ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the motivations of those who dismember and the factors that influence such behaviour. Although this area has received very little research attention to date, an attempt can be made to draw on allied areas to examine the dimensions of dismemberment motivation and its context. This should provide sufficient information to construct a motivational typology of those who dismember and a composite profile of those more likely to dismember. The skill level of the dismemberment process as a motivational factor relates to the experience, preparedness and, to some degree, planned nature of dismemberment. Superstition-based motives can be more clearly seen within acts of dismemberment in tribal warfare. Selective dismemberment can be motivated by a need to conceal the identity of the deceased, as another form of defensive mutilation. Thus, the perpetrator is motivated to defend them from forensic detection by the act of mutilation.
