NCJ Number
221822
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 18 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2003 Pages: 1018-1034
Date Published
September 2003
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Previous studies noted a high prevalence of certain behavioral and experiential characteristics in sexual murderers arguing for their etiological importance; the purpose of this study was to measure the prevalence of these indicators in a nonoffending control sample and evaluate whether they identified sadistic sexual fantasy.
Abstract
Tentative support is found for the potential discriminating value of some of the factors identified in a previous research study as characteristics of sexual murder. Specifically, it seems that most of the behavioral indicators (9 out of 13) in the previous study might potentially prove useful in discriminating adult sexual murderers from a group of nonoffending adults. Three of the behavioral indicators were significantly associated with the presence of sadistic sexual fantasies. The presence of behavioral indicators that predict sadistic sexual fantasy confirms the importance of these factors in the etiology of the development of sadistic sexual fantasy in both offenders and nonoffenders. Research to date has failed to establish normative data for the various characteristics identified as relevant to the etiology of sadistic sexual murder. The main aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of a prior study’s behavioral indicators and experiential indicators in 50 healthy-nonoffending undergraduate students. It also investigated the association between the presence of these behavioral and experiential indicators and the presence of sadistic sexual fantasy. Tables, references