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NATURE VS. NUTURE
Nature Vs. Nurture: A Criminal Investigation
Hannah Berger
PSY-310-H7765 Criminal Psychology 22EW5
Southern New Hampshire University
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Summary
a.
Frank Timmons was born in 1964 in a large city and was raised in an abusive household
Frank was first arrested around the age of eighteen with his brother for raping a woman. A few
years later, Frank was charged with trespassing and the following year was charged for driving
under the influence. By his late twenties, he was arrested again for raping a woman, this time
kidnapping her and brutally assaulting her. For this crime, he claims his innocence and that the
assault was led by other men. He was sentenced to fifteen years for the abduction and twenty-one
years for robbery, but only served thirteen years due to good behavior and left on parole. Frank is
now a prime suspect serial murderer, as someone in his area has been abducting women,
assaulting them, committing robberies, and murdering people. There was some evidence
collected from the serial murderer. There is a witness report in which a neighbor identifies an
unknown "light-skinned black man" that has been seen multiple times sporting masks and
impersonating addicts and the homeless. The shell casings left from the murders have been
found to come from the same gun, leading police to search for someone who was working alone.
The police found the murder scenes to be violent and that the victims were often shot in the head.
They found females of all ages beginning at twelve were being sexually assaulted at gunpoint
b.
This crime seems to be a sexually motivated crime, in which the perpetrator choses
victims they are sexually attracted to, and they sexually assault them. The perpetrator likely gains
sexually gratification from the violence of the sex acts, the vulnerability of their kidnapped
victims and the shootings. It is also possible that the perpetrator kills their victims to keep their
cover, although this may be unlikely due to the suspect wearing a mask. I believe this because
the murder scenes were very brutal, and all the victims were young women. The crime is not
likely to have occurred due to robbery, as the suspect was likely working on his own and focused
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on his victims. The crime is a serial sexual murder since the suspect has killed and assaulted
multiple women.
Crime Assessment
A similar crime to the serial murder described before is the case of Robert Fisher. Robert
Fisher was a father and husband that later killed his wife and two children. Fisher killed his
family by blowing up their home, likely to hide his involvement. The motive of the Fisher
murders is unknown, but it is likely due to an affair, as most cases that are similar are. The killer
in the serial murderer case also attempted to hide their involvement by wearing masks. The
crimes are different however, since Fisher knew his victims and did not sexually assault them.