No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
A Study of Stab wounds in Sexual Homicides
... Indeed, in their study of 766 homicide cases, 110 of which involved multiple stabbings, Radojević et al. (2013) found that the association between multiple stabbing and sex-related homicide rises in accordance with the number of wounds inflicted. Similarly, Rao (2014) found in a study of 86 sexual homicides the minimum number of stab wounds inflicted was ten, rising to a high of 41 to 50 in 8 cases. ...
Piquerism, the sexual gratification yielded from the infliction of cutting, stabbing, and slicing wounds, remains an under-researched sexual paraphilic disorder with consequences for understanding, identification, detection, case linkage, and offender treatment. To help remedy that research deficit, a detailed case analysis is presented of a series of ‘ripper’ homicides to demonstrate common crime scene indicators and characteristics of piquerism. A case in which victims displayed overkill injuries has been chosen owing to the difficulty, even for seasoned investigators, to identify piquerism when the crime scene immediately suggests anger rather than a sexual motivation. In so doing, the knowledge base regarding this rare paraphilic disorder is expanded and directions for future research are noted.
Controversies exist about the diagnostic validity of sexual sadism and its relation to sadistic personality disorder in sex offenders. The aim of this study was to investigate which diagnostic, developmental, and criminal characteristics differentiate sexual sadistic from non-sadistic sexual homicide perpetrators. Psychiatric court reports on 166 men who had committed a sexual homicide were evaluated regarding psychiatric, sexual and criminal history. Sixty-one offenders (36.7%) with sexual sadism (SeSd) were compared with 105 (63.3%) offenders without this diagnosis (NSeSd). Besides the sexual sadistic symptoms, there were seven factors that discriminated best between the two groups (sexual masochism, sadistic personality disorder, isolation in childhood, multiple sexual homicide, previous rape, previous tendencies for similar behavior, and long duration of the homicidal act). Sexual sadism is connected with circumscribed other characteristics and has to be considered in risk assessment and treatment of sex offenders.
Sexual sadism covers a wide range of behaviors including consenting sexual activity of a sadistic type with a consenting partner usually a masochist. It also involves criminal behavior often with extreme violence leading to sadistic sexually motivated homicides. This chapter covers the many clinical presentations of sexual sadism. It also reviews the history of sadistic behavior described in the seminal book “Psychopathia Sexualis” written by Richard von Krafft-Ebing.
The advances in criminalistics and forensic psychiatry in these present times and the combined studies of workers of the specialties of Forensic Medicine and Psychiatry has led to renewed interest in investigating and documenting sex crimes. The term offender is used for a person who actively takes part in an offence or goes blatantly against the law. The term can be simultaneously / interchangeably used for a criminal. Sex related homicides include rape murders, serial murders, killings involving both of anal and oral sodomy and other acts of sexual perversions terminating in homicide. In this paper a brief summarization of sex related crimes, their psychodynamics and offender profile is detailed with comparative comments vis-à-vis the Indian and Western scenarios.
It is possible that sexually driven homicides are the consequence of sexual deviation, but more often than not the main cause of such homicides stems from a non-paraphilic person's emotional component. It is known that homicides which involve multiple stabbing are very often the result of the assailant's highly expressed affect. This study tries to establish whether such homicides are essentially related to the sexual motives of the murderer. This paper is conducted through a retrospective autopsy study that includes 766 cases of homicides. These were reviewed and analysed according to the motive of the homicide, as well as by method, age, and gender of the victim, and the relationship between the victim and the assailant. The motives of homicides are classified as non-sexual and sexual, including homicides related to rape, jealousy, amorous affairs outside of an established relationship, deviant sexual behaviour of psychiatric patients, paraphilia, and disturbed emotional relationships between the victim and the assailant. Cases include both hetero- and homosexual relationships. Multiple stabbing occurs significantly more frequently in sex-related homicides (≥3 stab wounds) than in other homicide types. When the criteria for multiple stabbing are changed (≥4, 5, or 25 stab wounds), the percentage of sex-related homicides rises in every group in relation to the increased number of wounds. Sensitivity and specificity are represented by ROC curves for 3, 5 and 7 stab wounds. The correlation coefficients between multiple stabbing and sex-related homicides regarding gender are all near 0.9. For female victims, all homicides committed by 25 and more stab wounds were found to be sex-related. Statistically, jealousy was the most frequent motive for sex-related multiple stabbing homicides. Regardless of age, homicides involving multiple stabbings should be considered sex-related, especially when the victim is female.
