SCHOOL OF APPLIED HUMAN

SCIENCES

ASSIGNMENT COVERSHEET
Student Name KWANDILE ZUMA
Student Number 221044234
Module Name CRIMONOLOGY
Module Code 201
Module Coordinator Nkosingiphile Mbhele

Campus PIETERMARITZBURG

Assignment Critically discuss the role of forensic investigation in cases of

serial murderers and rapists, making primary reference to
the case of Moses Sithole
Deadline 08 APRIL 2022
Wordcount

Anti-Plagiarism Declaration I know that plagiarism is wrong and that the University of KwaZulu-Natal
considers plagiarism a form of Academic Misconduct (Rule 9.28 of the Rules
for Students Handbook).

I understand what plagiarism is and I am aware of the University of KwaZulu-

Natal’s Plagiarism Policy and Procedures (Ref: CO/05/0412/09).

I have used a recognised convention for referencing in this work (e.g. Harvard
or APA), as stipulated by the Module Coordinator and/or Discipline.

I declare that this submission is my own original work. Where another

person’s work has been used (either from a printed source, Internet or any
other source), this has been specifically acknowledged and referenced.

I have checked this work to ensure that there are no instances of plagiarism
contained within.

I understand that disciplinary action may be taken against me if there is a

belief that I used someone else’s work without their permission and/or did not
acknowledge the original source in my work.

Student Signature K. ZUMA

Date Signed & Submitted 07 April 2022

1|Page
TABLE OF CONTENT

COVERPAGE…………………………………………………………………. PAGE:1

TABLE OF CONTENT…………………………………………………………. PAGE:2

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………. PAGE:3

ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR OF SERIAL KILLRS………………………………PAGE:4

definitions of key concepts………………………………………………………. PAGE:5

BACKGROUND…………………………………………………………………... PAGE:6

BODY………………………………………………………………………………...PAGE:7

SIMILAR CASES…………………………………………………………………….
PAGE:8

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………. PAGE:9

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………… page:10

2|Page
INTRODUCTION

The essay will critically discuss crime investigation on how serial killers and rapist commit
crime, their modus operandi, common reason which lead them to become serial killers and
rapists. Furthermore, the crime investigation is done by Forensic Investigation which interns
to solve criminal cases. However, there are methods and principles of investigation which
must be followed to identify and individualise evidence obtained. Moreover, it will further
discuss the background of Moses Sithole as a primary example of serial killers and rapist.

Serial homicide is defined by the South African Police Service (SAPS) as occurring when a
suspect(s) murder two or more victims on at least two separate occasions and the motive for
the homicides are not for primarily for material gain nor to eliminate a witness in another
matter. This is consistent with the definition conferred at the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s 2005 Serial Murder Symposium (Labuschagne, and Gabrielle Salfati, 2015).
A serial rapist is someone who has committed non-consensual sexual acts on two or more
victims over a long period of time (Potgieter, and De Wet, 2010).

Murders must be different events for a serial killer in terms of modus operandi, and they are
most typically motivated by a psychological thrill or pleasure. Serial killers frequently lack
empathy and guilt, and they tend to become egotistical; these traits characterize serial killers
as psychopaths. Serial killers frequently wear a "mask of rationality" to conceal their
underlying psychopathic inclinations and appear normal, if not charming. Serial killers
murder people over a lengthy period and in many locations. Serial rapists, on the other hand,
frequently employ three separate approaches: the con, the blitz, and the surprise. Each depicts
a different method of selecting, approaching, and subduing a target. Once the victim is under
the offender's control, the con method relies on his skill to communicate with women; once
the victim is under his control, the offender may become more violent. The rapist utilizes
physical assault to subdue the victim and his abilities to physically overpower a lady to cause
more extensive physical injury in a blitz strategy. The offender waits for the victim or
approaches her while she is sleeping in the surprise approach. This tactic is frequently
utilized by man who are unsure of their capacity to physically overpower the victim (Graney,
2002).

