Murder and Serious Sexual Assault - Lancaster EPrints - Lancaster ...

MURDERERS AND SERIOUS SEXUAL OFFENDERS – A BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Close to half of those convicted of a first time SSA and with any prior conviction
had a prior violence conviction (49.9%). In contrast, just over seven per cent of
those with any prior convictions had a conviction for a less serious sexual offence.
There was little evidence of specialisation within the sample as a whole, with theft
and robbery also appearing frequently in the prior criminal history of these
offenders. Again, it is important to remember that it is only when comparing the
previous offences of those convicted of SSA with those of criminals who have not
been convicted of SSA that it is possible to say something about the significance of
these offences in their criminal history.
Types of murder case
The HI was used to provide information on the relationship between the offender and
the principal victim. Table 3 summarises how the victim-suspect relationship variables
on the HI were reclassified for this study. Looking at the offender-victim relationship,
the largest sub-group was where the murder was of an acquaintance (218 or 38.3%),
although a substantial number had murdered a family member (119 or 20.9%). In 39.7
per cent of cases the main victim was a stranger to the offender. In most of the
stranger cases, the victim was male (the main victim was a female stranger in only 31
or 5.4% of cases) 8 . Six murders were excluded either because there was insufficient
information on the HI, or the murderer had not been satisfactorily matched. These
relationship types are considered separately in Chapter 4.
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8 In terms of the sex of the
victim, the main victim (there
may have been more than one
victim) was male in the majority
of cases (71.9%).