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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

False Reports Of Stalking: Motivations And Investigative Considerations, Wayne Petherick, Alicia Jenkins Apr 2015

False Reports Of Stalking: Motivations And Investigative Considerations, Wayne Petherick, Alicia Jenkins

Wayne Petherick

Stalking is a crime involving repeated and often prolonged harassment of one individual, usually by one other. Despite the prevalence of this interpersonal crime, not all stalking allegations are legitimate, with some being false claims based on a variety of different factors such as false belief, attention or sympathy, and revenge. This study of a sample of false claimants sought to determine whether there are features, such as duration, relationship status and employment among which others could be used to determine the veracity of a stalking complaint. This sample was compared to other like samples and to the common characteristics …


Getting Away With Murder: An Examination Of Detected Homicides Staged As Suicides, Claire Ferguson, Wayne Petherick Apr 2015

Getting Away With Murder: An Examination Of Detected Homicides Staged As Suicides, Claire Ferguson, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Staged crime scenes involve an offender deliberately altering evidence to simulate events to mislead investigators. Despite likely occurring more often than reported in the literature due to success in offender deception, the exact frequency of staged crime scenes is unknown. In an attempt to bridge this gap, a legal database was searched for detected staged scenes. A total of 115 cases were examined, and this study reports on 16 staged suicides that were examined through descriptive analysis. Findings indicate the frequent involvement of firearms, hanging, or asphyxia, and that offenders are usually known to victims, although not necessarily intimately.