Serial killers tend to originate from dysfunctional families. They are typically abandoned by
their fathers as youngsters and raised by dominating mothers. Criminal, mental, and alcoholic
history are common in their families. The majority of serial killers confess to despising their

3|Page
moms and fathers. This hatred is frequently the result of trauma they experienced as
youngsters. Serial killer etiology is a phenomenon that has yet to be fully explored. Genetics,
a lack of attachment abuse as a child, and family situations have all been cited as potential
incidental variables. There are several physiologically based theories, however the likelihood
of a biological or hereditary foundation for serial murder is yet unanswered. One argument is
that hormonal differences have a role in violent behaviour; testosterone is a related enzyme,
and monoamine oxide (MAO) has been connected to violent crime. Some hypotheses claim
that testosterone and MAO are directly linked to aggression, while others claim that they just
serve to mediate the relationship between anti-social behaviour and sensation. Others argue
that molecules like serotonin mediate aggressive behaviour by influencing neurotransmitters
like serotonin. Serial killers' seeming lack of attachment is another contributing aspect to
their etiology. The majority of people are able to form bonds with their parents and form
attachments with them throughout their lives (Papazian, 2001).

The abusive behaviour of serial rapists' families has been well documented. Rapists have
claimed to have been physically mistreated. "Anything that was handy, a belt, a broom
handle, iron, whatever," one man predicted his mother would "beat me with." The scars on
his back proved that he was telling the truth. Another rapist said that his mother discovered
him fondling his penis through his pants and told his father about it. The child was forced to
place his penis over the back of a chair and whipped it with a belt by his father. Psychological
assault by serial rapists. The fact that "76 percent of the men reported either seeing
distressing sexual behaviours or being sexually abused" has etiological importance. Many of
the rapist's qualities appear to be "normal." (Hazelwood, and Warren, 1989).

The two main categories of physical evidence collected are biological and natural and
synthetic materials. To acquire physical evidence, sexual assault kits are frequently used. The
kits contained suspected blood, sperm, saliva, and DNA samples. (Peterson, et al., 2010).

When two items or individuals come into contact with each other, the locard exchange
principle states that some sort of evidence is usually left behind. This principle is most
commonly used to an incident scene where the perpetrator comes into contact with it.
According to the locards hypothesis, the culprit will bring something into the scene, leave
something at the site, and leave with something from the scene, whether physical or
electronic. Identification is a technique that compares evidence acquired to the location of an
incident using the class features of an object or known chemicals. As a result, it's critical that

4|Page
the investigative process allows for the successful and positive identification of someone who
has committed a crime, broken a business policy or procedure, or been engaged in an
incident. As a result, the identification procedure is critical in the criminal and forensic
investigation process, which may include criminal investigation, departmental inquiry, and
tribunals in the modern setting. Individualisation is a process that begins with identification,
advances through categorization, and, if possible, ends with the assignment of a unique
source to a piece of physical evidence. Individualisation can be described as a process of
connecting physical evidence to a common source in this case. Palm prints, fingerprints,
footprints, and DNA are examples of evidence with unique traits that may be traced back to a
specific person or source with a high degree of certainty (Zinn, & Dintwe, (Eds. 2015).

3 definitions of key concepts

Murder: the intentional and unlawful homicide of another person (Bezuidenhout, 2011).

Rape: occurs when someone undertakes an act of sexual penetration without the agreement of
the other person in an unlawful and purposeful manner (Bezuidenhout, 2011).

Profiling: Identification of known or unknown perpetrator's soft (personal attributes) and hard
(physical evidence) components. It's utilized to create a perpetrator's "identity" to help
investigators track down the culprit (Bezuidenhout, 2011).

