Is Investigative Awareness a Distinctive Feature of Sexual Sadism?

Abstract

Sadistic offenders are often described as individuals who are forensically aware, who carefully plan their offenses, and preselect the location of their crime. Despite this emphasis on strategies to avoid police detection, no study has specifically examined whether this behavior or trait was specific to sadistic offenders. Utilizing a sample of 350 cases of sexual homicide from Canada, sadistic sexual homicide offenders (SHOs) are compared with nonsadistic SHOs on their investigative awareness. Results from logistic regression analyses show that sadistic SHOs are more likely to use various precautions to avoid detection and select a deserted location, in comparison with nonsadistic offenders. In addition, sadistic SHOs, despite having a lesser time to body recovery than nonsadistic offenders, are more likely to see their case remain unsolved. Implications for the assessment of sexual sadism as well as for the police investigations will be discussed.

The Unusual Victim: Understanding the Specific Crime Processes and Motivations for Elderly Sexual Homicide

“…Finally, this group of offenders is especially forensically aware because they all move the victims’ bodies and the majority will destroy forensic evidence. This feature fits with the description made by Reale, Beauregard showing that being forensically aware is a typical feature of sadistic SHOs.…”

Body Recovery After the “First 48”: Implications for Sexual Homicide Investigations

“…In this context, forensic awareness can be described as adapting the MO by taking additional actions (e.g., destroying/hiding evidence) to avoid apprehension (Davies, 1992). Currently, only a few studies have examined the extent to which offenders use forensic awareness strategies (e.g., Beauregard & Bouchard, 2010; Beauregard & Field, 2008; Beauregard & Martineau, 2014b; Reale, Beauregard, & Martineau, 2017) although, none have accounted for how forensic awareness may influence the first 48 hrs of a homicide investigation. However, a study by Beauregard and Field (2008) provides some insight into factors that can delay detection through their examinination of behaviors that indicate forensic awareness in body disposal patterns of sexual homicide offenders.…”

Factors influencing the use of forensic awareness strategies in sexual homicide

“…This association can be explained by the Locard's exchange principle (Locard, 1920); the greater the number and the more intrusive (i.e., penetration) the sexual acts, the greater the intensity of the activity and thus the probability to leave evidence at the crime scene. This association was confirmed in a study by Reale, Beauregard, and Martineau (2020) who identified that SHOs perpetrating acts of sexual sadism were more often forensically aware. They also found that sadistic SHOs were more likely to act on victims and/or the environment (e.g., deactivate a home alarm, blindfold or tie up the victim), destroy and remove forensic evidence (e.g., cleaning or setting fire to the crime scene), and use other precautions such as staging the crime scene or protecting their identity (Reale and colleagues, 2020).…”