After a storm comes a calm: International expert decision-making process regarding abstract definitions of emotional cool-off periods in sexual homicide
The Federal Bureau of Investigation coined the term ‘emotional cool-off period’ in relation to serial homicide defining it as any amount of time between kills where the perpetrator returns to their everyday life (Douglas et al., 1986). Since the term’s conception, cool-off periods have become a fundamental aspect of defining serial versus non-serial homicide cases in academia. Despite its usage frequency, it has been neither firmly defined nor empirically investigated. The present study aims to investigate the specific underpinnings of emotional cool-off periods in sexual homicide by utilising experts’ opinion in relation to distinguishing between serial and non-serial homicide cases. Twenty-eight experts took part in the study and they each scored 10 sexual homicide scenarios for emotional cool-off presence as well as influential factors they relied on when making their decision. The results indicated that inter-rater agreement was ‘poor’ across experts. When experts believed an emotional cool-off period was present, they relied on cognitive state indicators whereas when they believed an emotional cool-off period was absent they relied on evidence of arousal. The time was second most frequent factor. This suggests that experts prefer to base their judgement on the presence (rather than absence) of forensic evidence available to them
