The effect of mental disorder on crime scene behaviour, its consistency, and variability

Mentally disordered individuals have been reported to show more consistent offense behavior than individuals without such disorders (Argyle, 1967, as cited in Davies, 1992). Indeed, within the crime linkage literature, it has been proposed that offenders with more severe pathology will be more consistent in their offending behavior (Santtila et al., 2008). Consistency in offense behavior by mentally disordered individuals following hospitalization is also a subject of research in its own right, in terms of the literature on offense-paralleling behavior (Daffern, Jones, & Shine, 2010). If mental disorder or illness results in greater consistency in offense behavior, as suggested, this could enhance crime analysts’ abilities to link offenses by such offenders, providing that they also show distinctiveness in their crime scene behavior.