Differentiating Contract Killers: A Narrative‐Based Approach

AuthorJOHN SYNNOTT,MIROSLAVA YANEVA,MARIA IOANNOU,LAURA HAMMOND
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12243
Published date01 March 2018
Date01 March 2018
The Howard Journal Vol57 No 1. March 2018 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12243
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 107–123
Differentiating Contract Killers:
A Narrative-Based Approach
MIROSLAVA YANEVA, MARIA IOANNOU,
LAURA HAMMOND and JOHN SYNNOTT
Miroslava Yaneva is Postgraduate Researcher; Maria Ioannou is Reader in
Investigative and Forensic Psychology; Laura Hammond and John Synnott are
Senior Lecturers in Investigative Psychology, International Research Centre
for Investigative Psychology, University of Huddersfield
Abstract: Previous attempts to determine contract killers’ behaviour have not benefited
from any formal psychological framework of behavioural distinction. The Narrative
Action System model (NAS model; Canter and Youngs 2009) offers an empirical basis
for differentiating contract killings and examining the psychological underpinnings of
different contract killer styles. The model identifies four major narrative offender types:
Professional, Revenger, Hero, and Victim. The present study aims to examine whether
these themes can be applied to contract killing. Content analysis of 75 contract killer cases
identified 56 crime scene actions. Data were subjected to a non-metric multidimensional
scaling procedure, namely Smallest Space Analysis (SSA-I). Findings revealed four
distinct types of contract killers that could be related to the four modes of offending
proposed by the NAS model. Differences in the thematic structure of contract killing
offences are discussed, and implications areoffered for clinical and investigative purposes.
Keywords: contract killers; crime scene behaviours; criminal differentiation;
investigative psychology; multidimensional structure
Since the beginning of the 21st Century, scholars have been arguing that
contract murder is more frequent than any other type of crime and appears
to be increasing (Schlesinger 2001a). An increase has been reported in the
United States (Schlesinger 2001a, 2001b) and the United Kingdom (Jones
1995), both beginning around the 1960s, as well as in Russia – around the
1990s (Lally 1997). However, psychological research around this type of
homicide is lacking.
Although studies investigating contract murder have been, so far,useful
in establishing which individual offending behaviours and characteristics
tend to co-occur,a broader understanding of the different offending styles
may benefit from the application of a formal theoretical framework of the
psychological bases of behavioural variation. This would, in turn, inform
consideration of the processes that generate contract murder scenarios, or
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2018 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol57 No 1. March 2018
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 107–123
alternatively the diverse nature of this offence, thereby throwing light on
this poorly-understood type of homicide (for example, Black 2000; Black
and Cravens 2001; Blackshaw 1996; Dietz 1983; Mouzos and Venditto
2003; Schlesinger 2001b). More broadly, a formal understanding of what
it is that distinguishes contract offending patterns from one another may
provide a framework for the development of diverse causal explanations
of these types of criminals.
Previous studies draw on a wide range of models of the differentiation
of contract killer types; however they do not make any reference to the
psychological nature of these styles. The variety of these ideas about the
nature of contract killers is well illustrated in several studies of offender
typologies. Revitch and Schlesinger (1981) drew on ideas about method of
killing (the level of planning), the crime scene (identifying any sign of phys-
ical evidence), the typical target (relationship to the victim), the contractor’s
motive, and the offender’s personality (mental condition), to characterise
three major types of contract killers: amateur, semi-professional, and pro-
fessional. Other researchers (for example, Mouzos and Venditto 2003),
using official data, have proposed a twofold typology of contract killers.
Mouzos and Venditto (2003) examined contract murder types based on
the alleged motive of the instigator (solicitor or contractor), which led to
the formation of two dramatically different types: attempted and com-
pleted contract murder.These two types were mainly distinguished on the
basis of number of offenders involved, intimate partners involved, gender
of victims and offenders, and whether or not the contract was completed
or its completion was prevented through police intervention. Crumplin
(2009) used a behaviour-based approach by examining the patterns of
co-occurrence of behaviours across different crimes using multidimen-
sional scaling. This suggested the existence of three offending styles in
contract murder – aggressive behaviours, inept behaviours, and criminally-
sophisticated behaviours.
Blackshaw (1996) looked into the motivational patterns of the insti-
gator. All cases were grouped into the following five motive-based cate-
gories: sexually-intimate relationships; non-intimate family relationship;
business; criminal network; and undetermined. However, in almost every
case of contract killing the actual person who commits the murder may
not be previously known to the victim (Black 2000), resulting in an absent
crime motive, thus making these criminals extremely difficult to detect.
Understanding the underlying behaviour of these offenders through the
application of a formal psychological framework would allow us to make
inferences of the type of individual involved in a particular crime and
whether this individual could be linked to other offences.
Thus, there are more direct investigative implications of being able to
characterise dominant styles of offending that differentiate one contract
killer from another. This differentiating problem may be more viable if
psychologically similar crimes are compared rather than comparing cases
purely on legal grounds. Furthermore, any attempt to draw inferences
about offender characteristics from crime scene information, referred to
by Canter and Youngs (2003) as the ‘profiling equations’, will benefit from
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