Sexual Murder - Justicia Forense

and made numerous stab wounds over the victims’ faces. She could not explainwhy she had mutilated their faces because she always got along well with bothof them.In the case of FF, sadistic behavior emerged spontaneously, given the contextof total control over the victim. Perhaps extended therapeutic involvement withFF might eventually provide further understanding of all levels of motivationof his behavior. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and spared the deathpenalty primarily because of his age.3.4.3 Impulsive Offenders Who Commit HomicideThe word impulse is derived from the Latin verb impulsus, which essentiallymeans to “push, drive, urge, stimulate, or force.” In a psychological context,impulse is defined as an unexpected urge motivated by conscious or unconsciousfeelings over which the person has little or no control (Freedman,Kaplan, and Sadock, 1972). Impulsive offenders who commit homicide aredistinguished mainly by their lack of direction, randomness of actions, andunpredictability. These individuals are passive, easily led, and overinfluencedby circumstances; their personality structures are loose and poorly integrated.They cannot see life in perspective but, instead, view it on an immediatebasis. The offenses they commit, whether homicides or some other crimes,are generally poorly structured and only partially, if at all, premeditated.Impulsive offenders differ from situational offenders mainly by the numberof antisocial acts in their background. Whereas a situational homicide isusually a one-time event, the impulsive offender has a history of multiplecriminal events with homicide being just one in a series. Impulsive offendersare often recruited into semiprofessional crime, but they lack the purposefulnessand know-how of the professional. Impulsive offenders often have adisorganized family life; sometimes they even have developmental handicapssuch as attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, physical maladies, orspeech problems. As a result of their background, they have acquired strongfeelings of inadequacy and feel especially inferior in the competitive world.These feelings of inadequacy bring about feelings of hostility which result inchronic anger and a vague need for revenge. Offenders discharge their tensionby action, as they are largely unable to modulate their emotions.Impulsive offenders merge with antisocial personality disorder to someextent, as these offenders usually manifest more personality or characterologicaldisturbance than other offenders do. The concept of impulsiveoffender, however, cuts across all personality diagnoses. Impulsive offendersdo not, in our view, suffer from an impulse disorder per se, although someof them may fall into this category. Mainly, they are not driven to committhe offense but are simply reacting to circumstances. In the prison popula-