Psychology 2032A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Aileen Wuornos, Postpartum Psychosis, Psychopathy
6 Jun 2018
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Homicidal Offenders
Introduction
• Homicides are rare in Canada
• They deserve our attention because they represent the ultimate violent act
• Of all concepts described so far in the course, arguably most devastating for victims,
families and society as a whole
Homicidal Offences
• 4 different types of homicides:
1. First-degree murder
- All murder planned and deliberate
- Includes murder of law enforcement officers or correctional staff member
- A murder occurring during the commission of another violent offence (ex. Sexual
assault) regardless if planned or unplanned
2. Second-degree murder
- All other murder is in this category
3. Manslaughter
- Unintentional murder that ours durig the heat of passio or eause of riial
negligence
o Criminal negligence – killing someone while drunk driving
4. Infanticide (killing of baby boy by its mother)
• Max 5 years of imprisonment for infanticide and life in prison (25 years with no chance
of parole) for the other 3
• Some forms of killing in Canada are exempt from penalties (killing during war, killing in
self-defence)
Extent of Homicidal Offences
• Homicide is quite rare representing less than 1% of violent crimes in Canada (Statistics
Canada, 2015)
• Homicide rate has been declining since the 1990s and is currently at its lowest rate since
the 1960s
• 2014: Newfoundland and Labrador reported the lowest homicide rate; Manitoba
reported the highest; Thunder Bay reported the highest homicide rate, followed by
Winnipeg; the territories report significantly higher homicide rates than provinces
• Youths commit few homicides
- 2014: lowest rate since 1969
• Most solved homicides in 2014 were committed by someone known to the victim
• Homicides of Aboriginal victims accounted 23% of homicides in 2014 and of those
accused of homicide in 2014, 32% were Aboriginal
Bimodal Classification of Homicide
• Reactive: impulsive; unplanned; response to perceived provocation
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- Response to negative emotions
- Victims are most often relatives
• Instrumental: proactive; premeditated motivated by a goal
- Victims are most often strangers
- Goal could be to obtain money, power, control, or even gratification of fantasies
• Single-offender homicides (80% = reactive; 20% = instrumental)
- More likely among acquaintances, then family members/intimate partners, then
strangers
• Homicides can also be classified as a combination of reactive and instrumental (ex.
Reactive-instrumental, instrumental-reactive)
- Relationship between the instrumentality of the homicide and the degree to which
the offender exhibited features of psychopathy
- Offenders who scored higher on the PCL-R were more likely to commit instrumental
(vs. reactive) homicides compared to offenders who scored lower on the PCL-R
- Relationship between psychopathy and both types of violence
- Interpersonal features of psychopathy were associated with instrumental violence
- Social deviance features of psychopathy were associated with reactive violence
- Lifestyle features of psychopathy were associated with both types of violence
Type of Homicide
• Many different types
• Classified based on the relationship between the offender and his/her victim
Filicide
• Filicide: killing of children by parents
- Neoanticide: killing a baby within 24 hours of birth
- Infanticide: killing a baby within the 1st year of life
- Cultural issues
o In ancient Rome, a father had the right to kill his children
o China and India have sanctioned gender-based killing
o Inuit societies killed infants that had birth defects or killed one infant when
twins were born
- Children under 1 were most at risk
- Common methods: strangulation, suffocation and drowning
o Stabbing is the most common in non-familial homicides
- Why? Frustration, argument/quarrel, revenge
- Stepfathers and stepmothers are more likely to kill a child than biological
fathers/mothers
• 3 types of material filicide:
- Neonaticides
o Young, unmarried women with no prior history of mental illness, who are not
suicidal, and who have concealed their pregnancies, fearing
rejecting/disapproval from families
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- Those committed by battering mothers
o Impulsive action in response to behaviour of their child
o Highest rates of social and family stress (material and financial)
- Those committed by mothers with mental illness (ex. Postpartum psychosis)
o Tend to be older and married, kill older children, have multiple victims and to
be diagnosed with psychosis or depression
o Most likely to attempt suicide after murder
o Altruistic filicide: elief that the hild’s death ill soeho protet the hild
Case of Andrea Yates
• Fathers are more responsible for the death of children, but mothers are more paid
attention to
• 3 types of mental illnesses: postpartum blues, postpartum depression and postpartum
psychosis
• Most common is postpartum blues → experienced within 85% of women
- Crying, irritability and anxiety beginning a few days after childbirth and lasting from
a few hours to days (rarely continues past day 12)
• Postpartum depression occurs within the first few weeks or months and usually lasts for
several months
- Symptoms identical to clinical depression – depressed mood, loss of appetite,
concentration, sleep problems, suicidal thoughts
• Postpartum psychosis is the most severe/rare type of mental illness
- Involves delusions, hallucinations and suicidal/homicidal thoughts within the first 3
months after childbirth
- Received attention due to the potential role in maternal infanticides
• Andrea Yates drowned her 5 kids in the bathtub
- Argued that she had a mental illness, but guilty of capital punishment
- Reversed and found guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental
hospital
Familicide
• Familicide: a spouse and child/children are killed
- Perp is often male
- Often history of spousal and child abuse
- About half of these killers commit suicide
- 2 types of familicide murderers:
o Despondent non-hostile killer: depressed and worried about an impending
disaster for himself of his family
o Hostile accusatory killer: expresses hostility towards his wife, often related to
alleged infidelities or her intention to terminate the relationship
▪ Past history of violent acts is common
Youth Who Kill
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Document Summary
Homicidal offenders: homicides are rare in canada, they deserve our attention because they represent the ultimate violent act, of all concepts described so far in the course, arguably most devastating for victims, families and society as a whole. Homicidal offences: 4 different types of homicides, first-degree murder. A murder occurring during the commission of another violent offence (ex. Includes murder of law enforcement officers or correctional staff member assault) regardless if planned or unplanned: second-degree murder. All other murder is in this category: manslaughter. Extent of homicidal offences: homicide is quite rare representing less than 1% of violent crimes in canada (statistics. Winnipeg; the territories report significantly higher homicide rates than provinces: youths commit few homicides. Bimodal classification of homicide: reactive: impulsive; unplanned; response to perceived provocation. Goal could be to obtain money, power, control, or even gratification of fantasies: single-offender homicides (80% = reactive; 20% = instrumental)
