The decisions that an offender makes with respect to how the crime is committed are vital to any discussion of criminal events. Each decision, whether regarding the offender’s approach to the victim, coercion levels when beginning an assault, the choice to use a weapon, or how long he is willing to allow the crime to proceed before exiting the crime scene, are pertinent to how the crime progresses as well as the resulting crime outcomes. Thus, how the offender chooses to commit his crime and the decisions that are made about the factors necessary for the crime to take place all become relevant in the level of violence and victim injury that results as well as whether penetration occurs.
The level of violence that an offender uses to commence the assault has been shown to affect later instances of violence. Expanding further on the previously mentioned relationship between offender violence and victim resistance, Balemba et al. (2012) determined that violently persuasive strategies to begin an assault were associated with a higher likelihood of violence in response to victim resistance. Balemba and Beauregard (2012) supported this finding and further determined this relationship to be most pertinent when the victim is a child. Thus, the greater the degree of violence within the early stages of an assault, the greater the likelihood that violence will be used in subsequent stages
during the criminal event. This makes intuitive sense to assume that an offender who is more likely to begin a sexual assault in a coercive manner is also the type of offender who would be more likely to further coerce his victim and respond violently to resistance. Violent strategies have also been determined to be related to victim resistance levels, with greater violence levels increasing the level of victim resistance (Leclerc, Wortley, & Smallbone, 2010). Thus, more aggressive strategies by the offender are more likely to elicit physical resistance from the victim, as well as resistance in general. Furthermore, this physical resistance is more likely to result in a more hostile reaction from the offender (Balemba & Beauregard, 2012; Balemba et al., 2012). In general, then, once introduced, violence levels continually increase as the crime progresses. Initial violent strategies increase the likelihood of later violence as well as physical resistance from the victim, the latter of which further increases the likelihood of violence in response to resistance.
What needs to be determined, then, is whether these factors have significant positive impacts on victim injury levels (i.e., whether the increases in violence are actually enough to cause more injury to the victim) and if there is any relationship to rape completion or forced victim participation. For instance, is an offender who begins with a violent strategy or approach, who is then faced with physical resistance from the victim, more likely to react violently, whether through overt physical aggression or increased forcefulness to complete the sexual assault? Research has shown that victims who resist are more likely to avoid penetration (Brecklin & Ullman, 2005; Ullman, 1998; Ullman & Knight, 1993, 1995), regardless of the level of coercion in the offender’s original attack strategy (Ullman, 1998). However, this is a very important component of sexual offense research that must be further investigated; specifically, the temporal sequence of the offense must be taken into account to determine when certain factors become relevant and how these relate to the final crime outcomes.
The degree of planning or premeditation is an essential component of offender MO, as it relates to the spontaneity of the offense, which can have a major impact on how the crime unfolds and the resulting crime outcomes. Previous research has determined planning and preparation to be an important step in the offense process of child molesters, although this could be an implicit or an explicit process (Balemba & Beauregard, 2012; Proulx, Perreault, & Ouimet, 1999; Ward et al., 1995). This planning often involves an assessment of victim vulnerability and chance of apprehension (Leclerc & Tremblay,
2007). Furthermore, the notion of offenders “grooming” children as a way of normalizing or legitimizing sexual contact (Young, 1997) also corroborates the assertion that the element of premeditation is an important factor within the offending strategy of sexual abusers of children. However, the commensurate deficit of findings with respect to offenses perpetrated against adults could also be indicative of an overall lack of premeditation in this offender group. This could account for research that indicates a lack of planning by sexual offenders, such as Felson and Massoglia (2012), who determined that sexual offenders were no more likely to report planning their offense than homicide offenders (hypothesized as dispute-related, which would be largely emotion-driven); although their offenses did involve more planning than offenders who had committed physical assaults. Thus, this issue must be examined more closely when taking into account sex offenses against adults as well as those committed against children.
The use of a weapon by the offender has been found to be important in the outcome of a sexual assault. The presence of a weapon during an attack has been linked to a greater likelihood of lethality within sexual assaults (Mieczkowski & Beauregard, 2010) and increased offender violence (Balemba et al., 2012). Additionally, Cartwright and the Sexual Assault Study Group (1987) found that the use of a knife or a club was more likely to result in the victim sustaining an injury, while a gun as a weapon often did not involve victim injury. Thus, it would appear that the use of a gun is more of an intimidation technique, which may result in greater victim compliance, while the use of a knife or blunt weapon is intended for use as a method of injury. Comparatively, Ullman and Knight (1993) found that weapons of convenience, such as a rock, stick, or bottle, were more likely to lead to victim injury, while firearms or knives were not. While there remains debate about the most dangerous weapon type, previous research in general, however, tends to agree that the presence of a weapon significantly increases the likelihood of victim injury and/or death (Coker et al., 1998; Marchbanks, Lui, & Mercy, 1990; Porter & Alison, 2006; Weaver et al. 2004). Furthermore, when an offender is in possession of a weapon during an assault, rape completion is more likely to occur, likely due to a lack of resistance or an increased ability to overcome resistance (Ullman, 1997, 2007a). Thus, the presence of absence of a weapon is an important variable to include in any analysis examining the effects of offender MO on crime outcomes.
Lastly, the duration of the criminal event is a distinctly relevant variable, due simply to the fact that a greater number of behaviours or crime stages may be able to occur when the event extends for a longer period of time. Previous research has determined that, when the offender spends more time with the victim, violence is more likely to occur (Balemba et al., 2012), particularly within offenses committed against adult victims (Balemba & Beauregard, 2012). Again, this connection could simply be due to a greater amount of time available in which to harm the victim. This could extrapolate to rape completion as well, as the longer a crime continues, the more chances that arise for penetration to occur. Additionally, it has been postulated that an assailant may become frustrated and angry when a sexual assault takes longer than he had planned, which could lead to increasingly aggressive and violent behaviour (Mieczkowski & Beauregard, 2010). Thus, the length of the crime is an important dimension to consider within the context of offender MO because, while it may be situationally influenced (such as through the emergence of capable guardians to stop the assault), it is still the result of decisions made by the offender, both before and during the assault, and could be indicative of a different assault plan or offense goals, as well as the commitment of the offender to crime completion.