6.4 Motive and Technology


6.4 Motive and Technology

The term motive refers to the emotional, psychological, or material need that impels, and is satisfied by, a behavior (Turvey 2002). Criminal motive is generally technology independent. That is to say, the psychological or material needs that are nurtured and satisfied by a criminal's pattern of behavior tend to be separate from the technology of the day. The same motives that exist today have arguably existed throughout recorded history, in one form or another. However, it may also be argued that existing motives (i.e. sexual fetishes) can evolve with the employment of, or association of, offense activities with specific technologies. Towards understanding these issues, this section demonstrates how an existing behavioral motivational typology may be applied within the context of computer and Internet related criminal behavior.

In 1979, A. Nicholas Groth, an American clinical psychologist working with both victims and offender populations, published a study of over 500 rapists. In his study, he found that rape, like other crimes involving behaviors that satisfy emotional needs, is complex and multi-determined. That is to say, that the act of rape itself serves a number of psychological needs and purposes (motives) for the offender. The purpose of his work was clinical, to understand the motivations of rapists for the purpose of the development of effective treatment plans (Groth 1979).

Eventually, the Groth rapist motivational typology was taken and modified by the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) and its affiliates (Hazelwood, et al. 1991; Burgess and Hazelwood 1995).

This author has found through casework, that this behaviorally based motivational classification system, with some modifications, is useful for understanding the psychological basis for most criminal behavior. The basic psychological needs, or motives, that impel human criminal behaviors remain essentially the same across different types of criminals, despite their behavioral expression, which may involve computer crimes, stalking, harassment, kidnapping, child molestation, terrorism, sexual assault, homicide, and/or arson. This is not to say that the motivational typology presented here should be considered the final word in terms of all specific offender motivations. But in terms of general types of psychological needs that are being satisfied by offender behavior, they are fairly inclusive, and fairly useful.

Below, the author gives a proposed behavioral motivational typology (Turvey 2002), and examples, adapted from Burgess (1995). This author takes credit largely for the shift in emphasis from classifying offenders - to classifying offense behaviors (turning it from an inductive labeling system to a deductive tool). They include the following types of behaviors: Power Reassurance, Power Assertive, Anger Retaliatory, Sadistic, Opportunistic, and Profit oriented.[2]

6.4.1 Power Reassurance (Compensatory)

These include criminal behaviors that are intended to restore the criminal's self-confidence or self-worth through the use of low aggression means. These behaviors suggest an underlying lack of confidence and a sense of personal inadequacy. This may manifest itself in a misguided belief that the victim desires the offense behavior, and is somehow a willing or culpable participant. In may also manifest itself in the form of self-deprecating or self-loathing behavior which is intended to garner a response of pity for sympathy from the victim.

The belief motivating this behavior is often that the victim will enjoy and eroticize the offense behavior, and may subsequently fall in love with the offender. This stems from the criminal's own fears of personal inadequacy. The offense behavior is restorative of the offender's self doubt, and therefore emotionally reassuring. It will occur as his need for that kind of reassurance arises.

CASE EXAMPLE (DURFEE 1996):

start example

The following is a media account of the circumstances surrounding Andrew Archambeau, a man who pled no contest to harassing a woman via e-mail and the telephone:

... Archambeau, 32, was charged with a misdemeanor almost two years ago for stalking the Farmington Hills woman ... Archambeau met the woman through a computer dating service. He messaged her by computer and (they) talked on the phone.

The couple met in person twice. After the second meeting, the woman dumped Archambeau by e-mail. He continued to leave phone messages and e-mail the woman (urging her to continue dating him), even after police warned him to stop. Archambeau was charged in May 1994 under the state's stalking law, a misdemeanor.

"Times have changed. People no longer have to leave the confines and comfort of their homes to harass somebody," (Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Neal) Rockind said.

end example

In this example, the offender was unwilling to let go of the relationship, perceiving a connection to the victim that he was unwilling to relinquish. The content of the messages that he left was not described as violent, or threatening, merely persistent. While it is possible that this could have eventually escalated to more retaliatory behaviors, the behaviors did not appear to be coming from that emotion.

6.4.2 Power Assertive (Entitlement)

These include criminal behaviors that are intended to restore the offender's self-confidence or self-worth through the use of moderate to high aggression means. These behaviors suggest an underlying lack of confidence and a sense of personal inadequacy, that are expressed through control, mastery, or humiliation of the victim, while demonstrating the offender's perceived sense of authority.

Offenders evidencing this type of behavior exhibit little doubt about their own adequacy and masculinity. In fact, they may be using their attacks as an expression of their own virility. In their perception, they are entitled to the fruits of their attack by virtue of being a male and being physically stronger.

