Exploring the Relationships Between Behavioural and Spatial Features of Sex Offence Series

Representing the nexus of two core strands of Investigative Psychology research, the present work explores the relationships between the behavioural and spatial attributes of crime series committed by 101 prolific sex offenders. Five key behavioural styles of offending are identified, which closely map onto the five-fold typology of sex offending proposed by Canter and Heritage (1990). Differences between these groupings in terms of the spatial and geometrical patterning of offences are examined, and theoretical postulations as to the psychological processes underlying these spatio-behavioural patterns are offered. Theoretical and practical implications are considered in detail throughout, with particular reference to the use and value of geographical profiling as a decision support tool in serial sex offence investigations.