Gerard Nicholas Labuschagne

University of the Witwatersrand | wits · Division of Forensic Pathology

Background In most countries, reliable national statistics on femicide, intimate partner femicide (IPF), and non-intimate partner femicide (NIPF) are not available. Surveys are required to collect robust data on this most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence (IPV). We analysed 3 national surveys to compare femicide, IPF, and NIPF from 1...

Background Research into the circumstances of rape, and criminal justice system responses, is pivotal to informing prevention and improving the likelihood of justice for victims. In this paper, we explore the differences in the circumstances of multiple-perpetrator rapes (MPRs) and single-perpetrator rapes (SPRs), their case management, and attriti...

The attrition of rape cases within the criminal justice system is driven by different factors. We aimed to describe the patterns of rape case attrition and associated factors in South Africa. We analysed a national sample of 3,952 cases reported in 2012. We found that 35 per cent of cases were closed by police, 31 per cent were declined by the pros...

South Africa has recorded a high number of serial murders in its modern history. Since the mid-1990s, over 170 murder series have been identified by the South African Police Service (SAPS). This led to the SAPS creating a specialised unit to deal with this and related crimes in the mid-1990s, fashioned along the lines of the FBI’s Behavioral Analys...

Background: The burden of sexual violence has been well described in children of both sexes and in women, but there is minimal literature on adult male rape victims. Studies of adult male rape victims have mainly been conducted among incarcerated males or military personnel, and in high-income countries. Objectives: To describe the epidemiology,...

This article discusses the recent establishment of the African Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (AfATAP).

Purpose To conduct a test of the principles underpinning crime linkage (behavioural consistency and distinctiveness) with a sample more closely reflecting the volume and nature of sexual crimes with which practitioners work, and to assess whether solved series are characterized by greater behavioural similarity than unsolved series. Method A sampl...

Purpose: This study compared the utility of different statistical methods in differentiating sexual crimes committed by the same person from sexual crimes committed by different persons. Methods: Logistic regression, iterative classification tree (ICT), and Bayesian analysis were applied to a dataset of 3,364 solved, unsolved, serial, and apparent...

This article evaluates the use of a rape matrix as a docket analysis tool in a sample of 94 closed and unsolved stranger rape cases reported in Port Elizabeth between 1 January 2007 and 31 January 2008. The study was initiated in January 2009 with the final interviews concluded during November 2013. The primary aim of this research was to determine...

In this paper, South African serial homicide cases will be used to illustrate how practice can inform research and how research can aid practice by highlighting key questions that need to be answered and practice-based assumptions that need to be empirically tested. The cases will also be used to highlight some of the unique features of series in S...

This chapter highlights the practice of forensic science in South Africa, describing the conditions before and after the era of apartheid. Many aspects related to the practice of forensic science in a democratic South Africa are discussed and include: the right to a fair trial in the language that the accused understands; current and continually ch...

Laboratory research shows that eye-closure during memory retrieval improves both the amount and the factual accuracy of memory reports about witnessed events. Based on these findings, we developed the Eye-Closure Interview, and examined its feasibility (in terms of compliance with the instructions) and effectiveness (in terms of the quantity and qu...

Recent literature suggests that different ‘styles’ of homicide will most appropriately be reflected in the different types of behaviours committed by offenders during the crime. In the last few years, there has been a move to standardise classification systems of single homicides and establish their cross-national generalisability. Literature on se...

Key to understanding the significance of behavioural evidence for linkage purposes is in establishing how consistently an offender displays the same or similar behaviours across their series. There have however to date been very few studies aiming at identifying salient components of offending behaviour that can be used reliably for linking individ...

There is an abundance of literature on serial homicide from a Western perspective that outlines operational definitions, types of offenders and how they prey upon their victims. However, currently, there is a lack of studies that compare serial homicide in different countries. The current study aims to give an overview of the demographics of serial...

This current study assessed the value of the Interpersonal Model in differentiating serial homicide offences in South Africa, notably in terms of how the offender may display behavioural patterns that are indicative of them dealing with the victim as a Person, an Object, or a Vehicle. The sample consisted of 302 offences committed by 33 offenders t...

This article explores the intricacies of modus operandi, signature and fantasy as distinctive behaviour in stranger rape cases involving child victims that were reported in Port Elizabeth, which were analysed by means of a rape matrix. The authors identified distinctive behaviour of offenders in two possible rape series’ involving child victims. Co...

Case linkage involves identifying crime series on the basis of behavioral similarity and distinctiveness. Research regarding the behavioral consistency of serial rapists has accumulated; however, it has its limitations. One of these limitations is that convicted or solved crime series are exclusively sampled whereas, in practice, case linkage is ap...

Serial rapists have the propensity to cause harm to a significant number of victims, meaning that they are of concern to the police as well as to treatment providers. Despite the serious nature of their offending, there are surprisingly few studies that provide information regarding their characteristics, the types of victim they target, or the nat...

Serial rape attracts much media attention and has become a topic of increased interest and concern. However, both locally and internationally, there is a paucity of empirically based research. The limited research which exists often does not focus on the victim as a “subject” which could contribute to solving existing cases or in curtailing the ser...

The linking of a series of crimes to one individual has always been problematic, especially in the absence of eyewitness or forensic evidence. During the investigation, another means whereby this can be done is through linkage analysis. Yet a linkage analysis can also play a role during the trial of a serial offender. This paper examines the use of...

Drawing upon anthropological, legal and forensic publications, an interview with a South African Zulu traditional healer and direct information gained during homicide investigations, the nature of Muti murder is discussed. Muti murder is defined as a murder in which body parts are removed from a live victim for the sole purpose of using the victim'...