BACKGROUND

Sithole was born in 1964 in Vosloorus, a black neighbourhood south of Boksburg. His father
died while he was a child. His mother abandoned him and his four siblings in a police station
later in his childhood. She had warned them not to inform the cops that she was their mother.
They were placed in a Benoni orphanage before being relocated to KwaZulu-Natal. Sithole
fled away after three years, claiming mistreatment, and went to live with his older brother
Patrick. Patrick left for Venda after an undefined period of time, and Sithole sold their home
without consent. Following that, Sithole worked in a variety of menial occupations on farms
and gold mines in the Johannesburg area. He enjoyed assisting street children and returned a
large number of runaways to their parents. He was also regarded as a ladies' man and
charming. Sithole first began rapping ladies in 1987. In the midst of his misdeeds, Sithole

5|Page
developed a connection with Sibongile Nkosi, a seventeen-year-old girl from Boksburg,
whom he mistreated. He raped Buyiswa Swakamisa in February 1989 and threatened her with
a panga, a South African machete. Swakamisa discovered Sithole waiting outside her new
workplace months later and contacted the cops. Officers forced Sithole and Swakamisa to
share the backseat of a police cruiser as they took them to the station in a "very
unprofessional approach." Throughout the journey, Sithole cursed Swakamisa and said he
should have murdered her. Sithole was given a six-year prison sentence. He met a woman
named Martha (surname withheld) who was visiting a relative in prison while still detained,
and they began writing letters to each other. Sithole was eventually released for good
behaviour in 1993, and he relocated to Pretoria with Martha and her parents. Sithole enticed
eighteen-year-old Maria Monama to Cleveland in July 1994, while Martha was five months
pregnant with Sithole's daughter. His bait, as in all subsequent murders, was a desk job at a
non-existent non-profit called "Youth Against Human Abuse." Sithole inscribed three words
on Monama's flesh after rapping and strangling her with his own hands: "She a beach," "I am
not fighting with you please," and "We must stay here for as long as you don't comprehend."
These texts are thought to have been sent to law enforcement, and Sithole believed that each
time he killed, he was retaliating against Swakamisa for reporting him. Four women had been
strangled in Cleveland by the fall, with a fifth in Pretoria and a sixth in Boksburg. Serial
killers have a similar trait in that they entice their victims into the killing fields by offering
them work. Serial rapists exploit their enticing personalities to entice their victims (Criminal
minds wiki). Moses Sithole enticed his victims with the promise of a job. He persuaded his
victims to follow him into the veld by claiming ownership of a factory visible on the other
side of an open field and promising them jobs there. They were raped and murdered once
they arrived in the veld (Hodgskiss, 2004). Sipho Agmatir Thwala also used employment to
entice his victims into the killing fields. In 1994, he was declared not guilty of rape and
murder charges, the same year the first victim was discovered in a cane field. For the
murders, he was sentenced to 506 years in prison (Hodgskiss, 2004). Criminal profiling has
been successfully employed by law enforcement in a number of areas and is a valuable tool
for narrowing the scope of an investigation. Profiling does not reveal the offender's exact
identify. Rather, it focuses on particular behavioural and behavioural factors to determine the
type of individual most likely to commit a crime. Law enforcement authorities begin to
develop a profile of the perpetrator by carefully interviewing the rape victim about the rapist's
behaviour. The logic behind this method is that behaviour reflects personality, and by
observing behaviour, the investigator may be able to figure out what type of individual
committed the crime (Douglas, et al., 1986).

6|Page
BODY

As recently as the 1980s serial killers were understood to be a unique recent development, a
phenomenon frequently attributed to the excesses of a pathological American culture. Today
this sentiment has been reversed. It is now recognized that all societies have instances where
people kill sequentially. The literature on serial killing is dominated by a few themes. First, in
both public and scholarly discourse, serial killers are routinely presented as unknowable, and
their actions beyond comprehension. Irrespective of how many case studies we analyse, or
how much data we collect, the heart of serial killers remains a black hole. While we might
identify a serial killer's motivations, we will never comprehend their behaviour. The second
major theme concerns questions of definition. A serial murderer is someone who has
assassinated three or more people who were previously unknown to him. There must be a
'cooling off' time between each murder. (Haggerty, 2009).

