Individuals who commit sexual offenses against children have been shown to be distinctive from adult offenders across both individual and crime characteristics. However, an examination of the literature shows that there are gaps in the research related to whether sadism manifests differently between those who target child compared to adult victims. The current study therefore aimed to explore the differences in the characteristics, crime-commission process, and the dimensions of sadism between sadistic crimes of children ( n = 101) compared to those of adults ( n = 433). Sexual sadism was assessed with the Sexual Sadism Scale (SeSaS) and binary logistic regression analysis and multidimensional scale analysis (MDS) were performed to examine differences between these two groups. Our results showed that sadistic fantasies manifested into four dimensions for both adult and child victims. In terms of differences, sadistic sexual offenses involving children appear to be reflective of deviant fantasies related to overlapping paraphilias (e.g., sadism and pedophilia). Conversely, sadistic crimes involving adult victims involve a crime-commission process that involves a greater degree of structure to control their adult victim and decrease their risk of identification. Implications for clinical assessment and police investigations are discussed.
Who are the women who commit sexual assault? 2 Who are the women who commit sexual assault? Résumé (français): Jusqu'à tout récemment, la simple idée qu'une femme puisse commettre ou favoriser la commission de comportements sexuels coercitifs était tout simplement impensable ; cela va à l'encontre de la croyance populaire selon laquelle la femme est un être fondamentalement bon. Ce n'est que ces dernières années que la recherche a mis en lumière que la délinquance sexuelle n'est pas un phénomène qui soit propre aux hommes, et que les femmes aussi commettent des agressions sexuelles ; parfois, sous la contrainte et, d'autres fois, de leur plein gré ; parfois, en solitaire et, d'autre fois, avec un partenaire. Qui sont donc ces femmes ? C'est à cette question que le présent article de vulgarisation scientifique tente de répondre. Nous commencerons par examiner les grands mythes entourant la délinquance sexuelle des femmes et l'influence qu'ont eue ces derniers sur le taux de prévalence de ce type de délinquance. Nous brosserons ensuite le portrait type de la délinquante sexuelle, tout en explorant les distinctions qui existent entre celles qui agissent seules et celles qui agissent avec un partenaire. Finalement, nous examinerons les paramètres à prendre en considération dans la prise en charge de ces femmes dans un contexte thérapeutique.
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