Locating the Stranger Rapist

Abstract

As part of a larger project evaluating aspects of offender profiling, an initial study was undertaken of the geographic aspects of approximately 300 sexual offences carried out by 79 stranger rapists. The objective was to focus further research on the topic into potentially useful channels, but information thought to be of immediate use to investigating officers was also produced. It was ascertained that at least one-fifth of the sample of stranger rapists were itinerant to a greater or lesser extent. Analysis of the cases where both the offender's address and the location where he approached the victim were known, indicated that the majority of attacks (75 per cent) were initiated within five miles of the offenders' homes. The apparent reasons for victims being approached unusually far away included targeting of locations where numbers of suitable victims were available; raping during relatively sophisticated property offences; 'prowling' or 'hunting' over large areas by subjects who spent considerable amounts of time so doing; access to transport; and familiarity with widely dispersed neighbourhoods, often due to the offender having lived in two or more locations. As a result of this work, future research on the geography of rape will be directed towards those aspects of the offences which have been identified as relevant to the distance between an offender's base and the site where he approached his victim.