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The Sexually Sadistic Criminal and His Offences
Abstract and Figures
This is an uncontrolled, descriptive study of 30 sexually sadistic criminals. All were men, and all intentionally tortured their victims in order to arouse themselves. Their crimes often involved careful planning, the selection of strangers as victims, approaching the victim under a pretext, participation of a partner, beating victims, restraining victims and holding them captive, sexual bondage, anal rape, forced fellatio, vaginal rape, foreign object penetration, telling victims to speak particular words in a degrading manner, murder or serial killings (most often by strangulation), concealing victims' corpses, recording offenses, and keeping personal items belonging to victims.
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... Les fantaisies érotiques, communément appelées fantaisies sexuelles, sont définies comme des représentations mentales (ex. : pensées, images, dialogues internes) ayant la capacité de susciter un état d'excitation sexuelle (Leitenberg et Henning, 1995 (Beauregard et al., 2004;Beauregard et Proulx, 2002;Briken, Habermann, Kafka et al. 2006;Brittain, 1970;Chopin et Beauregard, 2020;Dietz et al., 1990;Groth et Birnbaum, 1979;Groth et al., 1977;Hazelwood et al., 1992;Karpman, 1954;Koch, Berner, Hill, et Briken, 2011;MacCulloch et al., 1983;Marshall et Hucker, 2006;Marshall et Kennedy, 2003;Nitschke et al., 2013;Prentky et al., 1989;Ressler et al., 1986;Warren et al., 1996). Certains chercheurs (Brittain, 1970;Dietz et al., 1990;MacCulloch et al., 1983; Ces dernières décennies, la majorité des chercheurs (Abel, 1989;Abel et Osborn, 1992;Beauregard, 2016;Brittain, 1970;Chopin et Beauregard, 2020;Dietz et al., 1990;Eulenberg, 1911;Gebhard et al., 1965;Gratzer et Bradford, 1995;Groth et Birnbaum, 1979;Groth et al., 1977;Kirsh et Becker, 2007;Knight et Prentky, 1990;MacCulloch et al., 1983;Porter, Wood, Worth, Earle, Drugge, et Boer, 2003;Proulx et Beauregard, 2009;Rada, 1978;Ressler et Burgess, 1985;Schrenck-Notzing et Chaddock, 1985;Stefanska, Nitschke, Carter, et Mokros, 2019;Warren et al., 1996) Gratzer et Bradford, 1995; ainsi qu'insérer des objets de forme phallique et cylindrique dans les orifices corporels de la victime (ex. ...
... : pensées, images, dialogues internes) ayant la capacité de susciter un état d'excitation sexuelle (Leitenberg et Henning, 1995 (Beauregard et al., 2004;Beauregard et Proulx, 2002;Briken, Habermann, Kafka et al. 2006;Brittain, 1970;Chopin et Beauregard, 2020;Dietz et al., 1990;Groth et Birnbaum, 1979;Groth et al., 1977;Hazelwood et al., 1992;Karpman, 1954;Koch, Berner, Hill, et Briken, 2011;MacCulloch et al., 1983;Marshall et Hucker, 2006;Marshall et Kennedy, 2003;Nitschke et al., 2013;Prentky et al., 1989;Ressler et al., 1986;Warren et al., 1996). Certains chercheurs (Brittain, 1970;Dietz et al., 1990;MacCulloch et al., 1983; Ces dernières décennies, la majorité des chercheurs (Abel, 1989;Abel et Osborn, 1992;Beauregard, 2016;Brittain, 1970;Chopin et Beauregard, 2020;Dietz et al., 1990;Eulenberg, 1911;Gebhard et al., 1965;Gratzer et Bradford, 1995;Groth et Birnbaum, 1979;Groth et al., 1977;Kirsh et Becker, 2007;Knight et Prentky, 1990;MacCulloch et al., 1983;Porter, Wood, Worth, Earle, Drugge, et Boer, 2003;Proulx et Beauregard, 2009;Rada, 1978;Ressler et Burgess, 1985;Schrenck-Notzing et Chaddock, 1985;Stefanska, Nitschke, Carter, et Mokros, 2019;Warren et al., 1996) Gratzer et Bradford, 1995; ainsi qu'insérer des objets de forme phallique et cylindrique dans les orifices corporels de la victime (ex. : bâton de bois, torche électrique, bouteille de verre) (Brittain, 1970;Dietz et al., 1990;. ...
