There are certain incidents/crimes that I find myself returning to examine/study for a variety of reasons. One of these is the sexual homicide of Naomi Louise Smith in 1995, which illustrates the potential impact different sexual value systems within communities can have on violent crime. I had just finished a Master’s degree in Psychology, which was ostensibly one in forensic psychology (psychology connected with the legal/criminal justice system), that had allowed me – due to a lecturer/professor’s area of study/interest - to take part in interviews with convicted high-risk sex-offenders at HMP Frankland, a Category A men’s prison in County Durham that was/is home to some of the UK’s most dangerous and violent offenders. One of the things I learnt and was taught early on was to take a detached, academic and non-judgmental approach when taking part in interviews and listening to offenders talking about the crimes they had committed, and not to connect emotionally with the things they talked about i.e., if you want to make sense and understand why someone commits despicable and heinous acts, you have to lose “despicable” and “heinous” from your vocabulary etc. I recognize that taking this clinical and somewhat sanitized view of violence often makes you appear like you don’t care about those that are victimized and are indifferent to violence, however it is a necessary attitude to adopt in order for you to try and understand the nature and motivations behind such crimes, as well as preserve your sanity; several students who initially started out attending these interviews weren’t able to make this “separation” and found the experience(s) too emotionally draining/upsetting/challenging and took their studies in other directions; having such humanity should never be seen as a “failure”. The rape/sexual assault and murder of Naomi Smith is one of those offenses that has stayed with me for a number of reasons, which I want to explore in this article, because I believe it can inform us about how sexual assaults and rapes can be both very simple and extremely complex at the same time; in saying that they are “simple” I don’t mean in any way to minimize the traumatic effect of those that are targeted/victimized.
Naomi was fifteen when she was attacked and killed. Fifteen is a “strange” age in that whilst you are still technically a child you are exploring adulthood and for many people, who you are sexually. This can present issues for law-enforcement and the criminal justice system when framing sexual assaults. On the one hand, in order have the best odds of making a successful prosecution, you want to promote the most innocent, pure and naive view of the victim as possible, however in order to get to the “truth” of the investigation, you may discover things which may seem to contradict or question this. When looking at sexual offenses, one of the things that needs to be understood are the “sexual values” of the community/society in which the offense takes place e.g., I once gave advice to a law-enforcement agency that was investigating a child-prostitution case where parents were acting as “pimps” to their teenage daughters, in a fairly broad community where such actions/behaviors had become normalized to a certain degree etc. There is a tendency to view such attitudes and behaviors as being a “lower class” thing, committed by “uncivilized” people etc., however in my experience/understanding such things happen at all levels of society and those who have more power and control are simply better at staying invisible. Naomi lived on a working-class/blue-collar estate, which had its own sexual values e.g., it was “acceptable” for younger teenage girls to “date” men in their twenties etc. Whilst our sense of morality may scream that this is wrong and judge parents for not protecting their daughters against predatory men, when you live in such a community, there is an acceptance and management of these values; parents may recognize that this is what happens and whilst they may give their best advice, understand that these are the values they are working with. Whilst it was believed that Naomi was a virgin when she was raped and killed, she wasn’t sexually naive and understood how things worked and operated on the estate where she lived.
Although she didn’t know her killer well, she did know him. The majority of sexual assaults, rapes and homicides aren’t committed by strangers, despite what we may want to believe i.e., nobody wants to believe that the people they know would do them harm. The sexual value system on the estate where Naomi lived displaced a certain population of teenage boys (a category her attacker, Edwin Hopkins belonged to), causing anger, resentment, frustration and a need for power and control that had the possibility to result in sexual assaults; this is not to take away any responsibility or blame of those who commit such assaults but rather to acknowledge some of the conditions that can create an environment where certain individuals feel compelled to offend in this way. Teenage girls mature faster than boys, and if there are older men, in their twenties, who are more mature, and have access to resources such as cars/transport and have money, such individuals are more attractive than boys their same age who lack these things. If there is no “taboo” or social wrong associated with there being an age gap, then choosing to be with/and having a sexual relationship with an older partner, who can offer maturity and resources rather than someone your own age who lacks these things is a fairly obvious choice. However, such a culture and environment can lead to certain individuals feeling that the “rules” are unfair and resenting them. For Edwin Hopkins – who was sentenced to life imprisonment – the sexual values of the estate where he and Naomi lived weren’t acceptable. Although Naomi wasn’t promiscuous, she understood the “power” that teenage girls in her community had, and she and her best friend used to dress up in a sexually provocative way and walk around the estate late at night, looking for male confirmation of their attractiveness. This activity should not be seen as making her to blame, in any way for her attack/murder. Her misfortune was for Hopkins to believe that due to the sexual value system of the community in which they lived, and because she “conformed” to it, he was entitled to have sex with her – regardless of her consent.
Violence, including sexual violence, is about power and control, and in most cases involves anger. Hopkin’s assault on Naomi, appears to have initially started out as “regular” though forceful/nonconsensual intercourse, however at some point rage and possibly due to frustration – whether in the moment and/or more deep-seated - took over. He then engaged in acts which although sexually driven and motivated were exploratory in nature rather than physically/sexually gratifying. Whilst the sexual values of the community in which they both lived may have created an environment where such an anger/frustration was able to be created and cultivated, it was Hopkins alone who reacted to an opportunity he was presented with i.e., Naomi, nipped out to post a letter for her mother, and was lured by the slightly older Hopkins onto a unlit part of a recreation ground a few yards from her house, when she was en route back home.
When you grow up in a community – and we all belong to communities – you generally accept its values and behave accordingly. Naomi did no differently. It’s only when/if you move outside of that community/society that you start to realize that the sexual value system you grew up in, might not be normal or right whether it is a relative on a council estate or an uncle at the country club groping you, and forcing/pressuring you to have sex with them etc. It is easy and simplistic to look at the case/incident of Naomi Smith’s assault and murder as something that wouldn’t happen in your “backyard” however having lived in many different backyards – working class, middle class etc. – I’ve seen different sexual value systems as being extremely common, and it is perhaps this that keeps me circling back and returning to the sexual homicide/murder of Naomi Smith. My non-academic self has never got over the normalcy and matter of fact way, without a hint of remorse, in which those sexual offenders in HMP Frankland talked about their crimes; their only sense of injustice being that they’d been caught and/or society was wrong to judge them for their offenses.