An application of CRAVED to the choice of victim in sexual homicide: a routine activity approach

Abstract

CRAVED-Concealable, Removable, Available, Valuable, Enjoyable, and Disposable-has proven to be a useful model to explain various forms of theft. No attempt has been made to apply this model to interpersonal crimes. The current study proposes that the CRAVED model may be used not only to explain theft but also patterns of sexual homicide. Therefore, the aim of the study is to attempt to use the CRAVED model in order to explain the differences between sexual homicide of children and sexual homicide of adult. Logistic regression models on a sample of 350 Canadian sexual homicide cases showed that indicators associated to the Removable and Available components of CRAVED were the most useful in predicting the type of victim targeted by sexual murderers. Implications for situational crime prevention are discussed.

Sexual Sadism: Its Role in the Crime-Commission Process of Sexual Homicide of Children

“…Furthermore, SHOs of children were more likely to find the victim at home or outside on the street and to physically beat the victim during the criminal event (Beauregard & Martineau, 2015). A study conducted by Proulx and colleagues (2018) showed that SHOs of children were more likely to use physical violence in order to control the victim, to kill the victim for the purpose of eliminating a witness, and to commit the crime outdoors.…”

Lethal combinations: A conjunctive analysis of crime scene behavior associated with sexual homicide

“…For instance, some studies included both serial and non-serial SHOs, despite these two groups of offenders presenting important differences (see James & Proulx, 2014). Other studies included a mix of victim types in their group of SHOs, merging together female, male, and child victims despite clear differences between these groups (e.g., Beauregard & Martineau, 2015;Beauregard & Proulx, 2007;Beauregard, Stone, Proulx, & Michaud, 2008). Probably the greatest limitation that could be responsible for the inconclusive findings observed in the two reviews discussed above is the fact that previous studies compared groups of SHOs with very heterogeneous groups of NHSOs, including violent and non-violent cases (Healey, Beauregard, Beech, & Vettor, 2016).…”

“…In order to increase the comparability between the cases, we decided to select only those involving a female victim aged 16 years old and more. Most of the research in the field of sexual crime has shown that assaults involving child victims are very different in terms of crime process (see for example Beauregard & Martineau, 2015;Beauregard et al, 2008;Chopin, 2017;Chopin & Beauregard, 2019c;Chopin & Caneppele, 2018, 2019Gravier, Mezzo, Abbiati, Spagnoli, & Waeny, 2010;Proulx et al, 2018).…”

Sexual Homicide: a Criminological Perspective

“…Most of SH studies are based on a wide range of SHOs and research tends to confirm the heterogeneity of this type of offender. Recent findings showed that sex offences against children and elderly victims followed a specific crime process (e.g., 40,41,90,91).…”