... : pensées, images, dialogues internes) ayant la capacité de susciter un état d'excitation sexuelle (Leitenberg et Henning, 1995 (Beauregard et al., 2004;Beauregard et Proulx, 2002;Briken, Habermann, Kafka et al. 2006;Brittain, 1970;Chopin et Beauregard, 2020;Dietz et al., 1990;Groth et Birnbaum, 1979;Groth et al., 1977;Hazelwood et al., 1992;Karpman, 1954;Koch, Berner, Hill, et Briken, 2011;MacCulloch et al., 1983;Marshall et Hucker, 2006;Marshall et Kennedy, 2003;Nitschke et al., 2013;Prentky et al., 1989;Ressler et al., 1986;Warren et al., 1996). Certains chercheurs (Brittain, 1970;Dietz et al., 1990;MacCulloch et al., 1983; Ces dernières décennies, la majorité des chercheurs (Abel, 1989;Abel et Osborn, 1992;Beauregard, 2016;Brittain, 1970;Chopin et Beauregard, 2020;Dietz et al., 1990;Eulenberg, 1911;Gebhard et al., 1965;Gratzer et Bradford, 1995;Groth et Birnbaum, 1979;Groth et al., 1977;Kirsh et Becker, 2007;Knight et Prentky, 1990;MacCulloch et al., 1983;Porter, Wood, Worth, Earle, Drugge, et Boer, 2003;Proulx et Beauregard, 2009;Rada, 1978;Ressler et Burgess, 1985;Schrenck-Notzing et Chaddock, 1985;Stefanska, Nitschke, Carter, et Mokros, 2019;Warren et al., 1996) Gratzer et Bradford, 1995; ainsi qu'insérer des objets de forme phallique et cylindrique dans les orifices corporels de la victime (ex. : bâton de bois, torche électrique, bouteille de verre) (Brittain, 1970;Dietz et al., 1990;. ...
To date, there has been no consensus in the literature on the characteristics of the sadistic sexual aggressor. This has been largely the result of the limitations of studies of this phenomenon (e.g., idiosyncratic definitions of sexual sadism, heterogeneous samples, temporality fixed at adulthood). In an effort to address these limitations, we identified the distinguishing features of sadistic (n = 69) and nonsadistic (n = 137) sexual aggressors against adult women, all of whom were incarcerated in Quebec (Canada), using the Severe Sexual Sadism Scale (SESAS), an empirically validated measurement instrument for sexual sadism, as well as other variables. Bivariate (chi-square) analyses revealed that sadistic and nonsadistic sexual aggressors of adult women differed in several ways, including developmental (e.g., victimization before age 18), psychological (e.g., personality, psychopathology), sexological (e.g., deviant sexual fantasies), and criminological (e.g., modus operandi). To determine whether sexual sadism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, latent class analyses were conducted on the SESAS items. These analyses revealed that sexual sadism is not heterogeneous, manifesting itself differently depending on the characteristics of the sexual aggressor. The above results and their theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.
... DeLisi et al. (2017) agree and state that perpetrators of homicides involving ideation, planning, and contemplation are more likely to be chronic offenders. Furthermore, studies have shown that a high proportion of sadistic serial offenders plan their homicides (Dietz, Hazelwood, & Warren, 1990). ...
... DeLisi et al. (2017) agree and state that perpetrators of homicides involving ideation, planning, and contemplation are more likely to be chronic offenders. Furthermore, studies have shown that a high proportion of sadistic serial offenders plan their homicides (Dietz, Hazelwood, & Warren, 1990). ...
Purpose
The duration of time that the serial offender remains free in the community to commit murders may be seen as a direct measure of their longevity; a sign of their success. The aim of this study is to predict the duration of the serial homicide series by examining the factors that contribute to the length of time a serial murderer is able to remain free of police detection.
Methods
Generalized estimating equations with a negative binomial link function were used to examine factors predicting the duration of series in a sample of 1258 serial murder cases.
Results
Results showed that offenders' criminal history, race (i.e., White and Hispanic), and victims of minority backgrounds significantly predicted longer duration in their murder series. A combination of multiple killing methods and atypical methods also predicted longer murder series, while the moving of the victim's body predicted shorter duration in the series.
Conclusions
This study builds upon the serial homicide literature, particularly the duration of the series. Results from this study help inform investigative efforts in serial homicide cases.
... Another proposed antecedent of dark creativity can be the sadistic pleasure derived from causing the physical or emotional suffering of others. This motivator can result in actions ranging from trolling others online (Buckels et al., 2014) to more serious crimes involving sexually sadistic acts (Dietz et al., 1990). ...
