Factors influencing the use of forensic awareness strategies in sexual homicide

Purpose: Rational choice approach assumes that offenders make decisions to gain more than what it costs to commit the crime. However, studies have shown that not all offenders take actions at the crime scene in order to get rid of forensic evidence. This study focuses on the sexual murderers and aimed to determine which factors influence their decision to use or not forensic awareness strategies to avoid police detection. Methods: The current study seeks to determine the role of criminal expertise, situational factors and crime characteristics on the use of forensic awareness strategies by sexual murderers using a sample of 662 cases of sexual murders from the Sexual Homicide International Database (SHIelD) occurring in France and Canada. Results: Findings from descriptive analysis showed that most SHOs are forensically aware. Results from sequential binomial regression analyses indicated that criminal expertise and crime characteristics were the most important factors to explain the decision taken by sexual murderers to use or not strategies to avoid police detection. Conclusions: The use forensic awareness strategies by SHOs are not influenced by situational characteristics of the crime but instead relies on the offender’s experience, expertise, and the type of acts they committed. Theoretical implications and utility for police investigations are discussed