to these narratives have also been found to embody distinct emotional components that maintain offending. Taken together the NRQ and the LAAF provide a framework for examining offence narratives which enables the main narratives of relevance to criminality to be identified and their implications for theory and practice to be elaborated.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how offenses co-occur in the backgrounds of homicide offenders and if identified groups of offenses reflect an underlying theoretical construct or theme; and to determine if offenders specialize in thematically similar offenses.

The previous convictions of 122 single-victim homicide offenders were examined using smallest space analysis to identify groups of co-occurring offenses across offenders’ criminal histories.

The results showed a thematic distinction between violent vs instrumental offenses and 84 percent of offenders specialized in offenses within a single dominant theme, suggesting that the framework can differentiate the majority of offenders’ criminal backgrounds. Possible sub-themes were identified that could suggest further demarcation of the themes and provide a more refined framework that may be of even greater utility in differentiating offenders.

This study utilized data from a single American city that may affect generalizability of the findings. The exclusion of a timeline for prior offending precludes consideration of offending escalation.

The current study uses an alternative approach to conceptualize specialization according to how offenses co-occur in the backgrounds of homicide offenders. This approach is less restrictive than considering the offenses in isolation to one another and may be of greater utility in empirically derived offender profiling models. The thematic framework developed herein can act as a foundation for future studies.

This study aims to determine whether cases of acid attacks within the UK could be differentiated based on the offence characteristics and motivations.

The study used a multi-dimensional scalogram analysis (MSA) to examine the similarities and differences between the behaviours that were acted out during the 30 cases.

Results found a clear division amongst acid attack offenders through multiple variables, mainly pertaining to whether the attack was predicated and the motivation. This was found to be comparable with instrumental and expressive actions.

The findings have potential to contribute to psychological theory to categorise and define acid attack offences. This would also greatly assist in suspect prioritisation and other aspects of police investigations.

Reports of acid attacks within the UK are rising. The motivations behind these offences are predominantly related to gang violence and acts of revenge. However, the current literature around acid attacks has largely focussed on the victim perspective, with little research around offenders and their actions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for developing a model for differentiating school shooters based on their characteristics (or risk factors) before the attack took place.

Data on 40 school shootings was compiled from the National School Safety Center’s Report on School Associated Violent Deaths and media accounts. Content analysis of the cases produced a set of 18 variables relating to offenders’ characteristics (or risk factors). Data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), a non-metric multidimensional scaling procedure.

Results revealed three distinct themes: Disturbed School Shooter, Rejected School Shooter and Criminal School Shooter. Further analysis identified links between these themes with the family background of the offender.

These findings have both significant theoretical implications in the understanding of school shooters and the crime in general. They offer potential for practical applications in terms of prevention and intervention strategies. A key limitation relates to the quality of data.

This is the first study to develop a model for differentiating school shooter characteristics.

Internet child abuse material (I/CAM) offences negatively affect children in our own communities and in the wider virtual world. This study aims to understand the differentiation between online (internet) and offline (contact) offenders. The development of the Estimated Risk for Internet Child Sexual Offending (ERICSO), a proposed instrument for I/CAM offenders, incorporated a case study component to test on a known offender before the tool is applied to a wider sample.

The case study approach provides a unique opportunity for researchers to consider reflections from an I/CAM offender. These insights provide unique perspectives on areas for further exploration, including suggestions for consideration in the assessment and treatment of I/CAM offenders.

Mr A is a male convicted of possessing I/CAM with previous convictions for contact child sexual offending. During the development of the ERICSO, Mr A provided commentary on proposed questions based on his experiences as an offender and his communications with other offenders. Mr A’s feedback was generally consistent with current research findings, with notable suggestions in recognising the importance of differentiating between fantasy/reality, violence/voyeurism and the role technology plays in I/CAM offences. These reflections will be considered in conjunction with ongoing development and validity studies of the ERICSO to contribute to the targeted assessment and risk-relevant treatment for I/CAM offenders.

The use of a case study in the development of a proposed assessment instrument provides a unique perspective to improve ecological validity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether it is possible to identify different types of sadistic offenders within a sample of sexual homicide offenders (SHOs).

The study addresses this research question through the use of two-step hierarchal cluster analysis and binary logistic regression utilizing a sample of 350 cases of sexual homicide from Canada.

Results from cluster analysis show that three groups emerge: a non-sadistic group, a mixed group that show evidence of some sadistic behavior and a sadistic group that have high levels of sadistic behavior. Additionally, the sadistic cluster was more likely to destroy or remove evidence at the crime scene than the mixed and non-sadistic cluster and was more likely to leave the victim’s body at a deserted location than the non-sadistic cluster.

This is the first study to examine the dimensionality of sadism within a sample of SHOs.

This study aims to exploratively compare several characteristics of 330 offending and non-offending Dutch subjects, seeking advice/help from child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention helpline Stop it Now!-The Netherlands (SiN-NL).

With a retrospective cross-sectional design, SiN-NL contact logs between March 2012 and June 2016 were investigated.

Results revealed a few interesting differences and similarities. Contrary to earlier findings, attraction to minors and especially boys did not distinguish offenders and non-offenders. However, intimate partner status, suicidal tendencies and expectation of the helpline differed significantly between the study samples. Also, the relevance of several self-reported CSA promoting and impeding factors varied between groups. The non-offender group more often indicated fear of consequences and avoidance of risk situations to be constraining factors, whilst the offender group more frequently suggested benefiting from professional help and social support.

The results of this study might inform different forms of prevention and treatment programs aimed at similar help-seeking individuals. Because of their perceived CSA promoting potential by help seekers, access to children and substance abuse are important topics to address by operators and taken into account when assessing offending risk. In contrast to earlier findings, sexual orientation did not differentiate offenders from non-offenders and might play a less significant role. Higher rates of suicidal tendencies and need for help and therapy could imply that, compared to non-offenders, offenders require a more cautious approach and additional care.

To our knowledge this is the first study to investigate self-reports of offending and non-offending subjects, seeking advice/help from a CSA prevention helpline.

The purpose of this paper is to examine temperament differences, notably effortful control and negative emotionality, and correlates that distinguish between homicide, violent sexual and other violent juvenile offenders. Exploring heterogeneity among violent offenders is relevant to intervention strategies and policy implications.

Demographic measures, temperament constructs and individual risk factor indicators were assessed across 30,303 violent juvenile offenders (including 397 homicide offenders) in Florida to assess their ability to distinguish among violent juvenile offender subgroups.

Analyses demonstrated temperament constructs distinguish among classifications of violent juvenile offenders with effortful control differentiating homicide and violent sexual offenders from other violent offenders, and negative emotionality distinguishing violent sexual from other violent offenders, with youth having greater negative emotionality and less effortful control being non-sexual violent offenders. Homicide offenders were more likely to be older, male and had histories of gang membership and weapon/firearm offending than other violent offenders, and evidenced greater negative emotionality than violent sexual offenders.

The differences across violent youthful offender subtypes suggest heterogeneity among violent offenders with distinct correlates more predictive of some subtypes than others. Additionally, the temperament constructs of effortful control and negative emotionality are useful in distinguishing violent offender subtypes, which points toward differing intervention/treatment strategies.