Manifestation of sadism in sexual homicide: a criminological contribution

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine whether sexual sadism manifests itself differently between sadistic sexual murderers and determine whether these differences are influenced by offender, victim, and crime characteristics, as well as by situational constraints. The sample used in this study consists of 285 cases of sadistic sexual homicides committed in France or Canada. Latent class analysis was used to identify heterogeneity in sadistic behaviors while external validity analysis was used to confirm the model. The results showed that sexual sadism may be manifested according to four distinct patterns in sadistic sexual homicides: Anal/oral sex, inanimate object insertion, collector, and torture/mutilation. These different types are influenced by offender, victim and crime characteristics while it is not the case of situational constraints. This study presents both theoretical and practical implications in terms of criminal investigation and clinical intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual sadism
• sexual homicide
• manifestation of sadism
• situational constraints
• latent class analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. the Police Chief of the French Central Office for the Repression of Violences against Persons (Office Central de Répression des Violences aux Personnes) and Mrs the Central Director of the French Judicial Police (Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and material

The data is not available because it contains confidential information

Notes

1 Stranger relationship suggests that offenders and victims did not know each other at the time of the offense. Acquaintance relationship suggests that offenders and victims knew each other prior to the crime but excludes familial relationships.

2 Numbers in brackets are class membership probabilities.

Additional information

Funding

Authors want to acknowledge the Swiss National Science Foundation who kindly supported this research (Fund no. P400PS_190994)