In the United States, there is a paucity of studies examining sharp force injuries (SFIs), defined as an injury inflicted by cutting or stabbing with a sharp instrument. Few studies exist that discriminate between the injury patterns of suicidal or homicidal deaths incurred by SFI. In this retrospective study, all deaths secondary to SFI were evaluated at the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office from January 1988 through May 2010. Exclusion criteria were deaths occurring more than 24 hours after injury and wounds obscured by healing or extensive medical intervention. The following data were analyzed: age of decedent, sex, wound location, number of wounds, type of SFI (stab vs incised), visceral organ or vascular injury, concomitant injuries, and manner of death. Defensive injuries in homicides and hesitation marks in suicides were also recorded. A total of 418 deaths met inclusion criteria: 349 homicides, 54 suicides, 12 accidents, and 2 where the manner of death could not be determined.The average age of homicide victims was 35 years, whereas that of suicide victims was 47 years. Gender was not significantly different between the homicide and suicide groups. Homicide victims incurred a greater number of wounds per case compared with suicides, 5.3 versus 4.1, respectively, and had a greater number of stab wounds, 3.3 per case compared with 0.7 per case, respectively. Incisional wounds were statistically greater in suicides, with an average number of 3.3 per case compared with 2.1 in homicides.Injuries to the head, chest, and back were more common in homicides when compared with suicides, whereas injuries to the abdomen and extremities were more frequent in suicides. Comparison of major visceral and vascular damage between homicides and suicides revealed statistically greater injury to the heart, lungs, and thoracic vessels in homicides, but there was a greater frequency of injury to the vasculature of the extremities in suicides. The presence of additional (non-SFI) injuries was more common in homicides than in suicides. Hesitation marks/tentative wounds occurred in 35% of suicides, whereas defensive injuries occurred in 31% of homicides. This epidemiological study can assist the forensic pathologist in determining the most probable manner of death from SFI but does not substitute for a thorough examination of the circumstances of death and a meticulous autopsy.
A series of 100 deaths from homicidal stabbing has been analysed for the causation of the violence, the age and sex of both the victim and the assailant, the multiplicity of wounds, the site of single wounds, the incidence of defence wounds, association with other injuries and the weapons used.
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.
Stab-resistant body armour is now becoming a standard item of equipment for police officers in the United Kingdom. In the UK these are usually required to have a stab resistance as specified by the Police Scientific Development Branch KR42 standard [G. Parker, PSDB Stab Resistant Body Armour Test Procedure, Police Scientific Development Branch, Publication No 10/93, 1993]. There are several other test standards, all of which specify that body armour must resist penetration by a specific blade type delivered at a specific energy level or range of levels. However, the actual range of energy levels specified varies over almost an order of magnitude and the basis for these levels is not clearly defined. This paper describes tests to determine the energy range and characteristics of stabbing actions that might be directed against stab resistant body armour by an assailant. The energy and velocity that can be achieved in stabbing actions has been determined for a number of sample populations. Volunteers were asked to stab a target using an instrumented knife that measured the axial force and acceleration during the stabbing. The maximum energy obtained in underarm stabbing actions was 64 J whilst overarm stabbing actions could produce 115 J. The loads produced on contact with the target often approached 1000 N.
While it has been frequently suggested that sexual deviations are learned, the learning has usually been thought of as taking place during one traumatic experience. From a study of 45 sexual deviants, the authors believe that it is often a much more gradual process occurring during masturbation to a memory, which need not have been sexually stimulating at the time of the initial experience and which often alters with the passage of time. The hypothesis is illustrated from case histories of pedophilia, exhibitionism, homosexuality, voyeurism and transvestism. The implications for both aversive treatment of deviations and positive conditioning to normal sex are considered.
Medico-Legal Study of Fatal Wounds in Bagdad. The Iraqi
- A Muataz
- Al-Qazzaz
- Ali Zaid
- Abbas
Muataz A, Al-Qazzaz, Zaid Ali Abbas, (2013) Medico-Legal Study of Fatal
Wounds in Bagdad. The Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal 12(1).
- A C Hunt
- R J Cowling
Hunt A.C., Cowling R.J. (1991), 'Murder by stabbing', Forensic Science
International, 52:107-112.
Morphology of knife wounds
- A C Hunt
Hunt A.C. (2003), 'Morphology of knife wounds', Presentation to the British Association in Forensic Medicine Winter Meeting, Cardiff, Wales.
Abnormal psychology and modern life
- J C Coleman
- I N Butcher
- R C Corson
Coleman JC, Butcher IN, Corson RC, (1984).Abnormal psychology and
modern life. (7th edtn),Texas: Scott Freshman and Co. 457.