Crime Classification Manual Part I Chapter 4 13

 

Crime Classification Manual Part I Chapter 4 13

A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES

SECOND EDITION

John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess, Allen G. Burgess, and Robert K. Ressler, Editors

 

Ambiguity is present even in some killings of children. Was the small victim nevertheless a witness to another crime and eliminated for crime concealment, as opposed to the handiwork of a predator victimizing a child by design? A lack of clarification to law enforcement and defense investigators as to what evidence is relevant to depravity means that much less factual information about a crime is available to a jury. Without guidance, the jury may be forced to make an uninformed decision, not only for lack of definition but for lack of evidence demonstrating or refuting depraved intents, actions, victimology, or attitudes. With no guidance, as the U.S. Supreme Court has noted, distinguishing the worst of crimes is arbitrary. Arguments readily play to the fact finder’s emotions, seducing them to unremarkable aspects of a case and risking the overamplification of select detail or wholesale dismissal of many pertinent pieces of factual evidence.