Thursday, November 6, 2014

Facebook murders – research reveals that there are six types of such killers


Research carried out on 48 cases of "Facebook murder" from around the world between 2008 and 2013 has revealed that the Facebook murderers fall into six different types. These killers lure their victims through Facebook or use this highly popular social networking website in other ways in their crimes.
The lead researcher Dr Elizabeth Yardley from the Centre of Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University analyzed these 48 cases of homicide and have identified the categories as follows - reactors, informers, antagonists, fantasists, predators or imposters.
A reactor is one who reacts to content posted on Facebook by attacking the victim face to face. This could happen immediately after viewing the content or there could be a time delay in which they revisit the content and ruminate over its meaning.
The informer, on the other hand, uses the Facebook to inform others that they intend to kill the victim, that they have killed the victim, or both. The category of Informers use this website to demonstrate their control over the victim and the situation.
The killer in the category of antagonist engages in hostile exchanges on Facebook that escalate into face to face fatal violence. Antagonists may go in for physical violence when the conflict goes offline – the antagonists could arm themselves with weapons to fight it out.
Researchers have found that those in the category of a fantasist uses Facebook to perform or indulge in a fantasy. For tem, the line between fantasy and reality has become increasingly blurred and homicide appears to be the only way to maintain the fantasy or prevent others from discovering the deception.
A predator, as its name implies, creates and maintains a fake profile with the intention of luring the victim and meet them offline. They usually rely on information available on the victim's profile to exploit vulnerabilities so that it is easy to establish grounds upon which a relationship can gradually develop.
An imposter posts in the name of someone else. This could be the victim in order to create the illusion they are still alive or another person to gain access to and monitor the victim's profile.
An example of a Facebook murder – it was a FB friendship of only 15 days and it was between a 42-year-old Baguiati homemaker and a 33-year-old man from Birbhum. He landed up at her flat and when they met face to face, their make0believe world fell apart. She had a 17-year old daughter and he had a son. Moreover, he was short, slightly built and had posted the jazzy photo of a biker on his Facebook profile which impressed the woman. Anyway, he killed her in a fit of rage when she rebuffed his advances.

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