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Sadistic sexual aggressors and sexual murderers: Empirical and theoretical issues

Sadistic sexual aggressors and sexual murderers: Empirical and theoretical issues. Jean Proulx 1, 2 Éric Beauregard 3 E-mail: jean.proulx@umontreal.ca Université de Montréal (School of Criminology, CICC) Institut Philippe-Pinel de Montréal

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Sadistic sexual aggressors and sexual murderers: Empirical and theoretical issues

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  1. Sadistic sexual aggressors and sexual murderers: Empirical and theoretical issues Jean Proulx 1, 2 Éric Beauregard 3 E-mail: jean.proulx@umontreal.ca Université de Montréal (School of Criminology, CICC) Institut Philippe-Pinel de Montréal University of South Florida (Department of Criminology)

  2. Definition • KRAFFT-EBING (1886) • DSM-IV (APA, 1994) • Sexual arousal – pleasure • Physical or psychological (humiliation) suffering of the victim • Fantasies • Behaviors

  3. Epidemiology Groth and Birnbaum (1979) 5% Barbaree, Seto, Serin, Amos, and Preston (1994) 11.7% Proulx, St-Yves, Guay, and Ouimet (1999) 18%

  4. Developmental factors(Brittain, 1970; Dietz et al., 1990; Gratzer & Bradford, 1995; Langevin et al., 1985; MacCulloch et al., 1983; Warren et al., 1996) • Social isolation • Low self-esteem • Deviant sexual fantasies • Sexually incompetent • Paraphilias (voyeurism, exhibitionism, fetichism) • Physically abused as a child

  5. Phallometric studies • Sadistic offenders showed a sexual preference for rape stimuli • Barbaree, Seto, Serin, Amos, & Preston (1994) • Fedora et al. (1992) • Proulx (2001) • Sadistic offenders did not show a sexual preference for rape stimuli • Marshall, Kennedy, & Yates (2002) • Rice, Chaplin, Harris, & Coutts (1994) • Seto & Kuban (1996) • Langevin et al. (1985)

  6. Personality disorders • Psychopath and narcissistic« We consider the unemotional, cold tone of the offenders during their crime as evidence, if any more were needed, of their lack of empathy for their victims. This lack of empathy may reflect psychopathy, narcissism, and an extraordinary capacity to dehumanize victims, or a combination of these » (p. 175) (Dietz, Hazelwood, & Warren, 1990). • Avoidant and schizoid (Proulx, 2001).

  7. Precrime and situational factors (Dietz, Hazelwood, & Warren, 1990) • Low self-esteem • Deviant sexual fantasies • Careful planning of the offense

  8. Limitations of studies on sadistic offenders • Few empirical studies on sexual sadism • Studies with small samples • Biased samples (serial sexual murderers) • Mixed samples (sexual aggressors of adult females or males, sexual aggressors of children) • Standardized psychometric instruments rarely used

  9. Subjects • MTC-R-3 Sadism Scale – A • 43 sadistic offenders • 18 sexual murderers of women • 25 sexual aggressors of women • 98 nonsadistic offenders • 22 sexual murderers of women • 76 sexual aggressors of women

  10. Procedure • Semi-structured interview • Phallometric assessment • MCMI-I • DSM-IV, axis II

  11. Developmental factors (prior to 18 years of age) * p<.05; ** p < .01; *** p<.001

  12. Criminal career

  13. Phallometric assessment ** p < .01

  14. MCMI-I scores > 84 ** p < .01

  15. Precrime factors(48 hours before the crime) * p<.05; ** p < .01; *** p<.001

  16. References Brittain, R. P. (1970). The sadistic murderer. Medicine, Science and the Law, 10, 198-207. Dietz, P. E., Hazelwood, R., & Warren, J. (1990). The sexually sadistic criminal and his offenses. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 18, 163-178. Gratzer, T., & Bradford, M. W. (1995). Offender and offense characteristics of sexual sadists A comparative study. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 40, 450-455. Krafft-Ebing, R. (1886). Psychopathia Sexualis. (F.S. Klaf-traduction, 1965). New York: Arcade. Langevin, R., Bain, J., Ben-Aron, M. K., Coulthard, R., Day, D., Handy, L., Heasman, G., Hucker, S. J., Purins, J. E., Roper, V., Russon, A. E., Webster, C. D., & Wortzman, G. (1985). Sexual aggression: Constructing a predictive equation. In R. Langevin (Ed.), Erotic preference, gender identity and aggression in men: New research studies (pp. 39-76). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. MacCulloch, M. J., Snowden, P. R., Wood, P. J. W., & Mills, H. E. (1983). Sadistic fantasy, sadistic behaviour and offending. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 20-29. Marshall, W. L., Kennedy, P., & Yates, P. (2002). Issues concerning the reliability and validity of the diagnosis of sexual sadism applied in prison settings. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and treatment, 14, 301-311. Warren, J., Hazelwood, R., & Dietz, P. (1996). The sexually sadistic serial killer. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 41, 970-974.

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