Course Code: SOC*2760
Course Name: Homicide
Number of Pages (not including title page and references): 5
Peter John Peters is one of Canada’s most dangerous fugitives. Peter was given the name the Tattoo Man because of his numerous tattoos and his affinity to showing them off. Peters murdered a 25 year old woman named Charlene Brittain and left her in his basement apartment naked with a plastic bag over her head. Thus triggered the beginning of his five-day crime spree. Peters then fled to Toronto where he beat a 63 year old man named Albert Philip and stole his station wagon in order to escape. Philips later died in the hospital after undergoing emergency surgery. He then took hostage …show more content…
There are many theories on multiple homicide. One theory that seems to come to play is the Social Learning Theory, which states that the propensity to kill comes from what an individual learns early on in life by close family and/or friends (Fox & Levin, 2005). It was stated in the crime story that Peters had a troubled past. There had been plenty of conflict within his household and from a very young age Peters had had a criminal record that showed an increase in violent behavior. The control theory also states that many people stop themselves from committing violent crimes for fear of losing their relationship with important people in their lives (Fox & Levin, 2005). As it was indicated in the crime story Peters did not have a very nurturing household growing up. He was also romantically involved with his parole officer who broke off their relationship two months before the crime spree began. It was theorized in the documentary that the crime spree might have occurred because of failure of this relationship. This coincides with the findings in the control theory. Since Peters already lost the only significant relationship in his life he was more inclined to committing these crimes (Fox & Levin, 2005).
Sexual homicide can be defined as a homicide committed during act of a sexual crime. A sexual crime can be sexual harassment or sexual assault (Shearer, 2015). Charlene Brittain was murdered and found