Mr. Cruel was a sophisticated criminal.
What type of person may have committed this crime? This is one of the fundamental questions in the area of profiling. Criminal profiling, is based on the idea that behaviour reflects personality, which means that by examining crime scene behaviour investigators will be able to determine the type of person that is responsible for the crime (Douglas, Ressler, Burgess, & Hartman, 1986). There are a number of aspects of their sexual crimes that have non-sexual but still distinctly criminal components, such as the wearing of a mask to hide the offender's identity, or the carrying of a weapon to the crime scene. It is hypothesised that offenders who commit many of these actions are likely to have extensive history of non-sexual crimes. (Canter, 1990). There are seven variables that can be interpreted as reflecting criminality:
the use of bindings
the use of gagging
stealing from the victim
the use of some form of disguise
blindfolding the victim
demanding goods
controlling the victim with a weapon
The criminal sophistication category has to do with behaviours that indicate some form of preparation for the crime, controlling of the victim (e.g., using a disguise, bringing tools, or binding, gagging, and blindfolding the victim) and for example displaying forensic awareness by being careful not to leave trace evidence at the crime scene(Canter). It is without a doubt that Mr. Cruel was a sophisticated criminal.
The FBI published findings of conducted interviews with 41 serial rapists which provides insight into the developmental characteristics, behaviour patterns and victim selection of serial rapists. Interestingly, a significant number of rapists had been contained in a detention centre at some point in their adolescence ( 41%) and a high proportion ( 76%) reported observing disturbing sexual acts or being abused as children. A variety of delinquent behaviours were reported by more that one half the rapists with many rapists (71%) advising theft offences and many had done so by breaking into homes. This early experience may account for why they were so adept to entering the homes of rape victims. Chronic lying was also reported by the rapists (54%). The findings reveal that the majority of victims were strangers and were assaulted in their own homes (50%). A variety of reasons were cited by the rapist for selecting their victims with the vast majority (98%) stating “availability” as the main criteria, followed by the importance of “ location” (66%). Many rapists selected their victims through peeping or following their victims to their homes. Consequently, the offender learned the habits of the victim at her home. In several instances, the rapist entered the victims homes prior to committing the assault. It is worthy to note that the majority of victims were adult women but a significant number of children were also the victims of rapists (19%). Most assaults occurred while the victim was alone with only a small fraction in company (2%) at the time of the assault. By applying the FBI's findings, it is highly likely Mr. Cruel was abused as a child and spent time in juvenile detention, most likely has a history house burglaries and that he stalked his victims prior to carrying out the crimes and was familiar with the areas they lived or attended school. What is more unusual is that he targeted children, particularly in company of others present at that time (2%).
South Auckland’s first serial rapist, Joseph Thompson commited horrific rapes of women and children in their own homes. His first rape in 1983 at age 25 years old, which sparked a reign of terror across South Auckland that spanned for more than a decade. Thompson's profile has many similarities to Mr. Cruel and demonstrates the accuracy of psychologist David Canter’s hypothesis. Having failed to apprehend the serial rapist, Detective John Manning tested Canter’s research and developed his own blueprint - The inference was that the serial rapist was aged between 25-35 years old , had been in a boys home as a youth and had a history of house burglary prior to the sexual attacks and that he was operating in the areas that he was familiar. Police pinned the crime sites spanning six years on a map and checked their arrests databases highlighting males that matched the criteria and that had lived in those areas. Mapping provided a birds-eye view and revealed an obvious triangle, an empty space in the centre of the crime sites where police believed the offender had some connection. Joseph Thompson was 36 years old at the time so never made the first list of possible suspects and it wasn't until police expanded the age range that Thompson name appeared - initially they were just one year out. Thompson was compared against the blueprint and he matched 9 out of the 10 inference points. He had been living in the areas where the crimes were committed, he had been convicted of house burglary at the age of 15 and had done a stint in juvenile detention. Thompson parents also lived in the safety triangle in the centre of the rape cases confirming why he never offended in this particular area. Police were confident that they had the right target but needed more evidence so after swabbing Thompson for DNA he was set loose under the surveillance of police. Three weeks later Police received a positive match to the DNA found at the crime scene. In July 1997 Thompson faced court on 127 charges including 67 sexual violations pleading guilty to all charges bar two. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. It was later revealed that Thompson had been sexually abused as a child by a male family friend. Canter’s hypothesis was proven to be spot on .
A second key concept of Canter’s theory is spatial consistency. He assumes the offenders operate in areas they know well and proposed the circle theory based on a study of 45 British serial offenders, that showed if a circle is drawn that encompasses all crime, the offender will be based somewhere within the circle . He proposed two models of offender behaviour depending on whether they strike from within their home base ‘marauders’ or travel away from home ‘commuters’.
Canter’s study found that 91% of the sample of offenders had all their crimes located within the circular region. It was also found that 87% of the offenders had a base within the circle hypothesis prediction area. These results provided strong support for the general marauder hypothesis.