PSY 310 Final Project: Executive Summary
Andrea Hickman
Southern New Hampshire University
Summary
Summarize the Case:
Frank Timmons is an accused man of being a serial murderer and rapist of over 8
different women. Timmons is also alleged to have committed other crimes such as; trespassing.
driving under the influence, abduction, and sexual assaults during the years after he was released
from jail after being charged with the rape, assault, and abduction of a young woman when he
was 15 years old.
Initial Hypothesis:
From what I could gather after reading over his background, his crimes all had no
apparent motive. I can associate his aggressive behaviors during his football games to when he
was being physically abused by his father and sister growing up, and the want/need to be
sexually aggressive could possibly be the result of the sexual abuse by his older sister.
Throughout his adolescent years, he did not receive any type of comfort, support, or genuine love
which more than likely led to some emotional detachment from any and everything that tried to
get close to him like a significant other or his younger siblings. His mother's lack of love and
presence, plus Margaret's abusive ways might have also led him to viewing women in a negative
light compared to a man, and this could have impacted his urges to sexually assault women who
he had come into contact with in his adult years.
Crime Assessment
Compare:
A similar case to this would be that of Jeffrey Dahmer whose mother wasn't absent
physically in Jeffrey's life, but her mental health issues caused her to mentally not be present in
his life to help him understand the importance of puberty, and his feelings towards men. Dahmer
was also into taxidermy prior to committing actual crimes, but the nature of his crimes followed
along that of Timmons in the way how violently the victims were murdered.
Identify Patterns:
Both Dahmer and Timmons had gotten into legal issues at a younger age, which more
than likely had an effect on the way in which they then viewed the world in terms of their deviant
acts. They both had a type of victim that they would seek out, and their own individual rituals
when it came to committing their crimes.
Motivation:
There was no direct motivation for why Timmons or Dahmer chose their form of violence
to be sexual in nature. The only thing we have to go off of is speculation. Maybe Timmons
exposure to sexual assault at a young age led him to the thought that rape was the only/correct
form of sex, and there was no such thing as consent in his mind. Whereas, it's thought to be
believed that the breakdown and acrimonious divorce proceedings of Dahmer's parents is what
caused his motivation to commit his crimes.
Profile
Demographic Summary:
Frank Timmons is described as being a light-skinned black male living comfortably with
his wife, and working as a construction worker for his day job. Timmons