Sexual Murderers With Adult or Child Victims: Are They Different?

• Published in: Sexual abuse 2010-09, Vol.22 (3), p.290-314
• Main Authors: Spehr, Aranke, Hill, Andreas, Habermann, Niels, Briken, Peer, Berner, Wolfgang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Affective Disorders, Psychotic - epidemiology; Alcohol Abuse; Alcoholism - epidemiology; Antisocial behavior; Antisocial Personality Disorder - epidemiology; Child; Child sexual abuse; Children; Dangerous Behavior; Deviance; Drug abuse; Drug courts; Forensic Psychiatry - methods; Germany; Homicide; Homicide - psychology; Homicide - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Injuries; Male; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Mental Hospitals; Middle Aged; Murders & murder attempts; Narcissism; Offenses; Paraphilias; Pedophilia; Personality Disorders; Psychiatric hospitals; Psychometrics; Rape; Rape - statistics & numerical data; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Severity of Illness Index; Sex crimes; Sex offenders; Sexual disorders; Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological - epidemiology; Victims; Victims of crime; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1079-0632; 1573-286X
• DOI: 10.1177/1079063210374346

This study investigates characteristics differentiating sexually motivated murderers targeting child victims (CV; n = 35) from those with only adult victims (AV; n = 100). In the initial phase, psychiatric court reports were evaluated using standardized instruments (SCID-II, PCL-R, HCR-20, SVR-20, Static-99). In the second phase, data on duration of detention and reconviction rates were obtained from German federal criminal records. The CV group showed more often diagnostic criteria of pedophilia (43% vs. 4%) and less often alcohol abuse and drug dependency (31% vs. 55%), sexual dysfunctions (9% vs. 29%) and narcissistic personality disorder (0% vs. 13%). No significant differences were found regarding PCL-R and total risk assessment scores. Child victim perpetrators were more likely to have committed acts of sexual child abuse before the sexual homicide (46% vs. 16%) but were less likely to have committed rape or sexual assault (17% vs. 42%) or caused bodily injury (26% vs. 50%). The CV group was detained more frequently in forensic psychiatric hospitals (59% vs. 26%), but the two groups showed the same rates of release and reconviction for sexual (22% for both groups), nonsexual violent (CV 25% vs. AV 15%) and nonviolent offenses (CV 63% vs. AV 59%). Although well-known differences between nonhomicidal sexual child abusers and rapists were replicated in this study on sexual homicide perpetrators, the groups showed more similarities than differences. The high prevalence of violence and antisocial personality disorder in both groups seem to be important risk factors for committing a (sexual) homicide and might have outweighed other differences.