Offenders evidencing this type of behavior may grow more confident over time, as their egocentricity may be very high. They may begin to do things that can lead to their identification. Law enforcement may interpret this as a sign that the offender desires to be caught. What is actually true is that the offender has no respect for law enforcement, has learned that they can commit their offenses without the need to fear identification or capture, and subsequently they may not take precautions that they have learned are generally unnecessary.

This type of behavior does not evidence a desire to harm the victim, necessarily, but rather to posses them. Demonstrating power over their victims is their means of expressing mastery, strength, control, authority, and identity to themselves. The attacks are therefore intended to reinforce the offender's inflated sense of self-confidence or self-worth.

CASE EXAMPLE (ASSOCIATED PRESS 1997b):

start example

The following is taken from a media account of the circumstances surrounding the Dwayne and Debbie Tamai family of Emeryville, Ontario. This case of electronic harassment involved their 15-year-old son, Billy, who took control of all of the electronic devices in the family's home, including the phone, and manipulated them to distress of other family members for his own amusement. The incidents began in December of 1996, when friends of the family complained that phone calls to the Tamai home were repeatedly being waylaid and cut off:

... Police confirmed that the sabotage was an inside job, but refused to name the culprit and said nothing would be gained by filing charges against him. Dwayne and Debbie Tamai issued a statement saying that their son, Billy, had admitted to making the mysterious calls.

The interruptions included burps and babbling and claims of control over the inner workings of the Tamais' custom-built home, including what appeared to be the power to turn individual appliances on and off by remote control.

"It started off as a joke with his friends and just got so out of hand that he didn't know how to stop it and was afraid to come forward and tell us in fear of us disowning him," the Tamais said in their statement, which was sent to local news media.

On Saturday, the Tamais said they were planning to take their son to the police to defend him against persistent rumors that he was responsible. Instead, he confessed to being the intruder who called himself Sommy.

"All the crying I heard from him at night I thought was because of the pain he was suffering caused by Sommy," the letter said. "We now realize it was him crying out for help because he wanted to end all this but was afraid because of how many people were now involved."

... "We eliminated all external sources and interior sources," Babbitt said.

A two-day sweep by a team of intelligence and security experts loaded with high-tech equipment failed to locate "Sommy" on Friday. The team was brought in by two television networks.

... missed messages and strange clickings seemed minor when a disembodied voice, eerily distorted by computer, first interrupted a call to make himself known.

After burping repeatedly, the caller told a startled Mrs Tamai, "I know who you are. I stole your voice mail."

Mocking, sometimes menacing, the high-tech stalker became a constant presence, eavesdropping on family conversations, switching TV channels and shutting off the electricity.

"He would threaten me," Mrs Tamai said last week. "It was very frightening: 'I'm going to get you. I know where you live.'

"I befriended him, because the police asked me to, and he calmed down and said he wasn't going to hurt me. The more I felt I was kissing his butt, the safer I felt."

end example

In this case, the son repeatedly made contact with the victims (his parents), and made verbal threats in combination with the electronic harassment, all in an effort to demonstrate his power and authority over them. The victims were not physically harmed, though they were in fear and greatly inconvenienced by the fact that an unknown force appeared to have control over a great many aspects of their lives.

6.4.3 Anger Retaliatory (Anger or Displaced)

These include criminal behaviors that suggest a great deal of rage, either towards a specific person, group, institution, or a symbol of either. These types of behaviors are commonly evidenced in stranger-to-stranger sexual assaults, domestic homicides, work-related homicide, harassment, and cases involving terrorist activity.

Anger retaliation behavior is just what the name suggests. The offender is acting on the basis of cumulative real or imagined wrongs from those that are in their world. The victim of the attack may be one of these people such as a relative, a girlfriend, or a coworker. Or the victim may symbolize that person to the offender in dress, occupation, and/or physical characteristics.

The main goal of this offender behavior is to service their cumulative aggression. They are retaliating against the victim for wrongs or perceived wrongs, and their aggression can manifest itself spanning a wide range, from verbally abusive epithets to hyper-aggressed homicide with multiple collateral victims. In such cases, even sexual acts can be put into the service anger and aggression (this is the opposite of the sadistic offender, who employs aggression in the service of sexual gratification).

It is important not to confuse retaliatory behavior with sadistic behavior. Although they can share some characteristics at first blush, the motivations are wholly separate. Just because a crime is terrible or brutal does not confirm that the offender responsible was a sadist, and tortured the victim. Reliance upon a competent reconstruction by the appropriate forensic scientists is requisite.

