Author Jennifer Chase

Alaska Rallies to Raise Awareness of Sexual Assaults in the State

Posted on March 28, 2014 by jchasenovelist

Photo Courtesy: Office of the Governor of Alaska

Something that has been important for me to advocate through the development of my Emily Stone character is the notion that women are strong and deserving of respect. Emily takes it upon herself to become a vigilante member of law enforcement, tracking down the criminals in our communities who commit the most heinous of crimes, including rape and murder. I hope that the women who read my novels perhaps become a bit bolder in appreciating their own talents and abilities. Also, I hope that any woman who has been a victim of sexual assault will know that she is not alone, her pain is worthy of attention, and justice must be done.

With that in mind, I was inspired reading an article about an initiative that is taking place in around 170 communities across Alaska this week. Men and women are being encouraged to take part in rallies around the theme “Choose Respect” as a way of recognizing the sad distinction that Alaska has as the state having the highest number of sexual assaults within its borders. I was shocked to learn that fifty-nine percent of women in Alaska have faced sexual abuse or assault of some form. I’m glad that these annual rallies have grown exponentially over the past several years so that women know that have the support of their communities and the resources they desperately need are allocated where needed.

I am with the people rallying across Alaska this week. And, since sexual crimes continue to be a problem in every state, I hope the efforts of this one state will have a ripple effect as we all stand up for better education and other preventative measures to prevent crimes against women from happening in the first place and more severe punishments for those who inflict the violence.

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Books: Compulsion Dead Game Dark Mind Dead Burn Silent Partner Screenwriting

Posted in crime | Tagged alaska, assault, award winning, choose awareness, communities, compulsion, crime, crime series, dead burn, emily stone, inspiration, jennifer chase, jennifer chase criminologistologist, law, law enforcement, murder, rallies, rape, sexual crimes, vigilante | 1 Comment

Escaped Murderer Captured after Nearly 40 Years of Freedom

Posted on March 17, 2014 by jchasenovelist

I would assume that when a prisoner manages to break out of jail, he probably spends nearly every moment looking over his back. Is this the day the authorities finally catch me? Will someone from my past life recognize me? But I also wonder if, after an extended period of time, an escaped convict might begin to let his guard down. After a decade or two of freedom, maybe there is the feeling that you got away with it. As was proven in Florida last week, though, individuals who escape from their prison sentence should never get comfortable.

James Robert Jones killed a fellow private in the U.S. Army forty years ago and was sentenced to time at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas. Three years later, he escaped the maximum security prison and then spent the next thirty-seven years evading the law. United States Marshals recently followed up on leads that Jones was living and working in Florida under an assumed name and arrested him outside of his workplace.

Jones did not put up a fight when confronted by authorities and even admitted he thought his actions would catch up to him one day. He will be sent back to Kansas to finish his sentence and likely face additional time behind bars for the new charges stemming from his escape.

After the time I’ve spent with some of the amazing men and women who have pledged their life’s work to keeping us safe, I should not be surprised that authorities continued for so many years in their effort to bring Jones back to justice. This case is a testament to the diligence of detectives and forensic psychologists and others in making every criminal accountable. Congratulations on Mr. Jones’ capture and may those who came to know and love Jones as an entirely self-created and fictional man be able to find some peace after learning this ugly truth.

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Posted in crime, Police | Tagged 40 years freedom, assumed name, author and criminologist jennifer chase, authorities, captured, compulsion, dark mind, dead burn, emily stone, emily stone series, escaped, Florida, forensics, jennifer chase, kansas, Leavenworth, murderer, mysteries, police procedural, prison, thriller, us marshals | 2 Comments

Using Patterns to Predict Crimes

Posted on March 11, 2014 by jchasenovelist

We have all heard that humans are creatures of habit. We like certain pillows when we sleep, we always drive the same route to work, maybe even have the same breakfast to start each day. Now it seems that our predictable nature is aiding law enforcement in predicting criminal activity, with the notion that past behavior creates a pattern for future plans.

In Madison, Wisconsin, crime analyst Caleb Klebig predicted a bank robbery last week that left the local police officers amazed with its accuracy. Klebig analyzed recent robberies in the area and shared five possible banks that he believed would be the location of the next strike and even suggested the day of the week and time of day at which the robbery would occur. Turns out, he was right! Detectives at the targeted shopping area were able to apprehend the suspect, Scottie T. Patterson, who admitted to being behind the other robberies that Klebig had examined to establish the pattern.

Obviously, most police departments cannot station officers at every possible location that fit aspects of a crime trend in the area. But as technology becomes more sophisticated and we are able to gain even more insight to how a perpetrator’s crime pattern is unfolding, officers can focus limited resources on just a few reliably pinpointed locations.

I love these examples of human instincts and hi-tech problem solving working together with the potential of making our neighborhoods safer. I don’t know if we will ever able to state with certainty, “The Safeway on Main Street will be robbed on Thursday at 3:27pm,” but it will be interesting to see where the crime-predicting effort goes.

Maybe Emily Stone needs to pair up with someone who has this type of analytic ability in a future novel . . .

