Crime Classification Manual

118 CRIME CLASSIFICATION MANUAL
Defining Characteristics
Victimology. The victim of product tampering may be random or specific,
dependent on the product’s distribution, the product’s use, and the offender
strategy. Sabotaged baby food, brake lines, and soft drinks will involve a
particular age group or class of people. Some sabotaged products will be
distributed only on a local scale, so the victimology will be more confined.
The localization of victims can also help establish whether the product is
being tampered with at a retail stage or at the manufacturer’s level. Random
victimology is likely to be seen with extortion or with intent to damage a
competitor.
The more specific victim is seen when the offender employs litigation for
wrongful death. The victim will be a family member or one closely associated
with the offender. Random victims are observed when this type of offender
wants to remove suspicion from himself or herself and stages the
crime to look like the work of an indiscriminate killer.
Crime Scene Indicators Frequently Noted. Multiple crime scenes usually
are involved with this homicide: the site where the product is altered, the
location where the product is procured by the victim, the place of use or consumption,
and the death scene. The location of alteration may offer evidence
of the tampering involved. If it is mechanical sabotage, tools particular to
that alteration will be present. Chemicals, poisons, and medicines may be
found if this type of tampering is employed.
Tampered-product locations and the proximity of victims to sites will aid
in deciding the scope and movement of the offender as well as origin of the
product. At the death scene, the proximity of the victim to the altered product
can aid the investigator in reconstructing the product’s path. In addition,
communication from the offender may be found at any of the scenes
involved.
Staging. Staging is crucial if the offender is using the litigation strategy.
The offender must make it appear as if the family member or close associate
was a victim of either a random killer or a company’s faulty product. For the
first set of circumstances, there could be other random victims selected to
give the appearance of an indiscriminate saboteur at work. The other situation
may require the death to look like an accident (for example, a defective
automotive part or short-circuited power tool that causes the fatal accident).
Fire started by apparently faulty wiring that burns a house down with the victim
inside is another illustration of a staged product tampering. The initial
impression derived from the crime scene of a staged tampering homicide
ranges from violent death to a medical emergency of some kind, without any
obvious indicators of a homicide.