The dark side of creativity entails using original thought to meet a selfish, negative, or evil goal, with or without the deliberate intent to harm others. Recent empirical advances have studied the behavioral correlates of such creativity, including associations with aggression, deception, and subclinical psychopathy. The time, therefore, seems apt to propose a theoretical framework for dark creativity’s development and manifestation. This paper outlines the AMORAL model of dark creativity, which traces a creative action from its Antecedents to Mechanisms and Operants to its Realization, and to the subsequent Aftereffects and Legacy of the act. We use both real-life and simulated examples to illustrate the application of the theory across multiple domains, from law enforcement to interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to help guide future scholarship and measurement.
... Another proposed antecedent of dark creativity can be the sadistic pleasure derived from causing the physical or emotional suffering of others. This motivator can result in actions ranging from trolling others online (Buckels et al., 2014) to more serious crimes involving sexually sadistic acts (Dietz et al., 1990). ...
The dark side of creativity entails using original thought to meet a selfish, negative, or evil goal, with or without the deliberate intent to harm others. Recent empirical advances have studied the behavioral correlates of such creativity, including associations with aggression, deception, and subclinical psychopathy. The time, therefore, seems apt to propose a theoretical framework for dark creativity’s development and manifestation. This article outlines the AMORAL model of dark creativity, which traces a creative action from its Antecedents to Mechanisms and Operants to its Realization, and to the subsequent Aftereffects and Legacy of the act. We use both real-life and simulated examples to illustrate the application of the theory across multiple domains, from law enforcement to interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to help guide future scholarship and measurement.
... Sadism is a psychological concept that can be defined as behaviors characterized by: (1) some form of violent or humiliating behavior (Abel, 1989;Groth & Birnbaum, 1978;Knight et al., 1994), (2) the victim's reaction to this behavior (e.g., being frightened, scared, or being in pain) (Marshall & Kennedy, 2003), or (3) the feeling of power and control as a result of the violence inflicted (Brittain, 1970;Dietz et al., 1990;Grubin, 1994;MacCulloch et al., 1983). Identification of sadism is traditionally done through clinical assessment and requires access to the offender. ...
When it comes to solving a sexual homicide, criminal investigators are faced with a difficult but important task. In most cases, suspect identification is challenging because these crimes are mostly perpetrated by unknown offenders with no relationship with the victims. Moreover, sexual homicides may be characterized by unusual and seemingly irrational behaviors, which render the understanding of the crime scene and its reconstruction more complex for investigators. Finally, as these crimes are relatively rare, investigators may not have developed the experience and expertise needed to manage these cases. This chapter aims to present knowledge on the crime-commission process of sexual homicide offenders to improve investigative practices. The chapter begins by reviewing different ways to operationalize sexual homicide. Then, it presents the main findings about the investigative typologies of sexual homicide as well as the crime-commission process used to successfully complete these crimes. This chapter also reviews recent findings on sexual murderers’ spatial behaviors, victims’ body disposal patterns, as well as their relationship with forensic evidence and avoidance detection strategies. The chapter concludes by discussing the main implications of these findings for police practices.
Purpose. This study investigates criminal nomadism—an individual's propensity to engage in continuous or intermittent interurban travel as a way to cope with the consequences of their criminal lifestyle and/or as a strategy to adapt to the reality of being a “career criminal.”
Methods. The criminal-career itinerary across Canada of 448 men convicted of sex offenses was reconstructed through individual interviews and analysis of detailed criminal records. Five distinct components of criminal nomadism (i.e., trips, nodes, paths, range, and mesolevel activity space), inspired by crime pattern theory, are suggested and analyzed.
Results. Results show that criminal nomadism is the reality of young and educated Whites who have a prolific criminal career interspersed with long incarceration sentences. Nomadic offenders did not wander freely and randomly, but rather seemed to be looking for opportunities and privacy. Sex-offending variables did not make a significant contribution to predictions, suggesting that criminal nomadism is more a general offending phenomenon than something specific to sex offending.
Conclusions. This study provides supporting evidence that an extensive criminal career is generally associated with a geographically scattered and nomadic lifestyle. Implications for public policies and future studies are discussed.
