PSM Causal Equation: Inclination + Opportunity + Real or Perceived Risk = PSM

The Illustrative Examples fit within the PSM Causal Equation and represent the second category, rape plus murder, of Type 1-Sex-Related Criminal Homicides. Gerard John Schaeffer was a true “rotten apple” who would never have been a police officer if someone had paid attention to the red flags in his twisted and sordid past. Any reasonably competent background investigator could have quickly discovered them. A psychological examination had already found him unfit for police work, but the sheriff did not take the effort to find that out and hired the serial killer. Failure to conduct adequate background checks, or conducting none at all, is a contributing factor in many of the examples we discuss. It is well known among police professionals that “crazy people” want to be cops. They want to carry a gun and tell people what to do and not do.

It appears that evidence of known questionable behavior toward women was present in the background of CHP officers, George M. Gwaltney, and Craig Peyer. Their police sexual misconduct, was low-risk behavior until they made the flawed rational decisions in choosing their targets and murdered the victims to conceal their misconduct. The California Highway Patrol, knew or should have known and taken some decisive action before they killed on the job. Their fellow officers should have reported their bizarre behavior. Civil suits filed after both murders, alluded to past transgressions by Gwaltney and Peyer. Gwaltney’s civil suit claimed one woman avoided a traffic ticket by having sexual relations with the officer and also alleged that he kept file cards on women in his CHP locker, as well as female underwear. The suit claimed there was a spirit of sexual machismo among the CHP officers in Barstow adding to a feeling of low risk for on-duty sexual misconduct. Adding support to this claim is the sordid history of Gwaltney’s commanding officer Captain Jim Carl Burchett. Captain Burchett retired in 1983. After retirement, he served a prison term in 1993 after being convicted of attempted lewd conduct with a child. Then in 1995, he pleaded guilty in US District Court in Los Angeles to one count of conspiracy to distribute and receive pornography and seven counts of child pornography, (Gorman, January 12, 1996). In 1996, a highly decorated CHP sergeant, also an Officer of the Year, who had served 17 years in the Barstow CHP office committed suicide after being charged with the rape of a woman he picked up while in uniform (Gorman, January 12, 1996). We see the same pattern of sexual machismo leading to inaction and toleration of officer’s misconduct repeated in many of the PSM types.