Keywords
Instrumental
Expressive
Profiles
Typologies
How to Cite
Abstract
One of the main challenges in homicide research has focused on the development of criminal typologies that are useful to police investigators. Some of the models that have traditionally explained and classified homicides have been the Instrumental/Expressive dichotomy and the System-Action model, the former having found great support in the scientific literature about its usefulness. This research aims to describe the characteristics of simple instrumental and expressive homicides in Spain through the study of 27 homicide cases. Semi-structured interviews with offenders in prison were carried out to collect information and univariate and bivariate statistical techniques were used to describe the cases. The findings suggest that, at a descriptive level, there are some different characteristics in instrumental and expressive homicides, especially in terms of gender and modus operandi behaviours.
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