Criminal and Behavioral Aspects of Juvenile Sexual Homicide

Abstract

This preliminary research provides a descriptive, systematic study of juvenile sexual homicide. Fourteen incarcerated juveniles, identified through a department of corrections computer search, were assessed using a structured diagnostic interview, an author-designed clinical interview, and a review of correctional files and other available records. Five of the offenders' victims survived the homicidal attack, but their cases were nevertheless included in this study as the offenders' intent was clearly to kill their victim, and the victim's survival was merely by chance. All victims were female and all offenders were male. Their crimes typically occurred in the afternoon, and involved a low-risk victim of the same race who lived in the offender's neighborhood. The sexual component of the crime consisted of vaginal rape in over one-half of the cases. Weapons, typically a knife or bludgeon, were used in all but one case. Thirteen of these youths had a prior history of violence, and twelve had previous arrests. Chaotic, abusive backgrounds and poor adjustment in school were typical for these boys. A conduct disorder diagnosis was present in twelve of the youths, and violent sexual fantasies were experienced by one-half of the sample. The findings in this study suggest that juvenile sexual murderers comprise less than 1% of juvenile murderers, and are likely to be an emotionally and behaviorally disturbed population with serious familial, academic, and environmental vulnerabilities.

Serial sexual murder by juveniles and the role of sexual sadism: An international study

“…Furthermore, this is the second study to apply the SADSEX‐SH to a juvenile sexual murder sample (Chopin & Beauregard, 2020 being the first), and it continued to show good diagnostic and psychometric properties, including a positive predictive value of 90%. The additional findings of family dysfunction and serious school problems in over 80% of the youth, and the low frequency of intellectual disability (5%) and a history of childhood sexual abuse (12%), were also in line with previous studies of JSHOs (Myers, 2002). Other noteworthy findings were torture and vaginal rape being perpetrated at the crime scenes by about half of the sample, and necrophilic and piqueristic acts committed by about a third of the offenders.…”

“…Juvenile sexual homicide (JSH) is a complex phenomenon with biopsychosocial, familial, cultural, genetic, and evolutionary roots (Chan, 2017; Myers, 2002). While the number of studies on JSH has been slowly growing in recent decades, the limited research available remains hindered by small, questionably representative samples, given that JSHs comprise just about 10% of all sexual homicides (Myers, Chan, & Mariano, 2016).…”

Multiple Homicide Offenders

“…For example, Jenkins (1992) found that multiple killings were frequently committed in conjunction with other serious crimes, such as abduction, rape, robbery, or residential burglary. Fortunately, a variety of investigators have examined the offending backgrounds of MHOs and found they generally have had official contacts with the criminal justice system (Myers, Burgess, & Nelson, 1998). For instance, Canter, Missen, and Hodge (1996) analyzed the offending backgrounds of 217 U.S. serial killers and found that 75% of them had previous convictions.…”

Epidemiology and Treatment of Juvenile Sexual Offending

“…[29] They rarely feel remorse for their actions competency. [20] and they deny offences or minimize the acts and the damage they inflict. Ferrara and McDonald [30] reported that almost one-third of ers with other violent and nonviolent juvenile offenders, found no juvenile sex offenders had some form of neurological impairment, significant difference regarding neuropsychological, intellectual, learning disability, or academic dysfunction.…”