The goal of this review is to better understand rape and sexual violence perpetrators by synthesizing research conducted across incarcerated, college-student, and community samples. In doing so we explore prevalence and characteristics of the repeat/serial versus time-limited sexual violence perpetrators. There are parallel literatures on this general topic in the criminology and psychology/public health literatures; however, despite substantial conceptual overlap, few attempts have been made to integrate the findings up to this point. Given the occasionally conflicting views on how subtypes of perpetrators should be defined, a comprehensive review of the literature is needed to understand the characteristics of different perpetrator subtypes and to create more targeted approaches to treatment and prevention. This review highlights commonalities across studies which, despite different methodologies, support the finding that both incarcerated and nonincarcerated perpetrators can be differentiated based on the severity of tactics used (i.e., verbal coercion versus physical force). Directions for future research to facilitate the creation of a more cohesive model of perpetrator subtypes are discussed.
Passengers’ security perceptions of ride-hailing services influence their acceptance and adoption of such online-to-offline services. The current study aims to study factors that influence Chinese passengers’ security perceptions of ride-hailing services in general and for a specific ride. Based on a literature review and information sourced from focus groups, we identified three groups of issues influencing security perceptions: the perception of the risk, the situation of a specific ride, and individual differences. Through two rounds of surveys, involving 163 and 314 respondents respectively, we identified four risk factors and four situation factors. Regression analyses showed that general security perceptions of ride-hailing services were influenced by two risk factors, perceived possibility and familiarity of the risk. Situational security perceptions were only slightly influenced by the general perceived security, but more influenced by situation characteristics including interaction with the driver and the vehicle, trip companions, and trip duration. The online platform, however, had no significant influence. The differences between sexual assaults and other types of personal assaults, between ride-hailing services and traditional taxi services, and between female and male passengers were analyzed and discussed. The results provide implications on how to improve ride-hailing services to enhance passengers’ perceived security.
The psychiatric literature suggests that paraphiliacs can be expected to participate in only one type of deviant sexual behavior. Using self-reports gathered with assured confidentiality from 561 nonincarcerated paraphiliacs, we discovered that most paraphiliacs have had significant experience with as many as ten different types of deviant sexual behavior without regard, in many cases, to gender, age, and familial relationship of the victim. The relevance of these findings to our understanding of paraphiliacs and their treatment is discussed.
THE WIDESPREAD concern over the apparently increasing crime rate needs no documentation. The extent of criminal behavior may be suggested by the following quotation from the 1967 report entitled The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. "In the United States today, one boy in six is referred to the juvenile court. A Commission survey shows that in 1965 more than two million Americans were received in prisons or juvenile training schools, or placed on probation." The report estimates that the annual cost of crime in the United States is about 21 billion dollars, of which about 4.2 billion dollars are for public expenditures such as police, courts, and prisons.
The role of psychiatry in understanding and modifying this extensive and costly criminal behavior is not clear and is a subject of controversy. Since 1959, the senior author
Rape is a subject more apt to provoke emotion or cynicism than careful research. However, John Macdonald, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado and psychiatrist to the district courts of Colorado, has done a great deal of research and presented it in this interesting volume. He has interviewed rapists and their victims, has reviewed the literature, and evaluated the available statistics.He discusses the many circumstances under which rape may occur and gives verbatim accounts of the experiences of the girls and sometimes of their attackers. Incidentally, not all the victims can be called girls. He mentions one case of rape of an 85-year-old woman. He shows that in some instances victims provoked the attack or at least contributed to it by their unwise behavior. In other instances they were purely innocent victims. They were of all races, the majority single but some married, most of lower
The origins of detective magazines can be traced to 17th and 18th century crime pamphlets and to 19th century periodicals that Lombroso called "really criminal newspapers." Content analysis of current detective magazines shows that their covers juxtapose erotic images with images of violence, bondage, and domination; that their articles provide lurid descriptions of murder, rape, and torture; and that they publish advertisements for weapons, burglary and car theft tools, false identification, and sexual aids. Six case histories of sexual sadists illustrate the use of these magazines as a source of fantasy material. We postulate that detective magazines may contribute to the development of sexual sadism, facilitate sadistic fantasies, and serve as training manuals and equipment catalogs for criminals. We recommend that detective magazines be considered during policy debates about media violence and pornography.
This paper explores the genesis of sadistic behaviour in men and its relationship to crime. Sixteen male special hospital patients, each with a diagnosis of psychopathic disorder, formed the basis of this descriptive study. In only three cases were the crimes explicable in terms of external circumstances and personality traits. The offences of the remaining 13 cases became comprehensible only when the offender's internal circumstances were explored: investigation revealed repetitive sadistic masturbatory fantasies which had spilled over into overt behaviour because the patients had felt impelled to seek and create increasingly dangerous in vivo 'try-outs' of their fantasies. The paper discusses the crucial link between sadistic fantasy and behaviour.