Angry or Sadistic: Two Types of Sexual Murderers (From Sexual Murderers: A Comparative Analysis and New Perspectives, P 123-141, 2005, Jean Proulx, Eric Beauregard, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-220255)

• NCJ Number: 220262
• Author(s): Eric Beauregard; Jean Proulx; Michael St-Yves
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

This Canadian study developed a typology of sexual murderers of adult women based on objective crime-scene criteria and multivariate statistical analyses; a secondary aim was to determine whether pre-crime factors distinguished types of sexual murderers.

Abstract

The analyses of the criminal methods and crime scenes led to the identification of two types of nonserial sexual murderers of women, i.e., sadistic (n=16) and angry (n=36). For those typed as sadistic sexual murderers, their crimes were premeditated, involved a victim who was a stranger to them, and included moving or hiding the victim's corpse at a site away from the crime scene. For the "angry" sexual murderer, there was no premeditation, no physical constraints on the victim, and the corpse was left at the location of the murder. Sadistic murderers were more likely than angry murderers to seek out victims with specific characteristics, torture victims, and mutilate and even dismember the corpses of their victims. The authors believe these differences are related both to premeditation and to deviant sexual fantasies, which are more prevalent among sadistic murderers. In the pre-crime phase, angry sexual murderers had an angry mental state, and sadistic murders had positive emotions that included happiness, pleasure, feelings of well-being, and sexual arousal. In the postmurder phase, angry murderers were more likely to admit their offenses to police, even to the point of initiating contact with the police. The study sample consisted of 36 sexual murderers. Semistructured interviews associated with the administration of the Computerized Sex Offenders Questionnaire were conducted, and the offenders' institutional files were examined. These files contained the results of psychological evaluations, psychiatric evaluations, and specialized tests (psychometric tests, phallometric assessments, etc.), disciplinary reports, information on inmate programs in which they participated, criminal record, court transcripts, and police reports. 8 tables and 2 case studies