Thesis (MPsy(Forensic))--University of South Australia, 2002.

If, as author Toni Morrison believes, we tell stories about what we find most terrifying, then our cultural narratives suggest an overwhelming preoccupation with the murderous mother ??? the monster in our minds. This dissertation examines some of the most powerful and enduring stories told about the murderous mother and considers how these stories are shaped by the unconscious fears and fantasies that dominate the cultural psyche. Revolving around the idea of infanticide as an ???imaginary??? crime, this dissertation uncovers the psychoanalytic foundations of the obsessive telling and consumption of stories of maternal child-murder in Western culture and contends that infanticide narratives can be read as symptoms of psychocultural dis(-)ease. Underlying all stories about the murderous mother is an unconscious fear of infanticide and fantasy of maternal destructiveness that is repressed in the individual psyche. These fears and fantasies are expressed in our cultural narratives. Chapter 1 examines fairytales as the literary form that most clearly elaborates individual fears and psychic conflict and locates the phantasmic murderous mother within psychoanalytic narratives of individuation. Chapter 2 shows how individual fears and fantasies of maternal monstrosity are transferred to society and revealed in the myths through which our culture is transmitted. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the particular neuroses of ancient Greek society and early modern culture and consider stories of the murderous mother that most powerfully reflect anxieties of maternal origin and fantasies of maternal power. Chapters 5 and 6 shift to a contemporary setting and consider stories that reveal, in differing ways, how the murderous mother haunts the cultural psyche. Examining a variety of texts and drawing material from a spectrum of disciplines, including law, literature, criminology, theology, philosophy, and medicine, this dissertation concludes that it is only by exposing the underpinnings of our cultural stories about the murderous mother that we can hope to break free from the unconscious attitudes that imprison us. Emerging from this study is an original and important theoretical framework concerning conceptualisations of infanticide, the ways in which we imagine maternal child-murder and the limits of that imagination, and how we might escape the murderous maternal monster buried deep in the labyrinths of the mind.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-151). Also available via the World Wide Web.

In this dissertation I investigate the intrapsychic make-up of rage-type offenders and explore the psychodynamics of the act of murder itself The dissertation begins with a discussion on the defining features of the act of rage-type murder. I then consider the role of personality characteristics and psychopathology in individuals who have committed such offences. With the basic features of the offender and act itself outlined, the following section reviews key areas of debate regarding the psychodynamics of violence and the intrapsychic make-up of the rage-type murderer. I first explore the nature of aggression as debated in psychoanalysis and conclude that the views expressed are often unn,ecessarily polarized regarding the origins of aggression and suggest that the specifics of particular types of aggression require consideration in order to assess their intrapsychic nature. The specifics of rage and violence are discussed with this in mind. In the second chapter of this section I develop a number of intrapsychic dimensions to be used in understanding how different types of violence are constituted. Psychodynamic contributions towards understanding rage-type murder, as a specific form of violence, are then discussed. Following this review, a number of directive ~uestions are formulated regarding (1) the intrapsychic dimension of rage-type murder; (2) the pJ;esence of the borderline personality in such offender~ and its intrapsychic nature; and (3) the_ specific psychodynamics that lie behind what is argued to be a defensive act of murder. A multiple case study approach, using nine imprisoned rage-type offenders, is used to further explore the above issues. Court summary reports, the Thematic Apperception Test and the Psychoanalytic Research Interview comprised the research material, with particular emphasis placed on the interview material. The interview is approached from a psychoanalytic perspective and I develop some theoretical, technical and analytical guidelines to try to broaden Jhe use of psychoanalysis in the research domain. Findings of the research reveal a specific kind of defensive organization that is characterized by a constellation of object relations that I term the 'narcissistic exoskeleton'. I suggest that these findings best fit the description of a particular kind of borderline personality organization typified by apparent 'normality'. Other prominent aspects of the dimensions of violence observed in these cases include: (1) a poor representational capacity; (2) an interactional style characterized by uncontainable projective exchanges between victim and offender; (3) a collusive primary object relationship combined with the absence of an internalized 'third object'; (4) a 'two-faced' superego structure; (5) the internalization of traumatic experience that has become associated with a bad object system; (6) phantasies of restoring ideal good in external objects alongside conscious fantasies of annihilation. Within the context of these factors the intrapsychic events that lead to the act itself are discussed. It is found that a collapse of the 'narcissistic exoskeleton', the intrusion of the bad object system and the unbearable shame that this evokes in the offender are prominent features of what culminates in an act of explosive rage and projective identification. Some of the implications of my research are briefly discussed in the concluding chapter.

Killings by juvenile offenders have been a matter of concern in the United States since the 1980s. Although the rate of juvenile-perpetrated murders has been declining since the 1990s, it remains problematic, in that juvenile offenders account for approximately 10% of all homicide arrests. Research on recidivism of juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) is important, due to relatively short follow-up periods in prior studies and a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for juveniles convicted of murder. The present study was designed to explore long-term patterns of recidivism, and particularly violent recidivism, in a sample of 59 male JHOs from a Southeastern state who were prosecuted as adults for murder or attempted murder in the early 1980s, convicted, and sentenced to adult prison. Furthermore, the predictive utility of a juvenile homicide typology was analyzed, and the offenders who committed sexually-oriented murders were examined in-depth. The results indicated that close to 90% of released offenders have been rearrested during the 30-year follow-up period, and more than 60% have been rearrested for violent offenses. Five offenders completed (4 offenders) or attempted (1 offender) a new homicide. Out of 7 variables tested, race emerged as the only significant correlate of post-release violence. Release from prison, post-release arrests, and post-release violent offenses were not significantly related to the circumstances of the index homicide (crime-oriented v. conflict-oriented). The subsample of juvenile sexual homicide offenders (JSHOs) consisted of 8 offenders; 6 of them were released from prison, 4 were rearrested, and 3 were rearrested for violent offenses. None of the released JSHOs were arrested for a homicide or any sexually-related crimes. The implications of the findings for management of JHOs, the comparability of this study to prior studies, and directions for future research are discussed.

