CRIMINOLOGY:SECTION B
Theme 1: Crimes of a Violent Nature
Introduction
- Violent crimes
o Murder
o Rape
o Assault
- Violent crimes are globally deemed unacceptable in civilised societies
- People fear becoming a victim of senseless violence more than any other type of crime
- Four main categories of so-called ‘street crime’ and crimes of a violent nature between intimates, friends and
acquaintances
o Multi murders
o Cash in transit heist
o Business robberies
o Political killings
o Farm attacks/ murders
- Violent crimes that transpire between people known to each other often remain hidden from the public eye
Definitions
Assault
- Person unlawfully and intentionally applies force to the person of another or inspires a belief in the other
person that force is immediately to be applied to him/ her
Automatic Teller Machine attacks (ATM)
- The unlawful and intentional causing of damage to an ATM or any part thereof, with the intent to obtain cash,
through any means whatsoever with specific inclusions of the use of explosives
Bank-associated robbery
- The robbing of cash, or attempt to do so, and is directed at a bank, client or delegate of the client, at any
stage while en route to or from a bank branch, AT or cash centre or inside the branch, to make a cash deposit
or withdrawal
Bank robbery
- The unlawful, intentional and violent removal and appropriation of movable property while it is under the
control of a bank by means of violence, or a threat of violence here the victim has to believe that the
perpetrator will or is able to use the threatened violence
Cash-in-transit heist/ robbery
- The unlawful, intentional and violent taking away of cash while under the control of a security company
Contract hit/ hired killing/ assassination
- A continuous sequence of interactions in which one party solicits another party to have a third person or
group of people killed for some form of gain, which can be economic or for other reasons such as political or
social gain.
Farm attacks and murders
- Acts of violence against person/s on farms and smallholdings refer to acts aimed at person/s residing on,
working on or visiting farm and smallholdings, whether with the intent to murder, rape, rob or inflict bodily
harm
- All acts of violence against the infrastructure and property in the rural community aimed at disputing legal
farming activities as a commercial concern, whether the motive/s are related to ideology, land disputes, land
issues, revenge, grievances, racist concerns or intimidation, are included
Femicide
- The intentional killing of females because of their gender
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,Home invasion/ robbery
- Robbery where the perpetrators overpower, detain and rob the occupants of a residential premise inside
their place of residence
Hostile (expressive) aggression
- Is shown in situations their elicit anger
- The main aim of the aggressor is to hurt or cause suffering to the person causing anger
- The anger can be defined as a state of arousal which elicits frustration or attack
Instrumental aggression
- Is usually caused by competition or the wish to have something someone else has
o Use of aggression to take property from someone
Intimate partner violence
- Actual or threatened physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, stalking, economic abuse, intimidation,
harassment, damage to property, entry into the complainant’s residence without consent, and controlling
behaviour directed at an intimate partner
Intimate partner femicide
- The killing of a woman by an intimate male partner
Mass murder
- The killing of multiple victims in a single episode or during one event, in the same approximate location over
short period of time, by one or more perpetrators in what appears to be one explosive event
o Not necessarily a single location
Murder of a police official
- Causing the death of an official without lawful excuse, and with the intent to kill the official
Muti
- An herbal cure prepared by a traditional healer using mostly plant materials, minerals and water
Muti killing
- Deaths that result from the harvesting of human body parts and/ or organs for use in traditional medicine for
different specialised reasons
Multicide/ multiple murder
- Means the random killing of several people either in one episode or over a period of time includes serial
murder, mass murder and spree murder
Murder
- The unlawful and intentional killing of another person
Rape
- Takes place when any person unlawfully and intentionally commits an act of sexual penetration with another
person without that person’s consent
Rental/ business robbery
- The unlawful, intentional theft of a retailer’s money, goods and/ or valuables against their will, with the use of
threatened use of violence an force with or without a weapon
Robbery
- The theft of property by unlawfully and intentionally using violence to take property from someone or using
threats of violence to induce the possessor of the property to submit to the taking thereof
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,School violence
- Any intentional physical or non-physical (verbal) act resulting in physical pain (physical injuries) and/ or non-
physical pain (psychological and emotional) inflicted on the recipient of the act
Serial murder
- The killing of at least two victims on at least two separate occasions over a period of time ranging from days,
weeks, months, years or even decades, with an emotional cooling-off period between victims
Serial rapist
- A person who has raped two or more victims during separate incidents, over an extended period of time
Spree killer
- A person or persons who kill several victims during separate within a period of hours, days, weeks or even
months in several different locations
Traditional health practitioner
- A person who is recognised by the community where he/ she lives as someone competent to provide
healthcare by using plant, animal and mineral substances and other methods based on social, cultural and
religious practices
Trio crimes
- Constitute vehicle hijacking, robbery at residential premises (home invasions/ house robberies) and robbery
at non-residential premises (business/ retail robberies)
Vehicle hijacking
- When a vehicle is forcefully taken from a person without their consent
Human violence and aggression
- Aggression and violence are part of human existence
o Blood wars
o Executions
o Brutal murders
o Human violence is important for human existence
- Aggression is not synonymous with violence
- Prediction remains unreliable with regard to determining the extent of danger or aggression in humans
o Some individuals do not recognize their actions as violent
o Inability to predict impacts on different levels in the justice system
- Dilemma of probable future violence
o High levels of anger and violent thoughts
▪ Whether a therapist is obligated to warn authorities if an individual is dangerous, but it
constitutes a breach of confidentiality
3
, - MacArthur Risk Assessment Study
o USA
o Shows if we were to use the extent of danger to predict if people would become a threat, a great
amount of people would end up if prison
o Many people who re predicted to be violent never show violence
o False positives
▪ 2/3 predictions for a person’s level of dangerousness
▪ When a person is labelled dangerous before their release and the people never exhibits
dangerous behaviour again after release
▪ Approach divides risk factors into four broad categories
1. Historical variables
• Employment history and criminal record
2. Dispositional factors
• Variables such as
o Age
o Mental capability
o Personality
3. Contextual variables
• Access to dangerous objects or weapons
• General living arrangements
4. Clinical factors
• Psychiatric state of the person
• Use of narcotics
- Varieties of human aggression
o Passive
o Active
o Makes the MacArthur Risk Assessment Study much harder
Active Passive
Direct Indirect Direct Indirect
Punching the victim – Practical jokes, booby Obstruction of a passage Refusing to perform a
hitting someone with trap – pulling someone’s to block others from necessary task – refusing
your fist without their chair from underneath getting to their office – to do an assignment
consent. them in a classroom the sit-in such as during a because the lecturer is
Physical
If it is a kickboxing match, moment before they sit strike for better wages disliked
this category of down without their
aggression is not relevant knowledge
since the aggression
takes place with consent
Insulting the victims – Malicious gossip – Refusing to speak – a Refusing consent, vocal
swearing at someone spreading a rumour wife that refuses to or written – a husband
during road rage or about somebody such as speak to her husband who refuses to sign
during a lovers’ quarrel telling communal friends because he came home divorce papers bearing in
someone is sexually later than he promised mind she caught him in a
Verbal
promiscuous and has after going to a rugby compromising position
sexually transmitted game with his secretary
diseases without any May stay mute for She could refuse him
substantiation several days to punish visiting rights to meet
him and show their children on a
disapproval regular basis
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