Donna E. Youngs

Offenders’ Crime Narratives as Revealed by the Narrative Roles Questionnaire

The study of narrative processes as part of the immediate factors that shape criminal action is limited by the lack of a methodology for differentiating the narrative themes that characterise specific crime events. The current study explores how the roles offenders see themselves as playing during an offence encapsulate their underlying crime narratives and thus provide the basis for a quantitative methodology. To test this possibility, a 33-item Narrative Roles Questionnaire (NRQ) was developed from intensive interviews with offenders about their experience of committing a recent offence. A multidimensional analysis of the NRQ completed by 71 convicted offenders revealed life narrative themes similar to those identified in fiction by Frye and with noncriminals by McAdams, labelled The Professional, Victim, Hero, and Revenger offence roles. The NRQ thus is a first step in opening up the possibility of empirical studies of the narrative aetiological perspective in criminology.

Sexual and violent offenders’ victim role assignments: a general model of offending style

Although distinct offence action patterns have been identified for different forms of sexual and violent crime, a generic psychological framework for this differentiation has yet to be advanced. An innovative framework derived from the emerging criminal narrative approach provides a significant contribution to the differentiation of offending styles. Canter (1994) argues that offenders’ empathy deficit leads them to assign a Victim, Object or Person role to their victims within their personal narratives. The evidence for this model is examined across 33 offence actions in 66 stranger rapes, 24 offence actions in 50 stalking offences and 39 offence actions in 50 serial murder offences. Hypothesised offence actions reflecting the Roles are found in distinct regions of Smallest Space Analysis (SSA-I) configurations for all three offence types. This evidence across diverse offence forms leads to the suggestion that the Roles assigned to victims within offenders’ narratives provide a generic framework for differentiating offending styles in all interpersonal crimes. The different Victim Roles articulate qualitatively different variants of the established control and empathy deficit components in sexual and violent offending, contributing to the debate about the operation of these components and having significant treatment implications.

Expressive and Instrumental Offending Reconciling the Paradox of Specialisation and Versatility

Although previous research into specialisation has been dominated by the debate over the existence of specialisation versus versatility, it is suggested that research needs to move beyond the restrictions of this dispute. The current study explores the criminal careers of 200 offenders based on their criminal records, obtained from a police database in the North West of England, aiming to understand the patterns and nature of specialisation by determining the presence of differentiation within their general offending behaviours and examining whether the framework of Expressive and Instrumental offending styles can account for any specialised tendencies that emerge. Fifty-eight offences were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis. Results revealed that a model of criminal differentiation could be identified and that any specialisation is represented in terms of Expressive and Instrumental offending styles.

A Model of Client-Related Violence Against Female Street Sex Workers

Although a plethora of studies provide evidence of the extent and severity of violence that street sex workers experience from clients, there is little consensus across the explanations that have been advanced to account for this. To explore this, the present study examines in detail the nature of the attacks suffered by 65 female street sex workers. A Multidimensional Scaling analysis (Smallest Space Analysis [SSA-I]) of 17 violent behaviors derived from a content analysis of interviews with street sex workers drew attention to 3 distinct forms of attack. These could be interpreted in terms of Canters (1994) Victim Role models that have been the basis for differentiating offending styles in other violent interpersonal offences. The 3 Victim as Object, Victim as Vehicle, and Victim as Person modes identified are consistent with different theoretical explanations for the attacks, providing a framework for integrating the diverse etiological perspectives on violence against street sex workers.

Offenders’ Crime Narratives Across Different Types of Crimes

The current study explores the roles offenders see themselves playing during an offense and their relationship to different crime types. One hundred and twenty incarcerated offenders indicated the narrative roles they acted out while committing a specific crime they remembered well. The data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) and four themes were identified: Hero, Professional, Revenger, and Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for narrative offense roles (Youngs & Canter, 2012). Further analysis showed that different subsets of crimes were more likely to be associated with different narrative offense roles. Hero and Professional were found to be associated with property offenses (theft, burglary, and shoplifting), drug offenses, and robbery, while Revenger and Victim were found to be associated with violence, sexual offenses, and murder. The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of offenders’ narrative roles as well as practical implications are discussed.

