UK and Spanish stranger sexual offenders crime scene behaviours and previous convictions: a cross-cultural comparison

Almond, Louise, Rainbow, Lee, Ramos Romero, Manuel, Giles, Susan, McManus, Michelle and Nikolajeva, Anastasia (2023) UK and Spanish stranger sexual offenders crime scene behaviours and previous convictions: a cross-cultural comparison. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 20 (2). pp. 151-161. ISSN 1544-4759

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Abstract

International comparisons of previous convictions (PC) and crime scene behaviours (CSB) of stranger sexual offences can inform offender profiling strategies; especially the degree to which pragmatic models cross validate across countries. The present study compared PC and CSB of 474 UK and 418 Spanish cases. CSB and PC were analysed using Chi-square. UK stranger sexual offenders displayed a higher proportion of all CSB analysed. UK offenders also had a significantly higher proportion of PC with the exception of violence offences. There were no significant differences in sexual pre-convictions. In both the UK and Spain the CSB ‘reference to the police’ was significantly association with the PC ‘Criminal damage’ no other similar significant associations were found. Explanations for these findings include differences between the countries in regards to: legislation, crime recording processes, data coding processes, with additional consideration of any cultural, environmental and contextual factors.