Psychiatric Disorders in Single and Multiple Sexual Murderers

Abstract

Background: Sexual homicides – and particularly offenders with multiple victims – receive much attention in the general public as well as among forensic experts. The aim of this study was to assess psychiatric disorders in a large sample of sexual murderers and to identify disorders related to multiple sexual homicides. Sampling and Methods: Psychiatric court reports from 20 German forensic psychiatrists on 166 men who had committed a sexual homicide were evaluated for psychiatric disorders according to DSM-IV, including standardized instruments for personality disorders (criteria from the Structured Clinical Interview) and psychopathy (Psychopathy Checklist-Revised). Offenders with a single sexual homicide victim (n = 130) were compared to those with multiple victims (n = 36). Results: High lifetime prevalence rates were found for substance abuse or dependence, paraphilias (especially sexual sadism), sexual dysfunctions and personality disorders (especially antisocial, borderline, sadistic and schizoid). In the multiple sexual murderer group sexual sadism, voyeurism, sadistic, antisocial and schizoid personality disorders were more frequent than in the single-victim group; none of the multiple offenders was diagnosed with a mood disorder. Conclusions and Limitations: Multiple sexual murderers are characterized by disorders in three major psychopathological domains: sexual as well as ‘character’ sadism, antisociality and schizoid personality. A thorough diagnostic evaluation of Axis I as well as Axis II disorders should be part of risk assessments in sexual homicide perpetrators. Although the study was a retrospective investigation on psychiatric court reports, the size of the sample and consistency with results from previous studies give confidence that the identified group differences are unlikely to be due to methodological limitations.

Self‐reported psychopathology in a convicted serial killer

“…Research has shown that mentally ill individuals are at a higher risk of violence, including homicide (Schanda et al, 2004). Furthermore, numerous disorders have been found in samples of sexual homicide offenders (Hill, Habermann, Berner, & Briken, 2007). This research is one of the very few (see also Beasley, 2004) that gather psychological measure data from the actual killer to better understand the underlying persona of one particular inmate.…”

Sexual Homicide Committed by a Family Member: Report of Two Cases and Discussion of Its Motivation Factors

“…As our cases, victims are usually females [9,13], but sex related homicides can involve, as well as, heterosexual and homosexual relationships [8,32]. Generally, most of the victims (65-90%) are strangers or casual acquaintances, rather than a consensual sexual partner of the offenders [8].…”

“…Compared to non-sexual homicide offenders, psychopaths are significantly more likely to commit sexual homicide [8]. Indeed, personality disorder, psychopathy, paraphilia, paraphiliarelated disorders and sadistic sexual fantasy may, usually, explain this terrible form of violence [9].…”

What clinicians need to know before assessing risk in sexual offenders

“…Most rapists do not have paraphilias and very few are sexually sadistic. However, up to 80% of sexual murderers have paraphilias (Hill 2007;Proulx 2007).…”