Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Roger O. Weed, committee chair; JoAnna F. White, Roy M. Kern, William L. Curlette, Dean A. Dabney, committee members. Electronic text (121 p. : ill.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Aug. 5, 2008. Includes bibliographical references.

Traditional methods of psychological and forensic research fail to adequately provide an account of the psychological meaning that perpetrators of crime derive when appropriating their actions to Satanic involvement. In February 2001, a young man appeared in a South African High Court and testified that he had committed murder as a result of his involvement in Satanism. The aim of this study is to gain a phenomenological understanding of how this man appropriates the act of murder to involvement in Satanism. A review of literature elucidates Satanism as a context for meaning, provide a framework for defining murder as a criminal act, and situate this study in the broader field of phenomenological-existential, psychological research. An emergent design case-study approach was applied to data gathered from a single subject, by means of a three-interview series. An empirical phenomenological methodology was used during the interpretive phase to arrive at both a descriptive account of the subject's phenomenological experience and how the eidetic structure of the experience of Satanism as a context tor meaning emerged. A discussion of the subject's appropriation of murder with Satanism illustrates how the subject imposed a dichotomy of good and bad on his life-world in an attempt to derive meaning from his experience of inadequacy. Involvement with Satanism is meaningful, in that it affords its followers an increased sense of power, a safe environment to explore individuality, shared responsibility associated with exercising free choice, social situatedness and an affirmation of being through an increased awareness of finitude. The research subject experienced committing murder as an act of loyalty to the perceived gains he had been afforded as result of his involvement with Satanism.

Multiple murder has attracted comparatively little attention amongst academic researchers. The present study offers a description of the phenomenon of Multiple Homicide in England and Wales over a 10 year period based on interviews with perpetrators and study of archival records. Results were analysed in two ways: First, using conventional statistical methods, and second, using multiple sequential functional analysis to challenge existing typologies, highlight the role of psychological process and to emphasise the important role of environmental events. The analysis revealed a very heterogeneous population although experiences such as social isolation and frustration were not uncommon. Unlike the perpetrators described in many American studies histories of physical and sexual childhood abuse and neglect were not the norm in this population and were felt to have little association with multiple murder. The issues raised by the methodology and the implications of the study for profiling, identification of possible offenders, treatment targets, and future areas of research are discussed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 270-278). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2005. / Thesis directed by Sandra Gustafson for the Department of English. "June 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 330-350).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2005. / Thesis directed by Sandra Gustafson for the Department of English. "June 2005." Thesis also available in PDF file via the Internet. Access may be restricted or require Notre Dame logon. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 330-350).

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The phenomenon of serial murder has fascinated people for many years. Despite this fascination, the body of scientific knowledge surrounding this topic seems quire limited. Research is often based on second-hand and anecdotal sources of information and not on direct contact with the individuals who commit these crimes. Based on this information, assumptions are made about these individual’s mental state and personality. This research which was undertaken is unique in that it is an in-depth look at two individuals who committed serial murder. The research design, grounded in interactional theory, makes use of unstructured interviews, an interactional analysis, and psychological tests such as the South African Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Thematic Apperception Test, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory IIIed, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2nd Edition, and 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire in an attempt to try and come to a psychological understanding and interactional description of these two individuals’ behaviour. In doing so it revisits what has already been said about this phenomenon, makes comparisons, and provides a brief theoretical view of the phenomenon as part of man’s social order. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

It was hypothesised that there would be behavioural consistencies in the offences of South African serial killers. The themes underlying these observable differences can help us understand the nature of these offences. Crime scene data was ohtained from police records, and structured, in-depth offender interviews. 73 offences, committed by 13 offenders, were analysed. The analysis used Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), a Multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure. This analysis revealed systematic patterns of behaviour in the offences. It was found that the focus of these offences is an impersonal, hostile, and act-focused murder were the victim is treated as a depersonalised object. Empirical support for an underlying thematic structure to these offences was also provided. The offence themes identified relate to the nature of the actions committed during the offence, and the function these actions had for the offender. These fmdings thus support the hypothesis that these offences will display meaningful behavioural variation. These findings have direct utility in the investigation and study of serial killing in South Aflica. They also provide the basis for comparison with previously suggested typologies of serial killing, and indicate directions for future research into this phenomenon in the South African setting. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in