(Newswire.net — November 5, 2014) — Dr. Elizabeth Yardley and Professor David Wilson from the Centre of Applied Criminology investigated 48 cases of “Facebook murder” from around the world between 2008 and 2013.
“We had been coming across references to ‘Facebook Murder’ in the media over the past few years,” said Dr. Yardley.
Researchers found that in most of the cases, victims have known their killers and the crimes “echoed what we already know about this type of crime,” Dr. Yardley said.
The team analyzed the results to identify six different types of murderers according to their Facebook profiles. The types were split into reactor, informer, antagonist, fantasist, predator and imposter.
The Reactor is on the top of the list with 27 percent cases. They are killers who react on something they didn’t like. Typical example is case of Wayne Forrester who killed his wife for changing her marital status to “single”.
The Fantasist abuse social media to indulge in a fantasy world, which could lead to a homicide. An example of such a case is the 35-year old Canadian Mark Twitchell who killed John Brian Altinger. He defended in court that he was following his role model, a TV character serial killer Dexter Morgan from the “Dexter.” Fantasists represent around 12 percent of Facebook killer cases.
The Predator are about the same percentage as fantasists. The category describes someone who uses a fake profile on Facebook and lure victims into a trap. Typical example is Peter Chapman, aka “The Facebook Killer”. He received 35 years in prison for killing 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall after luring her in using his fake profile.
The Informer uses Facebook to inform his/her intention of killing someone, or to brag of the killings they did before. A typical example Is Will Cornick, 16, sentenced for life in prison for stabbing to death his Spanish teacher Ann Maguire. He bragged on Facebook after the attack, and even brought a bottle of Whisky in school to celebrate.
The Antagonist with 16.7 percent of the cases the user was invloved in “hostile exchanges on Facebook that escalate into face-to-face fatal violence.” A 15-year-old boy exchanged insults with his former friend publicly over Facebook, which led to a compulsive reaction and murder.
The Imposter steals the profile and after the attack continues to post in the name of the victim to create the illusion that the victim is still alive. Typical representative is Andrew Lindo who 2010 killed his partner Marie Stewart before sending messages from her Facebook profile claiming she had left for the Canary Islands.
While deeply troubled teenagers use Facebook to channel their rage, the social network giant announced that the authorities made 34,946 requests for data in the first half of the year which is increase of 24 percent from the year before.