Criminal Narratives of Mentally Disordered Offenders: An Exploratory Study

The study explored the personal narratives of Mentally Disordered Offenders (MDOs) and the impact various mental disorders had on the structure of the offenders’ criminal narratives. Seventy adult male offenders who were sectioned under the United Kingdom’s Mental Health Act 2007 were recruited for the study. Participants were provided with a 36 item Criminal Narrative Role Questionnaire. Smallest Space Analysis found four criminal narrative themes (Victim, Revenger, Hero, Professional), which indicated clear distinctions in the narrative experience of MDOs. The major differences were found to be related to the vulnerability of the offender’s mental disorder.

When is an offender not a criminal? Instrumentality distinguishes self-reported offending of criminals

Purpose – Although most aetiological theories of crime assume that offenders are a distinct subset of the population, there is evidence that many illegal acts are committed by people who have no convictions and are therefore not regarded as criminals. The question consequently arises as to whether there are aspects of illegal actions that set convicted offenders apart. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – To answer this, a 45-item self-report questionnaire was administered to two samples (males 15-29 years): 185 prisoners and 80 young men without convictions. Findings – The results draw attention to a distinguishing psychological dimension of instrumentality operating across the range of offence forms. Convicted offenders are more likely to commit crimes for direct gratification with intent when compared with the sorts of illegal activities that non-convicted respondents report they have done. Research limitations/implications – Careful matching of convicted criminals and ...

Crime and society

Much of society’s resources are devoted to dealing with, or preparing for the possibility of, crime. The dominance of concerns about crime also hints at the broader implications that offending has for many different facets of society. They suggest that rather than being an outlawed subset of social activity crime is an integrated aspect of societal processes. As an introduction to this themed issue of Contemporary Social Science, a brief review is undertaken of some of the direct and indirect social impacts of criminality, proposing that this is worthwhile, not just in terms of understanding crime but also because of how it elucidates more general social considerations. A range of studies that examine the interactions between crime and society are brought together drawing on a wide range of countries and cultures, India, Israel, Nigeria, Turkey and the USA, as well as Britain and Ireland. They include contributions from many different social science disciplines, which complement each other. Taken together the 11 papers reviewed do demonstrate that the implicit and direct impact of crime is very widespread indeed.

Sex Difference in Homicide: Comparing Male and Female Violent Crimes in Korea:

The comparison of the South Korean male and female homicide offenders’ characteristics and crime scene behaviours is presented in this study. A total of 537 cases of homicide offenders prosecuted in Korea between 2006 and 2010 were analyzed in terms of offenders’ characteristics, victim–offender interaction, places of crime, and crime scene actions. Significant differences between male and female offenders were revealed in prior criminal history, offenders’ personal characteristics, choice of victim, crime scene behaviours during and after the homicide, and choice of weapon. The parallel with the gender differences in homicides found in Western countries is discussed as well as the possible explanations for the gender-related characteristics found in this study.

Veracity assessment: aspects of the account, the source and the judge that influence judgements of plausibility

Decades of deception detection research have revealed that people are poor lie detectors in general, hovering at chance level (Bond, C. F., & DePaulo, B. M., 2006). As well as generating considerable research effort towards establishing what does actually indicate deception, this stark finding draws attention to the need to understand how people are making these (poor) judgements. This can be broken down into a series of questions about what it is about the account given that people focus on, what it is about the individuals giving the accounts and the context in which they are giving these that influences judgement processes and finally, what it is about those making the assessments that has a bearing on the way they make decisions. Understanding the issues relevant to the judgement process offers insights as to why veracity judgements are wrong as often as they are right.