NCJ Number
118983
Date Published
1989
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Commonly used classifications of criminal behavior overlook the dynamics involved in sexual aggression and sex murders, which can more usefully be classified in terms of the underlying motivations.
Abstract
Thus, legal classifications are based mainly on the principle of retribution, with the degree of punishment corresponding to the severity of the criminal act. However, the legal classification and the legal tests of degrees of culpability have little relevance to the dynamics of the criminal act. Other classification approaches have been offered by Clark, Halleck, Tanay, Broth and Hobson, Bromberg, MacDonald, Rada, the Massachusetts Treatment Center, and Revitch. Each of these approaches has specific limitations, however. In search of a common denominator in criminal behavior, the authors have focused on the motivational stimuli that lead to an offense. These stimuli are grouped on a scale, with environmental or sociogenic factors at one end and endogenous or psychogenic stimuli at the other. Cases of violence connected with organic and toxic conditions are grouped separately. The motivational has five categories: social, situational, impulsive, catathymic, and compulsive offenses. Some cases have characteristics and elements belonging to the adjoining elements. Most cases of sexual aggression belong in the catathymic and compulsive groups. These cases represent only a small proportion of sex offenses or of homicidal acts, however.