Sithole called the Gauteng daily The Star on October 3, 1995, saying his name was "Joseph
Magwena" and that he was "the man who is so much sought." He subsequently gave them a
lengthy interview in which he claimed culpability for nearly all of the murders but denied any
involvement in the ones in Cleveland. He also stated that he was not to blame for the murders
of Sibusiso Ndlangamandla, two, and his mother, and that he adored children. Sithole
claimed that he despises women because he was imprisoned after being wrongly accused of
rape by one. He ended the interview with some indications concerning the whereabouts of an
undiscovered victim to establish that he was the killer. Meanwhile, investigators discovered
that all of the named victims vanished after a stranger gave them a job. They looked up a
phone number that a lot of people had contacted before they went missing, and it turned out
to be Sithole's sisters. When it was discovered that Sithole's background matched the details
supplied in "Magwena's" interview, it was declared that Sithole was wanted for the killings,
and his photo was disseminated to the press (Criminal minds wiki).

SIMILAR CASES

Official court records from a series dating back to 1953 show that the accused, Elifasi
Msomi, murdered 15 individuals in the province of KwaZulu-Natal after luring them with a
con narrative of employment, a strategy that is still utilized today. Moses Sithole, who raped
and killed 38 Black women between 1994 and 1995, is the man with the most homicide
convictions. (Labuschagne, Gabrielle Salfati, 2015). They adopted a similar strategy to
mosses in that they both enticed their victims by promising them work (Hodgskiss, 2004).

7|Page
Known as the "Phoenix Strangler" or "cane field serial killer," Sipho Agmatir Thwala became
the most wanted man in KwaZulu-Natal after a year-long killing spree in the sugarcane fields
of Mount Edgecombe, near the small town of Phoenix. Thwala raped and strangled 19
victims with their underwear before burying them in shallow graves. Thwala enticed his
victims into the killing fields by promising work. In 1994, he was declared not guilty of rape
and murder charges, the same year the first victim was discovered in a cane field. For the
murders, he was sentenced to 506 years in prison (Pericles, 2014). Mosses and Sipho killed
their victims in the same way, strangling them with their undergarments (Hodgskiss, 2004).

Ted Bundy, an American serial murderer who raped, kidnapped, and murdered about 30 girls
and women in the mid-1970s, was born on November 24, 1946. He eluded detection for
years, owing to his pleasant and charming demeanour. They were both charming, but their
methods differed: Moses enticed victims by promising employment, whilst Ted plastered his
lower arm and approached women in parking lots asking for assistance. He would then take
them to a separate location where he would harm and attack them, as well as have sexual
relations with their corpse (Adam, 2021).

The general strain theory assumes that the stresses and problems that criminals confront in
their daily lives are tough to deal with, and that criminals would "innovate" to have more
access to other living chances. An offender may take the difficulties in their life and instead
try to succeed in an uncommon way by engaging in illegal behaviour that will allow them to
move ahead in life, turning away from standard society ways of success. The hypothesis,
which was first proposed by Robert Agnew (2001), is based on three factors: failure to attain
a goal, the presence of negative impulses, and the removal of one's good impulses. Early on
in social relationships, a range of unfavourable experiences or disappointments at school,
family, or work produce stresses that lead to anger, despair, anxiety, frustration, and even
criminal behaviour. Many serial killers have a history of childhood traumas, such as bullying
by a classmate, physical or sexual abuse in the household, or having a parent with a criminal
record. Adverse childhood experiences are another name for these strains (ACEs). Child
maltreatment, household dysfunctions, and domestic violence are all examples of ACEs.
Many serial killers have stressful or traumatic childhood experiences that have an impact on
their adult development. The inability to cope with life's stresses can lead to antisocial
behaviour in some serial killers. Because of the numerous serial killers who have been
moulded by the terrible experience that perforated their lives, strain theory and serial murder
have remained inextricably linked (Booth, 2021).

