Is There an “Expert” Stranger Rapist?

Abstract

The concept of expertise applied to the criminal context assumes that offenders are driven by the abilities to both maximize the payoffs and minimize the risks associated with the crime-commission. This study tested the articulation between these two types of decisions taken by stranger rapists to successfully commit their crime. Specifically, this study aims to identify whether offenders whose modus operandi is indicative of criminal expertise are more likely to use forensic awareness strategies. Multivariate analyses conducted on 1,551 cases showed that stranger rapists who adopted behaviors indicative of expertise were more likely to use forensic awareness strategies to decrease the risk of police detection. Mixed associations were found between the number of forensic awareness strategies and their nature (i.e., protecting identity vs. destroying evidence) and rapists’ expertise, thus leading to a four-type theoretical classification of expertise: novice, bold, opportunistic, and expert stranger rapists. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Criminal Expertise and Sexual Violence: Comparing the Crime-Commission Process Involved in Sexual Burglary and Sexual Robbery

“…Moreover, destroying or removing evidence is a sophisticated strategy used by those who have prior offense experience (e.g., Davies et al, 1997) and is an indication of expertise in detection avoidance (e.g., Reale et al, 2020). Furthermore, the crime-commission process of sexual burglary in the current study closely resembles the "expert rape" identified by (Chopin et al, 2021) who had sophisticated modus operandi's and used various forensic awareness strategies to avoid detection. Moreover, Park et al (2008) found that forensic awareness was a strategy used by criminally sophisticated persons who committed serial sexual offenses.…”

“…The first subcategory includes eight variables related to POs and victim characteristics. Victim variables were selected because previous studies have shown that more criminally sophisticated persons tend to target their victims, especially those who are from a vulnerable population (e.g., Beauregard & Proulx, 2017;Chopin et al, 2021;Wright & Decker, 2002). Characteristics for POs were included based on previous studies that suggest criminally sophisticated persons with sexual offenses will be older, socially adept, and have a history of previous offenses (e.g., Bourke et al, 2012;Ward, 1999).…”

“…The crime phase included offense behaviors found in previous literature to be related to a sophisticated modus operandi in sexual and violent offending (Chopin et al, , 2021Goodwill et al, 2012;Park et al, 2008;Reale et al, 2020;Ward, 1999). These included the following: (13) Types of items stolen (1 = valuable; 2 = fetish 3 = both), ( 14 Finally, the post-crime phase included behaviors that have been identified in previous literature as indicative of expertise in detection avoidance or previous experience in sexual crimes (e.g., Beauregard & Proulx, 2017;Chopin et al, , 2021Davies et al, 1997;Park et al, 2008;Reale et al, 2020;Ward, 1999). These included the following: (23) Victim unable to escape/was not rescued, (24) Threatened, bribed, or told victim not to report, (25) Destroyed or removed evidence, and (26) Total number of detection avoidance strategies used.…”

Expert Versus Novice: Criminal Expertise in Sexual Burglary and Sexual Robbery

“…Although there has been considerable variation in the application of the expertise framework to offending populations, one aspect that is widely agreed upon is that criminal expertise is best represented as a continuum novice to expert (e.g., Bourke et al, 2012;Chopin et al, 2021;Nee & Ward, 2015;Ward, 1999). In the field of sexual offending, a continuum of expertise has been observed in child sexual offending domains (Bourke et al, 2012) as well as adult rape (Chopin et al, 2021). These studies have found support for a novice to expert continuum, showing that more "expert" offenders possessed superior offense skills and knowledge, especially pertaining to detection avoidance, and gaining victim compliance and control (Bourke et al, 2012;Chopin et al, 2021).…”

“…Although several advancements to the expertise literature have been made through an examination of burglary (see Nee, 2015 for a review), and more recently in sexual offending (Bourke et al, 2012;Chopin et al, 2021), more complex crimes such as those that combine two specific types of offenses (i.e., a hybrid offense) have been largely overlooked in both the criminal expertise literature and in criminological studies more generally (Beauregard & Chopin, 2020). In the first study of criminal expertise on hybrid offenders, Reale et al (in press) showed that the crime-commission process of sexual burglary (i.e., break-and entering, theft, and sexual assault offense) involved more "domain-specific" expertise in detection avoidance, compared with sexual robbery (i.e., personal theft and sexual assault offense), but also found similar skills related to target appraisal between these two offenses, suggesting these offenses may also share an "overlapping expertise" or "transferable" expertise (Nee et al, 2019) related to violent offending.…”