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The Facet Approach & Criminal Narratives




Facet Theory (FT) offers a different solution to the problem of classifying the actions of serial murderers. The facet approach combines the following:
1.  Complementary interplay between hypothesis generation and hypothesis testing. The generation of hypotheses is facilitated by representation of complex relationships in geometric forms. The testing of hypotheses and their replicability draws upon a formal framework, with minimal assumptions.
2.   A formal system for representing sets of interrelated, multivariate hypotheses that is combined with empirical procedures for examining their validity.
3.  A set of nonmetric multivariate statistical procedures for revealing the structures inherent in complex data, together with principles for the interpretation of the products of those analyses. There are three basic facet structures: 1) background facets; 2) domain facets; and 3) range facets (i.e., content facets). Background facets describe what may be considered the context of the research or its sample population parameters. Domain facets describe what may be considered as the “body” of the area of interest. Background and domain facets represent different foci for the research study. Generally, the domain facets are concerned with the internal structure of a domain (i.e., what it consists of), while background facets are considered to discover individual differences in relation to that domain. Range facets are described as the possible responses to the stimuli provided by the domain facets. In other words, it is the response of the sample population described by the background facets to the domain as described by the domain facets. For example, the range facet may consist of simple responses, such as “yes” or “no,” or the range may be ordinal. When the range facet of each item is ordered, indicating that it has the same underlying meaning, it is considered a common range. All facets consist of a number of elements. These are defined as the different values or points that logically and completely describe all the variations of the facet. An element is a discrete component of a facet. In a robust model of serial murder, facets and facet elements should ideally be mutually exclusive in relation to the other facets and their elements. For example, the classification of a crime scene behavior should belong to one facet and should be independent of it belonging to another facet. Understanding includes dispositional traits, motives, and the narrative identities. The first level of understanding the person is through individual traits. These are broad, decontextualized, and relatively nonconditional constructs, which provide a signature for personality description. These are the implicitly comparative dimensions of personality that go by such labels as extroversion, dominance, and neuroticism. The second level of understanding consists of strategies. These personality descriptions invoke personal strivings; for example, life tasks, coping strategies, or domain-specific skills and values. Also at this level, other descriptions can be included, such as motivational development or strategic constructs that are contextualized in time, place, or role. The general description of personal concerns speak to what people want, often during particular periods in their lives or within particular domains of action. This level also includes methods which people use in order to get what they want or avoid getting what they do not want over time. The third level involves an exploration of the identity of the individual’s narrative or life story; without this, psychology can never understand how and to what extent the person living in modern society is able to find unity, purpose, and meaning in life. According to criminal narratives, in this approach people live their lives as a form of a “story,” with themselves as the central characters. These stories, or identity narratives, can be analyzed to discern the themes and roles that guide an individual’s behavior. The specific themes and patterns in a person’s past behavior can provide important insight into the person’s “self-story.” Once reconstructed, this self-story can be used both to predict future behavior as well as other characteristics. These life stories are intimately connected to behavior such as crime that is outside of socially approved boundaries. It is suggested that by drawing attention to the subjective aspects of how serial murderers view their victims, a theoretical framework for classifying the behavior of serial murderers can be proposed. Another study found that in homicides involving the victim and offender in semi-relationships, the amount of aggression in the murder was “dependent upon the psychological state of the offender and the meaning the victim had for him.” In a thematic classification framework, the links are made explicit and are grounded within theoretical concepts. Also, in the thematic approach it is expected that offenders will have some overlapping sets of repertoires; however, they will also have behavior most common to them. Briefly, a thematic variable is a general description or title assigned to cover many possible variations of observed behavior or phenomena. Facet Theory requires the researcher to match a conceptual framework to a body of empirical data as demonstrated in the Facet Model of serial murder. One advantage of Facet Theory is that it allows a strong test of the model’s utility, which has more value in decision making compared to models where the procedures rely entirely on assumptions. In other words, once facets have been derived with some consistency, it is possible to produce replicates of the facets using different data samples. The behavioral facet is one dimension that is divided into two elements: affective and cognitive. The affective and cognitive components were defined as the attitude object, implying a rationality in the attitude, and the affective component as concerning feelings or emotions towards the attitude object. Affective behaviors are hostile aggressive actions that allegedly result from the offender’s emotional state. The goal-oriented behavior is simply to injure someone. Behavior is motivated by a desire for a noxious outcome in an expressive way; it is an expression of rage. The affective action is a search for direct gratification. One example of affective behavior might be where the serial murderer shows no preplanning in his crimes; the victims are blitz attacked; and he leaves forensic clues at the crime scene, which demonstrates low self-awareness. Affective aggression is seen as the result of external or internal threatening stimuli that evoke an intense and patterned activation of the autonomic nervous system, accompanied by threatening vocalization and attacking or defending postures. Predatory aggression, on the other hand, is a concept that was borrowed from animal behavior; it may involve activities such as stalking for food or protecting one’s territory. There are several causes for affective aggression. First, the individual’s internalized object representations of others may be so diffused and primitive on both a conceptual and perceptual level that others are defined only by their physical presence. The individual’s reality testing is thus distorted. This view of the victim is similar to that manifested in revenge aggression as where the explanation for the drive to injure is an effort to discharge aggression towards another person who represents, for example, a parent or abandoning girlfriend. Affective violence is not to destroy the victim, but to restore a tenuous sense of integrity and stability to the individual’s crumbling self experience; an opportunity to solidify a more cohesive sense of self. It is an immediate response to a perceived threat. Affective serial murderers commit a sudden killing, which is impulsive and rarely well thought-out; their actions have no obvious purpose or hope for personal advantage. This anger was projected onto the victim, which allowed for a temporary shoring up of the unstable pride. There was also prolonged tension and disorganization in the murderer long before actual contact with the victim. Therefore, the three main characteristics hypothesized to define the affective element are disorganization, low self-awareness, and rage. One reason for this is that once a particular and characteristic form of behavior is achieved from early experiences by the offender, the maintenance of the behavior (slowly evolving) itself may become an independent force in the functioning of the offender, both during the crime and when being non-offensive. For example, forms of reactive aggressive behavior may develop in response to physical restraint in early relations and other interferences with directed activity, such as repeatedly taking toys away, or preventing goal-oriented activity. Cognitive violence appears to be aggressive behavior that is directed toward attaining non-injurious goals.  For example, the predatory serial murderer is presumed to be in control of his crime scene behavior, leaving very little forensic evidence behind, while also committing sadistic sexual acts. The victim is perceived as fitting in with the internalized object percept, a visual image in the offender’s mind that is both a desperately pursued and hatefully unwanted fantasied person. It should be emphasized that according to this analysis, both the affective and cognitive types of serial murderers can imbue their victims with symbolic significance. However, the distinction is that the affective serial murderer selects targets randomly and imbues them with symbolic significance, whereas the cognitive serial murderer specifically targets victims who show a fit with their symbolic person. Consequently, the culminating phase of a sequence of preparatory activities — in other words, a plan of action — sets serial murderers found in the cognitive element apart from those in the affective element. The cognitive murderer might also leave crime scenes that suggest the main focus of the attack was less to do with the actual murder and more to do with the need to possess the victim’s body. For example, cognitive serial murderers may relive their crimes by revisiting their victims’ grave sites.

To sum up, one might expect the following characteristics to define the cognitive element: organization, high self-awareness, and elements of sadistic behavior.

The Police Department;
https://www.politie.nl/mijnbuurt/politiebureaus/05/burgwallen.html and a Chief Inspector – Mr. Erik Akerboom     ©


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