8|Page
Taking everything into account, the essay has discussed crime investigation on how serial
killers and rapist commit crime, common reason which leads them to become serial killers
and rapists. Furthermore, the crime investigation is done by Forensic Investigation which
interns to solve criminal cases. methods and principles of investigation which must be
followed to identify and individualise evidence obtained. Moreover, discussed the
background of Moses Sithole. Examined similar cases to Moses and provided a theoretical
framework to explain the behaviour of serial

9|Page
REFERENCES

Adam, f., 2021. Who Was Ted Bundy? Inside The Life Of America’s Most Notorious Serial
Killer. [online]. Available: https://allthatsinteresting.com/who-is-ted-bundy[accessed 04 April
2022].

Bezuidenhout, C (Editor). (2011). A Southern African Perspective on Fundamental

Criminology. 2nd Edition. South Africa: Pearson Education.

Booth, H.E., 2021. A Criminological Analysis of Notorious Serial Killers in the United
States.

Criminal minds wiki. Moses Sithole.

Available:https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Moses_Sithole[accessed 04 April 2022].

Douglas, J.E., Ressler, R.K., Burgess, A.W. and Hartman, C.R., 1986. Criminal profiling
from crime scene analysis. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 4(4), pp.401-421.

Graney, D.J., & Arrigo, B.A. (2002). The power serial rapist: A criminology- victimology
typology of female victim selection. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publishers.

Haggerty, K.D., 2009. Modern serial killers. Crime, Media, Culture, 5(2), pp.168-187.

Hazelwood, R.R. and Warren, J., 1989. The serial rapist: His characteristics and victims
(conclusion). FBI L. Enforcement Bull., 58, p.18.

Hodgskiss, B., 2004. Lessons from serial murder in South Africa. Journal of Investigative
Psychology and Offender Profiling, 1(1), pp.67-94.

Labuschagne, G.N. and Gabrielle Salfati, C., 2015. An examination of serial homicide in
South Africa: The practice to research link. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender
Profiling, 12(1), pp.4-17.

Papazian, L.M., 2001. Literature review on the personalities and patterns of serial killers.
Azusa Pacific University.

Peterson, J., Sommers, I., Baskin, D. and Johnson, D., 2010. The role and impact of forensic
evidence in the criminal justice process. National Institute of Justice, pp.1-151.

10 | P a g e
Pericles, A., 2014. South Africa’s 11 deadliest serial killers murdered 205 people. [Online].
Available:https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2014-05-29-south-africas-11-
deadliest-serial-killers-murdered-205-people/[accessed 04 April 2022]

Potgieter, C and De Wet, J. 2010. A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THE MODUS OPERANDI

OF SERIAL RAPISTS IN SOUTH AFRICA. KwaZulu-Natal. University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Department of Psychology University of KwaZulu- Natal.

Zinn, R. & Dintwe, S. (Eds.). (2015). Forensic investigation: legislative principles and
investigative practice. Cape Town: Juta. (ISBN: 978-0-702-18647-9).

Document Viewer

Turnitin Originality Report

 Processed on: 24-Apr-2023 8:07 AM CAT
 ID: 2067393017
 Word Count: 1595
 Submitted: 6

term paper By Palesa Evelyn Seleho

Similarity Index

11 | P a g e
Document Viewer

Turnitin Originality Report

 Processed on: 24-Apr-2023 8:07 AM CAT
 ID: 38616351
 Word Count: 1595
 Submitted: 6

Criminology Assignment By Palesa Evelyn Seleho

Similarity Index
8%
Similarity by Source
Internet Sources:
4%
Publications:
0%
Student Papers:
4%

12 | P a g e
 0%
Similarity by Source
Internet Sources:
0%
Publications:
0%
Student Papers:
N/A

13 | P a g e