CASE EXAMPLE (ASSOCIATED PRESS 1997a):

start example

The following is a media account of the circumstances surrounding the homicide of Marlene Stumpf. Her husband, Raymond Stumpf, who was host and producer of a home shopping show that aired in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, allegedly stabbed her to death. He was known as "Mr Telemart," and also worked full-time as a manager at a fast-food restaurant.

A woman who received flowers from a man she corresponded with on the Internet has been slain, and her husband has been charged with murder.

The dozen roses were sent several days ago to "Brandis," the online name used by Marlene Stumpf, 47, police said. Her son found her body Monday night on the kitchen floor with three blood-covered knives nearby.

Raymond Stumpf, 54, her husband of 13 years and host of a local cable television show, was found in the dining room, bleeding from arm and stomach wounds that police consider self-inflicted.

"It was a particularly gruesome scene with a lot of blood that showed evidence of extreme violence," prosecutor Bruce Castor Jr. said Wednesday. "(Stumpf) tried to kill himself, presumably because he felt bad he had killed his wife."

Stumpf told police his wife started slapping him during an argument Monday night and he "just went wild." Police said he couldn't remember what happened.

Detectives hope Mrs Stumpf's computer and computer files will provide information about her online relationships and people who could help prosecutors with a motive, Castor said.

end example

In this example, it is alleged that the husband killed his wife after an argument over her Internet romance, and then tried to kill himself. The fact that there is digital evidence related to this crime, and that the Internet is somehow involved, is incidental to the husband's motive for killing her. Instances of similar domestic murder-suicides involving real or perceived infidelity are nothing new in the history of human relationships, and are always tragic.

The retaliatory aspect of this case comes from the description of the nature and extent of the injuries to the victim (i.e. that Mr Stumpf "just went wild," and that there was "extreme violence").

The retaliatory aspect of this case is further evidenced by circumstances that support the context of that retaliatory behavior, including:

  • the argument;

  • the use of available materials;

  • the use of multiple weapons;

  • the relatively short duration of the attack.

6.4.4 Anger Excitation (Sadistic)

These include criminal behaviors that evidence offender sexual gratification from victim pain and suffering. The primary motivation for the behavior is sexual, however the sexual expression for the offender is manifested in physical aggression, or torture behavior, toward the victim.

This offense behavior is perhaps the most individually complex. This type of behavior is motivated by intense, individually varying fantasies that involve inflicting brutal levels of pain on the victim solely for offender sexual pleasure. The goal of this behavior is total victim fear and submission for the purposes of feeding the offender's sexual desires. Aggression services sexual gratification. The result is that the victim must be physically or psychologically abused and humiliated for this offender to become sexually excited and subsequently gratified.

Examples of sadistic behavior must evidence sexual gratification that an offender achieves by witnessing the suffering of their victim, who must requisitely be both living and conscious. Dead or unconscious victims are incapable of suffering in the manner that gives the necessary sexual stimulation to the sadist. For an example of such a case involving the use of the Internet and a subsequent cybertrail, see the previous discussion regarding serial murderer Maury Roy Travis in this chapter.

6.4.5 Profit Oriented

These include criminal behaviors that evidence an offender motivation oriented towards material or personal gain. These can be found in all types of homicides, robberies, burglaries, muggings, arsons, bombings, kidnappings, and fraud, just to name a few.

This type of behavior is the most straightforward, as the successful completion of the offense satisfies the offender's needs. Psychological and emotional needs are not necessarily satisfied by purely profit motivated behavior (if one wants to argue that a profit motivation is also motivated by a need for reassurance that one is a good provider, that would have to be followed by a host of other reassurance behaviors). Any behavior that is not purely profit motivated, which satisfies an emotional or psychological need should be examined with the lens of the other behavior motivational types.

CASE EXAMPLE (PIPER 1998):

start example

The following is excepted from a media account regarding the circumstances surrounding the activities of Valdimir Levin in St Petersburg, Russia:

Vladimir Levin, a computer expert from Russia's second city of St Petersburg, used his skills for ill-gotten gains. He was caught stealing from Citibank in a fraud scheme and said he used bank customer passwords and codes to transfer funds from their accounts to accounts he controlled in Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel and the United States.

end example

In this example, regardless of any other motivation that may be evident in this offender's behavioral patterns, the desire for profit is clearly primary.

[2]Sections of text in this typology are taken directly from Turvey (2002).




Digital Evidence and Computer Crime
Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Second Edition
ISBN: 0121631044
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 279

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