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Relationship Investigations

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...Continued from Relationship Investigations

Unfortunately, a significant number of individuals for a wide variety of reasons - mental illness, greed, revenge, jealousy, ego, power, status - choose to violate generally accepted social norms as well as existing criminal and regulatory legislation to achieve –or accelerate the achievement of - selfish goals with little or no regard for the financial, emotional or psychological impact their actions and behaviour may have on others.

People who behave like this are categorized as psychopaths and the consequences of their behaviour can be and, on many occasions are, devastating.

It has been conservatively estimated that there may be between two and three million psychopaths in North America, with a city such as New York City having as many as 100,000 psychopaths.

A few of these people become cold-blooded, conscienceless killers, such as John Gacy, David Berkowitz, Kenneth Bianchi, Richard Ramirez, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and the Canadian serial killer Clifford Olsen, to name but a few.

(It has been observed, however, that serial killers are very rare, estimated to amount to fewer than 100 in North America.)

Fortunately, most individuals who exhibit psychopathic behaviour - who appear to act as a result of a cold, inhumane, calculating mentality without regard for the thoughts and feelings of others - do not murder other people during the conduct of their lives. The actions of these individuals, nevertheless can and often do have a significant impact on the lives of others through lesser forms of criminal activity to destructive interpersonal behaviour.

Some have estimated that for every psychopath who is a serial killer, there may be 20,000 to 30,000 psychopaths who do not commit serial murder.

This latter and much larger group of individuals include white-collar criminals, deceitful spouses and business partners, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous corporate officers, fraudsters, con men, money launderers, gang members, drug traffickers, members of criminal organizations, thugs, kidnappers, extortionists, fraudulent stock promoters and telemarketers, extortionists and other slippery tongued swindlers. They also include professionals who coldly violate positions of trust and power - priests, doctors, solicitors, psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers, counselors, child-care workers - whose very status attracts, and should protect, the vulnerable.

Psychopaths have been described as social predators who charm, manipulate and ruthlessly plow their way through life leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take whatever they want and so as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.

To what degree psychopathy is a factor in destructive or dysfunctional relationships between and among individuals on a personal and corporate level, however, the fact of the matter is that the consequences of psychopathic or other behaviours driven by other forms of mental illness may be actionable both through civil (tort) litigation and/or criminal prosecution.

In order to proceed with either or both alternatives, the matter must be investigated by competent individuals who have the experience, technical ability and resources to develop information necessary to support a civil proceeding or criminal action together with other professionals.

It is well known that most fraudulent activity is not reported to public law enforcement agencies - the police - and that only a small percentage of what is reported is accepted for investigation owing to threshold filtering policies established by police agencies.

It is also well known that many victims of fraudulent activity choose not to report such matters to the police to maintain personal and/or corporate privacy both for business and personal reasons, lack of confidence in law enforcement or the inability to meet arbitrary threshold levels established by police agencies before a particular case will be accepted for investigation.

In personal relationships, ‘cheating', adultery and other forms of fraudulent behaviour is, unfortunately, all too common. It is generally accepted that over 50 per cent of marriages in North America fail, with an even greater level of divorce for subsequent marriages.

The incidence of cheating is difficult to quantify and define, however a recent MSNBC survey found that about one in five adults in monogamous relationships, or 22 per cent, have cheated on their current partner. Other surveys suggest that the percentage of infidelity may be much higher. While some view cheating as a cause and others a symptom of relationship or marriage breakdown, the impact of this perceived betrayal, when revealed, can be devastating.

Despite statistical differences and the inability of surveys to accurately determine the exact incidence of cheating or adulterous behaviour both within and outside of marriage, there can be no doubt that the consequnces of such behaviour can be enormous in terms of loss of trust and the impact on relationship or marital stability as well as ensuing financial, emotional, psychological and custody issues should the union fail.

When it happens, the only incident of cheating or adulterous behaviour that matters is the one impacting the person who is personally affected by the behaviour in question. It is cold comfort to know that such behaviour is an all-too-common occurrence. When there is suspicion of cheating or adultery, investigations are often requested to confirm the facts and determine the truth.

Other forms of - albeit less personal - relationship investigations involve equally destructive fraudulent behaviour.

Identity theft and the fraudulent activity flowing from and associated with such occurrences, has been described as the crime of the 21st century that victimizes millions of Canadian and American individuals and results in losses exceeding $50 billion. Other forms of criminal activity, including credit card and insurance fraud, forgery and counterfeiting add billions of dollars to such losses.

Private investigation offers a legitimate, complementary alternative where traditional investigation by public law enforcement is neither feasible or desired by a client. The client not only has the ability to deal with criminal and civil victimization - through litigation support, co-operation with other professionals and liaison with law enforcement - but also to obtain the CLOSURE and PEACE-OF-MIND that is so essential to moving forward.