Sexual Sadism: Its Role in the Crime-Commission Process of Sexual Homicide of Children

Abstract

This study investigates the role of sexual sadism in the crime-commission process of sexual homicide (SH) involving child victims. A comparison between sadistic and nonsadistic cases involving child victims is conducted by examining the crime context, crime characteristics, methods of killing, body recovery characteristics, and forensic awareness strategies used by offenders. The sample comes from the Sexual Homicide International Database (SHIelD) including 135 cases of solved SHs involving child victims—35 cases with sexual sadism and 101 cases without sexual sadism. The Sexual Homicide Crime Scene Rating Scale for Sexual Sadism (SADSEX-SH) scale is used to identify sexual sadism from crime scene actions. Bivariate and multivariate analysis are performed to examine the differences between the two groups. Findings indicate that sadistic SH of children are characterized by an important level of structured premeditation, the commission of more diversified sexual acts, the use of specific method of killing, and the partial use of forensic awareness strategies. Practical implications in terms of criminal investigations are discussed.

Lethal outcome in elderly sexual violence: Escalation or different intent?

“…As suggested in several studies, sadistic offenders do not target victims but were looking for specific situations allowing them to have an easier access to vulnerable victims (46,47).…”

“…Finally, we observed a difference in the method of killing. Juvenile sadistic SHOs were more likely to use weapons to kill their victims, whereas strangulation/asphyxiation has been identified as the most common method used by adult sadists (35,46,59,60).…”

Homicidal child sexual abuse: Identifying the combinations of factors predicting a lethal outcome

“…Victim characteristics. Previous studies found that SH of children is a heterogeneous crime with different categories of victims (i.e., age, sex) assaulted in various context (i.e., everyday activities, lifestyle) (Chopin & Beauregard, 2019c, 2020bLanning, 1994). We used a total of 12 dichotomous variables to describe the victim characteristics.…”

“…There is no consistent method to operationalize what constitutes a child. In this study, we chose to follow guidelines provided by previous studies and therefore the current sample includes all cases involving victims under the age of 16 (see for example Beauregard et al, 2012;Chopin, 2017;Chopin & Beauregard, 2019c, 2020a, 2020bChopin & Caneppele, 2019;Leclerc et al, 2007;Leclerc et al, 2006;Leclerc et al, 2009;Leclerc et al, 2013;Leclerc et al, 2010Leclerc et al, , 2011Proulx et al, 2018). To be considered in this sample, there needed to be the presence of at least one of the following sexual behaviors: sexual penetration with a penis (i.e., vaginal and/or anal), fellatio, cunnilingus, penetration with fingers, masturbation, and inanimate object insertion.…”

“…2013; Stefanska et al, 2016), all cases included in the study present at least two criteria of the SH definition. This definition was used in most studies focusing on SH of children (see e.g., Beauregard et al, 2008;Chopin & Beauregard, 2019c;Chopin & Beauregard, 2020b;Skott, 2019).…”