The developmental and criminal histories of subgroups of sexual murderers engaging, or not engaging, in post mortem sexual interference, compared to rapists
Purpose
Identifying factors that may predict sexual aggression in the context of directly sexual murder, indirectly sexual murder, and non-fatal outcomes is necessary for advancing a field lacking a substantiated multifactorial theoretical model.
Methods
Eighty-nine sexual murderers engaging in post mortem sexual interference were compared to 92 non-post mortem sexual interference sexual murderers and 72 rapists on developmental factors, adult lifestyle, and criminal history. An overall model was built using a series of multinomial logistic regression analyses.
Results
Unlike rapists, both groups of sexual murderers experienced a lack of success in sexually intimate relationships. Perpetrators of post mortem sexual interference were rarely necrophiles, but having a history of sadistic behaviors or interests uniquely predicted sexual murder involving post mortem sexual interference. Chronic violent and sexual offending was characteristic of rapists. Psychopathy, measured using the screening version of the Psychopathy Checklist (Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995), was not predictive of any outcome.
Conclusion
Results support criticism of existing theoretical models; that they do not apply to non-sadistic sexual murder. Findings are discussed in relation to gaps in theoretical understanding of sexual murder, and concerning implications for forensic policies and practice