Sexual Murder - Justicia Forense

UnderstandingSexual Murder:Problems andApproaches1The image of the sexual murderer — especially the murderer with multiplevictims — has always aroused concomitant feelings of horror and fascinationin the general public. Today, his exploits are graphically reported in the pressand on television, in “psycho-thriller” films, and in various “true-crime”books (e.g., Rule, 1983, 1988; Ryzuk, 1994; Schechter, 1989, 1990). As a resultof all this attention, some sexual killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer,and the Boston Strangler, have almost become household names. Of course,sexual homicide — homicide motivated primarily by a breakthrough ofunderlying sexual conflicts or where the killing itself is sexually gratifying —has also been studied by behavioral scientists, sociologists, forensic specialists,and the like. Yet, in contrast to the voluminous research literature on (nonsexual)homicide from psychiatric, psychological, sociological, legal, andinvestigative perspectives, a solid body of scientific literature on sexual murderhas not yet been accumulated.The paucity of scientific studies is largely attributable to a number ofproblems that make research in the area of sexual murder very difficult.(1) There is no generally agreed upon definition of sexual homicide;instead, a number of different definitions have been offered, and differentterms are used for what seems to be similar criminal behavior. (2) Manymurders that appear to be sexually motivated are actually not sexuallymotivated. (3) Many murders that are not overtly sexual are sexually motivated.(4) The distinction between a sexual homicide and a homicideassociated with sexual behavior is often blurred. (5) National or state crimestatistics on the number of sexual homicides have not been kept. (6) There