WK3 STUDENT/PROFESSOR REPLIES

STUDENT & PROFESSOR REPLIES

PROFESSOR QUSTESTION REPLY #1

Good post. To expand on your post, please discuss heredity and crime as described in Chapter 4 of your textbook. Do you think the criminal behavior is genetic?

STUDENT REPLY #2 Kristel Beugler

I would describe Arthur Shawcross as an organized serial killer. After serving nearly 15 years in prison for killing two children, Shawcross was released from prison at 40 years old. He adapted to his old lifestyle and even got married two more times for a total of 4 marriages. Once release from prison he went back to his old habit of killing, only this time he turned to prostitutes. I believe the prostitutes were easy prey for him and may have represented his mother to him. Shawcross strangled his victims and dumped their bodies in or near a river, giving Shawcross the nickname the Genesee River Killer. He had gained a sense of invincibility and thought he was smarter than the police. When Shawcross was arrested he showed no remorse, emotions, or feelings. Shawcross had many of the characteristics of an organized serial killer, he lived with partners, he had chameleon personality, and was socially adequate. He killed a series of victims to satisfy his need for power and control.

The criminological theory that I chose that best describes Shawcross' behavior is Freud's Theory of Personality. You have the conscious where your current thoughts and feelings live. Shawcross made the conscious choice to abduct the victims, strangle them and dispose of their bodies by or near the river. The second would be the subconscious, where you recall events from your memory. Shawcross suffered childhood abuse, he was bullied, and he had violent tendencies. Next, would be the unconscious, repository that drives your behavior that include primitive and instinctual desires.

STUDENT REPLY #3 Megan Mizzi

I identified the offender from last week's case study as being an organized nonsocial offender. An organized nonsocial offender is generally obsessive-compulsive and likes to be tidy or has a place for everything (Holmes and Holmes et al., 2009). This type of offender likes to be alone but can hold down a job and function in society as normal. They tend to be intelligent people and dress nicely. They are well-kept. They also like to take a souvenir in this case their driver's licenses as a way to relieve their kill. I used two different typologies for this offender from the case study because I felt like they fit the description of both in some ways. I choose the typology of power and control because they strangled all of their victims and were sexually assaulted before they killed them. By the offender sexually assaulting his victims I also used the hedonistic typology. With the hedonistic typology, the offender gets pleasure in sex and prolongs the murder. With both of these typologies, the offender gets off on the power and fear that goes into sexual assault and murder (Holmes and Holmes et al., 2009).

I think criminal thinking patterns play a role in this offender's behavior. The idea of criminal thinking patterns is that the offender is no difference in the makeup of their personality than the average law-abiding citizen. It’s not necessarily the environment that the criminal grows up in that makes them an offender but the choices they make starting at an early age (Samenow, 1976). The theory of the building blocks of personality by Sigmund Freud explains a lot about why one might commit a crime. Freud broke down personality into three categories Id, ego, and superego (Lapsley & Stey, 2011). The id is responsible for instant gratification. This centers a lot around sexual impulse. With this offender, we can tell that he struggled to manage his sexual desire with the fact that he raped every victim. According to Abrahamsen (1944), the offender is an id- dominated person, meaning the criminal rarely knows why they do the things they do.

References:

Holmes, R. M., & Holmes, S. T. (2009). Profiling violent crimes: An investigative tool (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc

STUDENT QUESTION REPLY #4 Karlie Heazlit

Thank you for you post this week, I really enjoyed seeing this case study through your perspective. After reading your post I was left with two questions. Do you think the offender in our case study has an overdeveloped, or an underdeveloped superego? Afterall, the superego is the mediator between the id's desires and the ego's attempt to protect against the impulses of the id (Holmes & Holmes, 2009). Feelings of anxitey and guilt tend to rise when equilibrium is not met between the id, ego, and superego. With that in mind, do you think our offender from last week feels as though they should be punished for their crimes to relieve their negative feelings toward themselves after their three murders?

References:

Holmes, R. M., & Holmes, S. T. (2009). Profiling violent crimes: An investigative tool (4th ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.