◆ SpookStack

JOURNAL, OF INTERPERSONAL. VIOLENCE / September 1986 been the first in the homicide drama to use physical force directed against his subsequent slayer’ (p. 252). An example is the husband who attacked his wife with a milk bottle, a brick, and a piece of -oncrete block while she was making breakfast. Having a butcher knife in her hand, she stabbed him. Wolfgang (1958) found victim- preciptated homicides represented 26% of a total of 588 homicides studied through police reports in Philadelphia. Adding to this con- cept, Schafer (1968, p. 152) concluded that “it is far from true that all crimes ‘happen’ to be committed; often the victim’s negligence, precipitative action, or provocation contributes to the genesis or performance of a crime.” In contrast to this view, FBI profilers, in their work of analyzing crime scenes for clues leading to a suspect in an unsolved homicide, took a different approach. They did not find it helpful to perceive the victim as provoking the murder. Rather, the agents tried to be aware of how the offender thought and, subsequently, how he would respond to key characteristics of a victim. For example, a vicum wearing ared dress and shoes was perceived by the offender as “asking for it.” Such a victim can not communicate because the offender selects and interprets “communication cues”’ of which the victim is totally unaware. The agents understood the offender’s habitual rea- soning pattern that selects out characteristics of the victim, building a strong justification for violating her. The offender may retrospec- tively think he went “‘a bit too far,” but will hold to his justifications. If a victim is passive, this is reason for attack; if the victim struggles, this is reason for the attack, and so it goes. Thus the agents regarded all victim and crime scene information as critical data in their investigations. As a result of their insights into understanding the motivation of the offender, agents at the Behavioral Sciences Unit of the FBI Academy initiated a study of sexual homicide crime scenes and patterns of criminal behavior. Data obtained in the study were examined from the perspectives of crime scene analysis and of victim-murderer interaction. STUDY For several years, FBI agents, in profiling sexual murderers by analyzing crime scenes, have typed sexual murderers and the crime scene in terms of an organized/disorganized dichotomy. The premise 63