This research explores the new tradition of creating mass murder memorials in the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century. Using written and oral history sources in combination with memorial designs, I explore the planning processes undertaken by five different communities: Virginia Tech, Columbine, University of Texas, Oklahoma City and Edmond, OK. I analyze what these case studies reveal about how changing cultural expectations and political needs transformed commemorative practices concerning violence in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. By exposing how the timely interventions of national figures increasingly shaped local commemorative aspirations, my research illuminates how the brief period of national unity in the immediate aftermath has been discursively and materially foregrounded as the heart of national public memory narratives of mass murder. I argue that at the turn of the twenty-first century the memory of victims of mass murders"assuming something akin to the role that fallen soldiers have played for the bulk of American history"are now viewed by a range of political, religious and cultural actors as a highly effective means of bolstering perceptions of local, organizational and national unity. This project contributes to the interdisciplinary literature on commemoration in three ways. First, I challenge the literature on memorials built in the immediate aftermath of violence and tragedy by illustrating how these memory sites are increasingly but the first stage of the material culture of public memory. Second, my theory of a ritualized assemblage develops the existing literature by forwarding a concept well suited to analyze the relationship of between seemingly disparate memory sites. Lastly, the rhetoric of what I call the Myth of the Slaughtered Citizen contributes to the literature on nationalism and commemoration by explaining how the victims of mass murder were culturally substituted into the commemorative role traditionally held by fallen soldiers to promote a sense of local and national unity. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Joseph Nugent / In this paper, I unite scholarly understanding of T. S. Eliot’s recurring character, Sweeney. I present the origin of Sweeney through Eliot’s knowledge of classical and Irish myth as well as his contemporary views surrounding Ireland, Catholicism, Africa, and Afro-modernism. In discussing dramatic Sweeney, I incorporate an understanding of Eliot’s contemporary works on Senecan tragedy to unravel the fragmented nature of “Sweeney Agonistes.” I conclude my first chapter by discussing Sweeney’s “death” by analyzing Eliot’s recent conversion to Anglicanism and emerging views of poetic metaphysics. My second chapter unveils the ghost of Sweeney in Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral” through the metaphor of stencil art, discussing “Sweeney Agonistes” as an outline. Further, I find Sweeney’s ghost in the work of Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting For Godot" through analysis of themes drawn from an article by Rick De Villier, as well as new studies on technique and characters. I conclude with my explanation of Sweeney as a “new” Senecan Tragic Hero based on the terminology of semper idem - always the same. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

The investigation of crime is one area in which the South African Police Service is measured on. There is no doubt that poor application of investigation methods results in acquittal of criminals or, at worst, failing to identify the perpetrator. In murder cases, the response from the communities who are directly affected is usually unpleasant and intolerable. This is so because murder is a crime against human life. One death in the family will have significant, undesirable implications to the family involved and, to a certain extent, the community. Violent crime such as murder has a negative effect, not only on the family who has lost the loved one, but also has a severe direct impact on the economy. For instance, no potential investors would want to associate themselves with a country where the incidence of violent crimes has become the norm and where the government appears to be reluctant to take tangible actions to remedy the situation. For years, the South African Police Service applied one methodology in murder investigations, even though their crime statistics showed that this type of crime was constantly increasing and required drastic steps to curb it. This study gives a detailed analysis of the prosecution-led investigation model and its feasibility in murder cases. This research was conducted on the basis that this model appears to work successfully in commercial crimes, judging by the conviction rates reported annually by the National Prosecuting Authority. The study discusses the current investigation model used by the South African Police Service in the investigation of murder and compares it to an intelligence-led investigation model. It then examines the meaning of the prosecution-led investigation. Finally, international experiences in terms of criminal investigation and prosecution procedures are discussed and compared with those of South Africa. The researcher explored the models from the selected countries and interviews conducted were used as a foundation for describing and explaining the future application of the findings emanating from this research. Using the qualitative approach, data was gathered by means of a literature review and qualitative interviews with the sampled participants to answer the research questions. The researcher is of the view that this study (analysing the prosecution-led investigation model in murder cases) presents a significant contribution to the development of practical guidelines that can be used to effectively and efficiently investigate murder cases. / Police Practice / D. Phil. (Criminal Justice)

The aim of this descriptive research was to determine the methods of case linkage (methods to link murder cases to each other as well as to link the murder series to one offender) employed by the South African Police Service (SAPS) to investigate serial murder in South Africa and to comprehensively explain them. A qualitative approach was employed with a multi-method data collection process which included case study, interviews and literature review in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the subject. The methods of case linkage are explained within three phases of a serial murder investigation: the identification phase, the investigation and apprehension phase, and the trial and sentencing phase. The main findings of the study revealed the need for further training of the SAPS members and the need for a Standing Operating Procedure to be implemented to specifically govern the system of investigation for a serial murder case. / Criminology and Security Science / M.A. (Criminology)

