Homicide Crime Story Analysis – The Tattoo Man
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 a young woman named Sandie Bellows and used her car to escape with her. He threatened and proceeded to rape, beat and stab the young woman until a retired police officer noticed what was going on and intervened. Peters escaped and went on to break into an elderly woman’s home and threatened her into providing him with a vehicle. He then held up a local bank in Paris, Ontario. Peters continues to attempt to take more hostages, break into homes and steal more vehicles in order to escape. Finally on the fifth day Peters was caught by the police and surrendered when he realized he was outnumbered. The crimes committed by Peter John Peters were accurately represented in accordance to the course material by the documentary “Crime Stories: The Tattoo Man”.

It was very apparent throughout the crime story that the documentary was very fact based. It did not delve into motives and theories as much as it explained what occurred during the Tattoo man incident. However when looking at what had been said it aligned with the course material provided throughout the semester. Right off the bat the narrator gave the audience a statistic. He had stated that on average there was over 500 homicides in Canada per year most of which involving a single victim. Statistics show that there were 543 reported homicide cases in 2012 and 598 the year before (Boyce & Cotter, 2013). On average there are approximately 504 homicide cases in Canada. It has also been stated that since 1991 94% of intimate partner homicides occur only with single victims. The Juristat Article also states that the majority of accused in homicide cases are young males between the ages 18 and 34, which was the case for Peter John Peters (Boyce & Cotter, 2013). Most homicides in Canada are committed by acquaintances. It was noted in the crime story that Charlene was acquainted with Peters. She had told her close friend that she was meeting him on a date (Boyce & Cotter, 2013). This was when the murder had occurred. There are many different situations that could occur in homicide cases. However this particular case coincides with many Canadian statistics collected.

One of the most obvious points brought up in the crime story is the identification of Peter John Peters as a spree killer. The course describes spree killers as someone who kills two or more people in a short period of time. This is typically done in more than one location. There is no cooling off periods between the crimes (Fox & Levin, 2005). Peters had begun his crime spree when he murdered Charlene Brattain in his basement apartment. He then fled to Toronto where he ultimately killed Albert Philip before continuing his crime spree of rape, robbery, breaking and entering, and attempted murder. As there were two deaths and the crime spree was done over a period of 5 days Peter John Peters can be classified as a spree killer. 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 completely naked with a bag over her head. This can clearly by identified as a sexual homicide. Charlene was also found in a room that was filled with soft pornography presumably owned by Peters. Studies have found that in sexual murders the majority of offenders were between the ages 22 and 38. Most studies state that the murderers were not in a relationship at the time of murder as was the case with Charlene (Beauregard & Martineau, 2012). Most sexual murderers were also found to be Caucasian. The majority of female victims were either strangers or casual acquaintances. All of these factors coincide with the Tattoo Man case in regard to Charlene’s murder. Another factor that should be brought up is the mode of operation. Typically strangulation is at the top of the list for most common method. However beatings and stabbings seem to be a close second (Beauregard & Martineau, 2012). As stated in the crime story Charlene Brittain had been stabbed in the back and likely strangulated by the plastic bag. Both of which are the most common methods in sexual homicides.

The victim-offender relationship is also one to look into with Peter John Peters crime spree. Decker’s article states that there are five different types of victim-offender relationships. Peters relationships can be classified as acquaintances for Charlene Brittain and strangers for Sandie Bellows and Albert Philips. It is important to understand that in a stranger relationship there is no protection from fatal interactions (Decker, 1993). The “moral bonds” that serve, as an inhibitor for violent behavior is not there and as a result the offender is more likely to be fatally violent towards the victim as was the case with all three victims. Studies showed that nearly 46% of homicides were involved an acquaintance relationship. A stranger relationship came second with approximately 19% of all homicides (Decker, 1993). Victim facilitation is when the victims unknowingly and carelessly make it easier for the offender to commit a crime. As was the case for Charlene Brittain. Charlene had only been acquainted with Peters at the time of her death. She did not know much about this man however she willingly went to his basement apartment. This made it a lot easier for the offender to gain access to the victim resulting in fatal violence (Decker, 1993).
The Tattoo Man crime spree was a gruesome and terrifying ordeal that occurred in Ontario, Canada. Peter John Peters, a 28-year-old man classified as spree killer, killed 2 people and assaulted and threatened many more. The crime story depicting his story accurately represented most of what was learned in this Homicide course. Many aspects of the crime itself corresponded with statistics presented in the course material. Young males are among the most accused in homicide cases in Canada and the victim’s ages all correspond with statistics. Peters was very clearly classified as a spree killer because he had murdered 2 people within the span of 5 days. Peters troubled youth was also mentioned which made it easy to apply the social learning theory. The sexual homicide of Charlene Brittain was also clearly classified. The MO, the victim-offender relationship, age and race were all consistent with the statistics presented throughout the course.

Reference:

Boyce, J., & Cotter, A. (2013). Homicide in Canada, 2012 (Vol. 85-002-X). Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada.

Beauregard, E., & Martineau, M. (n.d.). A Descriptive Study of Sexual Homicide in Canada: Implications for Police Investigation. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 1454-1476.

Brookman, Fiona. 2005. Psychological explanations of homicide. Chapter 3 in Understanding Homicide. London: Sage

Brookman, Fiona. 2005. Sociological explanations of homicide. Chapter 5 in Understanding Homicide. London: Sage

Decker, S. (n.d.). Exploring victim-offender relationships in homicide: The role of individual and event characteristics. Justice Quarterly, 585-612.

Fox, J., & Levin, J. (2005). Extreme killing: Understanding serial and mass murder. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Shearer, R. (2015). SOC*2760 Homicide Course Notes. Retrieved November 20, from https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/345637/viewContent/1147636/View