Homicide: Motivation for Murder

Why does one person decide to murder another? Certainly, murder varies according to the motivations (e.g., the reasons for), the strategies (e.g., how the [Page 227]murder is carried out), and the situational context of the crime (e.g., where, when, against whom, and under what circumstances). The main factor that must occur in the killer's mind prior to the murder, if even momentarily, is that the victim(s) is/are objectified and dehumanized. This pattern of thought allows murderers to rationalize, minimize, deny, or otherwise internally justify their homicidal actions. Still, what is the motivation underlying such an extreme act?

Motive is an inner drive that causes, or compels, one to act. It is that which incites us to behave in the manner we do. Motive can be related either to internal psychological processes or to an external object of desire that produces an impelling force in the individual. When investigating a murder, one of the most important elements to determine is the killer's modus operandi, or MO, which refers to the offenders' actions and procedures used to successfully commit their murder(s). The killer's MO represents a learned behavior pattern developed through a series of successive approximations. These may range from minor thought distortions that allow for the thought of homicide during impulsive moments, to episodic fantasies of homicide, to daily homicidal fantasy and overt practicing of the homicidal plan via animal cruelty or other human victims. Thus, serial killers may change their MOs until they discover those methods that are most successful in effecting the death of their victims and that produce the desired results for the internal needs of the murderer. Serial killers may also change their MOs to avoid capture. Moreover, murder is usually committed under a combination of motives. Clearly homicide of any number of victims is a complex phenomenon with various motives and dynamics. Sometimes killers may even be unaware or unsure of their motivations to murder.

Indeed, the motivations of the single-victim (e.g., the typical murderer) and multiple-victim murderers (e.g., spree, mass, and serial murderers) are different. In most homicides, the killing is a single circumstantial event and produces one murderer (sometimes more than one) and one murdered victim. Mass murder events are also a single circumstantial event yet produce one murderer (rarely more than one) and many murdered victims. Spree murders are a series of separate homicidal events that are very close in time, days, or weeks, and produce one or more murderers and several victims in different settings. Serial murder, on the other hand, represents a process of killing and usually produces one murderer, or sometimes a team of murderers, and three or more murdered victims over the span of several months or years.

Skrapec has indicated the need for researchers and investigators to understand the personal constructions of meaning in murderers' lives in order to gain a better understanding of their homicidal motivations. For example, in some cases, the murderer is tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison under a motive that was obvious and clear to the court (e.g., jealousy, domestic violence, etc.), only later to be discovered in the killer's treatment that the true motivation was to cover up a paraphilic sexual motivation for killing the victim. Thus, one must be careful in examining a murderer's motivations, for the apparent motive and the true motive may be distinctly different.

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