In this dissertation, the researcher wants to establish the use of firearm evidence in the investigation of the crime of murder. Firearm evidence can be of significance to the investigators during murder investigations. To determine the importance of this evidence the researcher has formulated the following research questions to address the research problem:  What is the role of forensic science in the investigation of crimes?  How can firearm evidence be used in the investigation of murder? An empirical research design and qualitative research approach were used for this dissertation. International and national literature sources were consulted and the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with the investigators from Akasia SAPS, crime scene experts from the Pretoria North LCRC and ballistics experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory in Silverton, Pretoria. The role of forensic science and the use of firearm evidence in the investigation of murder were established. Recommendations have been made for further research on aspects highlighted by the findings. / Police Practice / M. Tech. (Forensic Investigations)

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur journalister rapporterar om barnmord. Dels handlar det om hur de tillämpar de pressetiska reglerna i rapporteringen samtidigt som de förhåller sig till nyhetsvärderingskriterierna. Dels handlar det om att studera om det finns en balans mellan dessa perspektiv. Tre fall där 10-åriga flickor var offer under olika år analyserades. Åren var 1992, 2000 och 2008. Metod och material: Metoderna som tillämpas för att analysera materialet är kvantitativ innehålls-analys och tematisk textanalys. Den kvantitativa innehållsanalysen tillämpas på totalt 467 analysenheter. Den tematiska textanalysen som är kvalitativ tillämpas på 18 av de totalt 467 analysenheterna. Materialet bestod av artiklar från lokaltidningarna Östersunds-Posten, Barometern och Södra Dalarnes tidning. Dagens Nyheter dagspress och Expressen kvällspress. Huvudresultatet: Resultatet från de båda analyserna, oavsett tidningstyp, visar att journalisterna i viss mån agerar oetiskt utifrån de pressetiska reglerna. Resultatet kunde tolkas som att de kommersiella faktorerna och nyhetskriterierna var viktigare för journalisterna att beakta istället för att värna om de pressetiska reglerna och därmed de anhöriga. Detta tolkas dels utifrån att tidningarna publicerade information som kunde identifiera gärningsmännen, dels att de rapporterade detaljrikt om hur flickorna hade blivit bragda om livet. / Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate how Swedish journalists covered murders in which children were victims. The main question of the study is whether in reporting there was a balance between following the professional ethical rules and the news values. The study follows the coverage of three cases where female children were murdered in small Swedish towns (in 1992, 2000 and 2008), and traces the dynamics of how the reporting has changed.   Method and material: The study applied quantitative content analysis and thematic text analysis to analyse the material. The material of the study was comprised of articles published in the morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter, evening newspaper Expressen and local newspapers Östersund-Posten, Barometern and Södra Dalarnes tidning. 467 units were analysed in the quantitative part, and 18 units – in the qualitative part.   The results: The analysis shows that regardless of the type of the newspaper, the journalists often do not follow the professional Code of Ethics when reporting on murders where children are victims. All the newspapers in all the three cases published information that could allow for identification of the perpetrator and provided the reader with (often unnecessary) details about the murders of the girls. The study shows that the frequency of reporting has increased from the beginning of the 1990s, however, in all the three cases, the media rather based their descriptions of the murders on the news values than on the professional ethical rules. This can potentially be explained by the newspapers’ orientation at commercial benefits rather than protection of the next of kin to the murdered.

The role of exposure to a human-made disaster and the subsequent development of post-traumatic stress reactions were examined. Subjects included 49 males and 30 females who were variously exposed to the Luby's shooting incident in Killeen, Texas in October of 1991. Post-traumatic stress symptomatology was measured by the SCL-90R. Exposure was operationalized by using a scenario-rating scheme with independent raters estimating each subject's level of exposure. A regression and commonality analysis revealed that exposure is an important predictor in post-traumatic symptomatology. Premorbid functioning and gender were also found to play important roles, with females expressing higher levels of symptomatology.

Agatha Christie set a number of her popular novels in British colonies in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean. While there is a lot of research about the portrayal of the colonised in the Middle East, there is only little to be found on those of Africa and the Caribbean. Therefore, this thesis aims to compare the portrayals of the Middle Eastern, African and Caribbean colonised by analysing Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit, Murder in Mesopotamia, Appointment with Deah, and A Caribbean Mystery.

This diploma thesis is focused on the topic from the field of forensic psychology, mainly on the relationship between the personality of criminal offender and its reflection in the commission of crime. The theoretical part deals with the analysis of crime scene and crime scene investigation from the perspective of criminalistics with an overlap to other parts of forensic psychology. It also involves the typology of organized and disorganized offender and description of their personalities and behavior at the crime scene, specifically the issue of the characteristics of the modus operandi of murder in relation to the crime scene is classified. Attention is also paid to the forensic medical issues, injuries of the victim, from the point of view of forensic psychology. Last chapter of the theoretical part is focused on offender's personality, especially potential psychopathology. The empiric part is focused on searching for the relationships between personality variables of the offender and the way how the violent crime (murder) was committed. The research based on analysis of evidence and psychologists - experts testimony revealed particular connections and the data from the analyzed sample (of 40 crimes) refer in particular to the disorganized offender and behavior at the crime scene.

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