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Posted in crime, Police | Tagged bank robbery, behavior, compulsion, crime, crime analysis, crime pattern, crime prevention, crime trend, dead burn, dead game, emily stone, emily stone thrillers, forensics, habit, high tech, jennifer chase, jennifer chase criminologist, mystery, pattern, police, predict crimes, problem solving, target | 1 Comment

Take a Walk Through a Body Farm

Posted on March 8, 2014 by jchasenovelist

Author Jennifer Chase

Today’s post is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. I find the scientific research into decomposition fascinating. I originally posted this article more than a year ago and have received so many comments and questions about it, so I thought I’d repost again.

This is for all of you armchair CSI buffs or aspiring crime authors…

The body farm refers to a research facility where human decomposition is studied in different settings, conditions, and environments. The invaluable research gains a more accurate understanding of the human decomposition process.

As ghoulish as it sounds, learning to properly develop techniques to extract information from decomposition remains, such as the time and circumstances of death, prepares investigators, law enforcement and forensic anthropologists to pinpoint and reconstruct the chain of events of a crime.

It’s a fascinating scientific process. Bodies are studied out in the open, buried in debris and brush, inside small…

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Female Serial Killer in England Sentenced to Life in Prison

Posted on March 4, 2014 by jchasenovelist

While I focus a lot of research on crimes that are committed in the United States, and unfortunately there are no shortage of them, I also like to keep up with what is happening in other justice systems. This week in England, a serial killer was sentenced. There were two particularly unusual details about this event. First, the criminal was ordered to remain in prison for a “whole life term.” The second is that the criminal is a woman.

Male serial killers outnumber females by a wide proportion, which is consistent to the disparity in violent crime statistics overall. But there is no doubt that Joanne Dehenny is a killer. She stabbed three men to death, and attempted to kill two others the same way. Her reason? Just to see if she was as cold and indifferent to human life as she imagined she was. Turns out, she discovered that she liked killing and she was diagnosed with paraphilia sadomasochism, which means she was sexually excited by the pain and humiliation of others.

The fact that the 31-year-old mother of two will spend the rest of her life behind bars is of note as well. This marks only the third time in English criminal history that a woman has been sentenced to life in jail, a punishment that Dehenny found amusing. England has no death penalty and the appeals court of the land just upheld recently that putting someone in prison until she dies is lawful, so such a sentence is not taken lightly.

I’m glad that Dehenny is behind bars, as it appears that she would not have any qualms about killing again. She still has a potentially long life ahead of her and hopefully now will get some treatment, both for the sake of her two young children and so that perhaps criminal psychologists can learn more about what makes some minds operate in this way.

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Posted in Serial Killers | Tagged compulsion, crime, crime fiction, crime scene, criminal history, criminal psychologist, dead burn, emily stone thrillers, england, female serial killer, forensics, jennifer chase, jennifer chase award winning author, Joanne Dehenny, killing, life in prison, male vitims, mystery, pain of others, paraphilia sadomasochism, psychopath, punishment, serial killer, stabbed, true crime, whole life term | Leave a comment

Photography Sunday — Beauty in Black & White

Posted on March 2, 2014 by jchasenovelist

Author Jennifer Chase

One of my favorite escapes from the daily grind and writing is to go to the beach. I love to walk, take my dogs for a run on the beach, and I bring my camera for good measure because you never know what you’re going to see. I find that some of the most beautiful subjects are often emphasized in black and white.

This particular day it was really windy, I mean really windy. I saw a nice shot up a beach path and I had to make sure that I kept my mouth closed and breathed shallow; otherwise, I’d be tasting sand for the rest of the day.

Here’s a curious seagull that wouldn’t leave me alone. I was trying to get some shots of sea lions around the harbor. I guess this little guy wasn’t camera shy.

This is one of my favorite beach shots. The lighting this particular day was…

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Teenager Claims to Have Killed Dozens

Posted on February 25, 2014 by jchasenovelist

Photo Courtesy AP

If nineteen-year-old Miranda Barbour’s confessions prove to be true, she could be one of the worst serial killers in our nation’s history. The Pennsylvania teenager and her husband were arrested earlier this month on charges of criminal homicide after allegedly stabbing and strangling a man they met through Craig’s List. Once in custody, Barbour readily shared that this was not her first experience with murder and had killed somewhere between 22 and 100 people over the last six years. But, this confession does not make for an open and shut case.

Barbour claims that she was involved with a satanic cult and only killed “bad people” in a crime spree that occurred across the country, from Alaska to Texas to Pennsylvania. However, law enforcement officials in the various areas she lived have no reason to believe she is connected to any murders and even a spokesman from the Church of Satan has gone to the media to disavow any involvement with her. Instead, relatives and others who know her state that she is a sexual abuse survivor who now exists in a fantasy world fueled by drug use.

Whatever her involvement may be with other homicides, the evidence pinning her to the death of Troy LeFerrara, the Craig’s List respondent, is pretty strong. Does she feel the need to make her crimes exponentially worse, if only through fiction? If so, why? Whether it is true or not that she has killed dozens of people, how do you handle such a young individual whose psychological framework seems to be so damaged?

I cannot help but be grotesquely fascinated by Miranda Barbour’s story. With her background of enduring abuse as a child, it seems that she has grown into a callous and violent adult, perhaps out of a seeming need for protection. If she has killed one man or fifty, she deserves to serve the punishment deemed appropriate for her crimes and perhaps her example will be one that experts can study for warning signs before tragedy repeats itself.

What are your views? Are we, as a society, creating more serial killers?

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