Is Investigative Awareness a Distinctive Feature of Sexual Sadism?

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 specifi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of interpersonal violence 2020-04, Vol.35 (7-8), p.1761-1778
Main Authors: Reale, Kylie, Beauregard, Eric, Martineau, Melissa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Canada
Criminal Behavior
Criminal investigations
Criminals - psychology
Homicide
Homicide - psychology
Humans
Logistic Models
Murders & murder attempts
Offenses
Paraphilias
Police
Sadism
Sex offenders
Sex Offenses - psychology
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0886-2605
1552-6518
DOI:10.1177/0886260517698824