The significance of unusual acts in sexual homicide

Abstract

In addition to being an unusual form of crime, sexual homicide (SH) sometimes includes unusual crime scene behaviours, such as carving on the victim, evisceration (i.e., removal of internal organs), skinning the victim, cannibalism and vampirism. The current study investigates these unusual crime scene behaviours to better understand their meaning as well as to explore whether such behaviours are associated with a specific crime‐commission process. Using a sample of 762 SH cases, the study uses a combination of chi‐square and stepwise forward logistic regression analyses to identify the differences between cases with and without unusual acts. Findings reveal that SH cases with unusual acts present a specific crime‐commission process. This crime‐commission process is characterised by a greater level of sadism—as demonstrated by the presence of mutilation and foreign object insertion—as well as a greater level of organisation from the selection of a contact location where the risk of being seen or heard was low. These findings provide a better understanding of these behaviours and could help investigators facing such cases.

Unveiling the shadows: Investigating the interplay of stalking and sexual homicide—A case study

“…Furthermore, while sexual sadism is an important motivational factor in sexual homicide (Longpré et al, 2020), with studies reporting a prevalence of sadism ranging between 29.3% and 37% among sexual murders (James & Proulx, 2016;Stefanska et al, 2018), it is not a feature for all cases. Other situational circumstances include cases where the victim is killed to eliminate a witness or where the victim is killed when resisting sexual assault (Georgoulis et al, 2023;Stefanska et al, 2020;Sun et al, 2023). While both men and non-binary identifying can be victims of sexual homicide, and women and non-binary identifying can be perpetrators, a majority of victims are women and a majority of perpetrators are men Stefanska et al, 2016).…”

How to get away with (sexual) murder? Unraveling cold cases in sexual homicide using a hybrid modeling probabilistic approach

“…The brutality and perceived senselessness of SH incidents instill fear within communities and attract the most media attention of all crime categories (Wolfgang et al., 1985), consequently exerting additional pressure on law enforcement agencies. Given that SH cases often exhibit unique characteristics unlike the majority of homicides—extreme acts including foreign object insertion, necrophilia, mutilation, overkill, and dismemberment (Beauregard et al., 2020; Chopin & Beauregard, 2020a, 2020b, 2021a; Koeppel et al., 2019; Stein et al., 2010; Sun et al., 2023)—the intricacy of these cases, coupled with their relatively low occurrence rate, exacerbates the challenges faced by police in solving such crimes (Beauregard & Martineau, 2017). This complexity often leads to these cases becoming cold cases (Davis et al., 2014).…”