◆ SpookStack

“Law enforcement officials have questioned whether a small percentage of criminals may be responsible for a large number of crimes. .. . Background Characteristics Although their birth years ranged from 1904 to 1958, most of the 36 of- fenders (all male) grew up in the 1940's and 1950's. They were pre- dominantly white and were usually eldest sons (first or second born), which gave them a distinct advantage, given the dominant-male attitudes in the country at that time. Most of these men, as adults, had pleasant general appearances, suggesting that as boys they were not unattractive. Their heights and weights were within the norms, and few had distinguishing handicaps or physical defects to set them apart in a group of boys or men. The majority of the men were of average or above-av- erage intelligence, with one-third having superior intelligence. The majority initially began life in two-parent homes, and half of the mothers were homemakers. Although the majority of fathers worked at un- skilled jobs, they were steadily em- ployed; only five men reported the family living at substandard economic levels. Thus, poverty was not a significant factor in the socioeconomic status of families; mothers were in the home; fathers were earning stable incomes; the subjects were intelligent, white, eldest sons. With such positive per- sonail characteristics and social fac- tors, the question is: What went wrong? Is there any evidence of what may have turned these men into sex- ually oriented murderers? Family Background It is often argued that the struc- ture and quality of family interaction is an important factor in the develop- ment of a child, especially in the way the child perceives the family mem- bers and their interaction with him and with each other. For children growing up, the quality of their attachments to parents and other members of the family is important in how these chil- dren become adults and relate to, and value, other members of society. Es- sentially, these early life attachments (sometimes called bonding) translate into a map of how the child will per- ceive situations outside of the family. Because of this, we were especially interested in specific factors within family relationships that best show the offenders’ levels of attachment to people. The family histories of these men revealed that multiple problems exist- ed in the family structure. Half of the offenders’ families had members with criminal histories; over half of the fam- ilies had psychiatric problems. This suggests insufficient contact between some family members and the offend- er as a child, as well as the possibility of inadequate patterns of relating. Nearly 70 percent of the families had histories of alcoho! abuse, one-third of the families had histories of drug abuse, and sexual problems among family members were either present or suspected in almost half of the re- ported cases. Thus, it is unlikely that most of the offenders experienced a good quality of life or positive interac- tions with family members. When examining the patterns de- scribed by the murderers regarding their own families, one is impressed by the high degree of instability in homelife and by the poor quality of at- tachment among family members. Only one-third of the men reported growing up in one location. The ma- jority (17) said they experienced occa- sional instability, and six reported chronic instability or frequent moving. Over "40 percent of the men lived out- side the family home before age 18 in places such as foster homes, State homes, detention centers, or mental hospitais. Twenty-five of the men for whom data were available had histo- ries of early psychiatric difficulties, thereby minimizing their opportunity to establish positive relationships within the family. In addition, the families had minimal attachment to a commu- nity, reducing the child’s opportunities to develop positive, stable relation- ships outside the family that might compensate for family instability. As stated earlier, both parents were present in over half (20) of the cases, with the father being absent in 10 cases, the mother being absent in 3 cases, and both parents being absent in 2 cases. However, of impor- tance is that in 17 cases, the biologi- cal father left home before the boy reached 12 years of age. This ab- sence was due to a variety of rea- sons, including separation and di- vorce. It is not surprising, then, that the dominant parent of the offender during the rearing phase of his life was the mother (for 21 cases). Only nine offenders said the father was the dominant parent, and two said both parents shared the parenting roles. Perhaps the most interesting fact revealed was that most offenders said they did not have a satisfactory rela- tionship with their father, and their re- lationship with their mother was highly ambivalent in emotional quality. Six- teen of the men reported cold or un- caring relationships with their moth- ers, and 26 reported such relation- ships with their fathers. Twenty of the offenders had no older brothers and 17 had no older sisters. In terms of having a strong role model during formative years,