Expressiveness and Instrumentality of Crime Scene Behavior in Spanish Homicides

Abstract

One of the current trends in the study of criminal profiling consists of developing theoretical and methodological typologies to offer information of operational use in police investigations. The objective of this work was to verify the validity of the instrumental/expressive model, so as to establish homicide typologies based on modus operandi relationships, characteristics of the victims, and characteristics of perpetrators. The sample consisted of 448 homicide cases registered in the database of the Homicide Revision Project of the Office of Coordination and Studies of the Spanish Secretary of State and Security. Through multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, three expressive homicide subtypes were identified (expressive-impulsive, expressive-distancing, and expressive-family), as well as two instrumental homicide subtypes (instrumental-opportunist and instrumental-gratification). The expressive homicide typologies accounted for almost 95% of all of the studied cases, and most of the homicides occurring in Spain were found to take place between individuals who know one another (friends, family members, intimate couples/ex-couples). The findings from this study suggest that the instrumental/expressive model may be a useful framework for understanding the psychological processes underlying homicides, based on the study of relationships between the crime and aggressor characteristics, which may be very helpful in the prioritization of suspects.

Dismemberment as a Method of Body Disposal in Spanish Forensic Cases

“…A Stress-I index of 0.309 for the model of fit of the bidimensional map was obtained. According to Pecino-Latorre et al and references therein [50], it can be considered an acceptable result since the representation of the variables agreed with the descriptive statistics and allowed a valid interpretation of the data. Figure 3 shows the bidimensional nMDS map.…”

“…In total, 60 variables were chosen. Following the methodology proposed by Pecino-Latorre et al [50], the R statistics software (package "smacof") was employed. This test was used to explore the association between variables as distance in a bidimensional map, providing an overall descriptive view of the inter-variable correlation.…”

Masking in murder: An exploratory study into the act of covering the victim’s face in UK homicide

“…One explanation may be that the simple (dichotomous) categorisation of expressive and instrumental may be insufficient in distinguishing between homicide offenders. Recent works (Del Mar Pecino‐Lattore et al., 2019) have identified subtypes of expressive homicides and instrumental homicides, 1 with correspondingly high rates of dominant theme classification (95%) lending support to this consideration of an over‐simplified dichotomy. It would thus be of interest to examine whether the use of such enhanced differentiation when used in parallel with the similarly heightened delineations between specific face covering behaviours utilised in this study yield more promising results.…”

Understanding the variation in offender behaviour and risk factors in cases of homicide perpetrated against the UK homeless population between the years 2000 and 2022

“…Examples of specific variables analysed throughout previous research include nature of victim–perpetrator relationship (Greenall & Wright, 2020; Salfati & Canter, 1999), criminal history and background of perpetrators (Trojan & Salfati, 2011, 2016), crime scene behaviour (Salfati & Dupont, 2006; Salfati & Park, 2007; Santilla et al., 2001) and method of homicide (Hakkanen‐Nyholm et al., 2009; Salfati, 2003). MDS analysis has been successfully applied across the world to populations in Korea (Sea & Beauregard, 2021), Belgium (Thijssen & Ruiter, 2010), Finland (Santilla et al., 2001), Greece (Salfati & Haratsis, 2001) and Spain (Pecino‐Latorre et al., 2019) in differentiating homicide cases and identifying offence themes. One model evident throughout MDS homicide research has categorised cases on the basis of motivation, enabling the broad classification of homicide cases as either instrumental in that the crime is perpetrated in the pursuit of personal gain or expressive in nature and driven by emotion (Fox & Allen, 2014; Salfati, 2000, 2003; Salfati & Bateman, 2005; Thijssen & Ruiter, 2010).…”