This study focuses on the role of media portrayal and coverage in serial killing. The first objective of the study is to develop a conceptual structure that aids in the understanding of the cyclical relationship between media, serial killer, and audience. The media acts as a catalyst in this relationship, providing the stage on which serial killer and audience form a fatal relationship in which celebrity status forms the ultimate motivation. Media sensationalism of serial killing and the extreme glamorization in fictional representations has obviously negative consequences. In developing such a structure I hope to demonstrate that there is an alternative to the sensationalizing and glamorizing of serial killers in the media. This alternative will take the form education and a more documentary-style approach to films about serial murder. The study focuses mainly on developing a theoretical framework that emphasizes each of the three elements of the cyclical relationship mentioned above separately. The second chapter is devoted to the media and its role. The third chapter focuses on serial killers and the motivations involved. The fourth chapter deals with the audience attracted to serial killing as a source of identification. A number of thinkers’ work is used in coming to grips with this relationship, including both American and South African authors. The fifth and final chapter takes into consideration the moment of application by addressing the South African situation. I conclude by discussing the repercussions of media glamorization and possible documentary-style alternatives.

Geographic profiling is a technique used by crime investigators and the police to examine the locations of a connected series of crimes, to determine the most probable area of the offender’s residence. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, Geographic profiling helps to better interpret the spatial behavior of an offender and focuses the investigation on a specific and smaller area of the community. From the abovementioned and from previous research, we know that Geographic profiling is useful in serial crimes such as in cases of serial murderers, serial rapists etc. Having as a point of reference Malmö, because of the many shooting incidents that have happened through the last years, in this master thesis dissertation, a systematic literature review on Geographic Profiling was conducted while at the same time the usefulness of the method in locating the serial murderers was examined.

ABSTRACT MURDERERS AND NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS: A COMPARISON OF LIFESTYLE, PAMPERING, AND EARLY RECOLLECTIONS by Richard A. Highland Alfred Adler outlined a theory of crime that suggests criminals suffer from a lack of social interest and have experienced parental pampering and childhood hyperactivity. He posited that these forces lead to criminality; however, his theory remains largely untested. A review of the criminological literature indicates that most theories of crime lack cognitive elements with adequate operational definitions. A convenience sample of male and female convicted murderers (n = 94) and nonviolent offenders (n = 76) derived from state prisons and parole populations were compared to find if differences in lifestyle attributes, parental pampering, and childhood hyperactivity exist. Prison inmates and parolees completed a demographic and criminal history questionnaire, the BASIS-A Inventory (Wheeler, Kern, & Curlette, 1993), Parental Behavior Questionnaire (Williamson, 1992), Paulhus Deception Scale (Paulhus, 1999), Wender-Utah Rating Scale (Ward, Wender, & Reimherr, 1993), and recorded three early recollections. MANOVA tests on murderer and nonviolent offender data using scales from the BASIS-A Inventory indicates that murderers scored significantly lower (p < .01) than nonviolent offenders on the Belonging Social Interest scale of the BASIS-A Inventory. A "W" aggregate profile on the BASIS-A Inventory data among the nonviolent offenders support prior research and validates the efficacy for using that instrument among criminal populations. MANOVA tests revealed that murderers had more childhood symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder than nonviolent offenders (p <.05); however, reported parental pampering did not vary by level of violence. Finally, a qualitative analysis of early recollections using the Early Recollections Rating Scale (ERRS; Altman, 1973) reveal moderate correlations between ERRS themes and Belonging Social Interest Going Along, and Being Cautious scales of the BASIS-A Inventory among all participants. Analysis of the data demonstrates partial support for Adler’s theory of crime. In particular, violent criminals exhibit less social interest, report higher levels of childhood hyperactivity, and more often report early recollections with themes of passivity and dependency than nonviolent offenders. Data support the usefulness of lifestyle appraisal among criminal populations as a means to improve methods for assessment and treatment of these offenders.

In this thesis, I have analysed representations of a selection of fictional and factual serial killers from Thomas de Quincey to Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the autobiographical narratives of real life serial killers Carl Panzram, Donald Gaskins and Ian Brady. My analysis of these texts identifies the portrayals of serial killers in terms of representations as aesthetic, existential, socially othered phenomena. The thesis proceeds from the premise that serial killer narratives often obscure the existential brute reality of murder. As such, I examine serial killing vis-à-vis attempted explanatory shifts in such narratives which represent serial murder and serial killers in terms of aesthetic, psychopathological, moral/religious/supernatural and socio-political phenomena, and I investigate the implications of these shifts. I focus initially on Romantic ideas of the self, and in the relationship between the ‘outsider’ artist/poet and the textual emergence of the figure of the solitary ‘serial’ murderer in the early nineteenth century, particularly in relation to De Quincey’s aesthetic murder essays. Subsequent fluctuations of the representation of serial killing between mental-health, law-and-order and political/social discourses are discussed in relation to the subsequent texts. I conclude by examining cognitive dissonance theory, A.E. Van Vogt’s description of the Violent Man, and James Gilligan’s theories on violence, in order to propose a possible synergetic response to narratives and representations of serial killers and serial killing.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of English Language and Literature, August 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.