When is a murder a sexual murder? Understanding the sexual element in the classification of sexual killings

Stefanska, Ewa B.; Higgs, Tamsin; Carter, Adam J.; Beech, Anthony R.

doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2017.03.004

Cited by 27 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Moreover, as acts of mutilation often stem from existing fantasies, it is perhaps no surprise that mutilation was associated with the direct sexual killers group. Additionally, the present results concord with previous findings, that situational factors were particularly important in indirect cases whereas the crime scene behavior of direct perpetrators appeared to be linked with the enactment of existing deviant fantasies (Stefanska et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“We Boil at Different Degrees”: Factors Associated With Severity of Attack in Sexual Killing

Stefanska

Higgs

Carter

et al. 2018

J Interpers Violence

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Degree of injury, as measured by the Homicide Injury Scale (HIS), was examined to advance understanding of the dynamics of sexual killing. A total of 350 nonserial, male sexual killers were included, and the different ways that the sexual element of their offenses and the act of killing were connected was accounted for by determining that cases were either directly sexual (the sexual element and killing were closely bound), or indirectly sexual (killing was not a source of sexual stimulation). The two groups, direct and indirect sexual killers, were each subjected to multiple linear regression analyses to examine the group-specific relationship between level of injury and predictor variables previously found to be associated with increased severity of attack. No differences in the mean total HIS scores between the indirect and the direct cases were found, suggesting a comparable emotional intensity between the groups. However, given that the groups differed in terms of the functional role of fatal violence, severity of attack could not be sufficiently explained as driven by anger. In line with this hypothesis, different predictors appeared to be associated with increased degree of injury sustained by victims of indirect compared with direct sexual killers. As such, situational components appear to play a role in the behavior of indirect sexual killers, whereas the behavior of direct perpetrators tends to be linked with the enactment of existing deviant fantasies. The role of anger in sexual homicide is discussed further, and overall, it is argued that irrespective of whether violence was initially driven by anger, evidence of sexual arousal to severe violence must be scrutinized within sexual homicide research as well as in psycholegal contexts.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“We Boil at Different Degrees”: Factors Associated With Severity of Attack in Sexual Killing

Stefanska

Higgs

Carter

et al. 2018

J Interpers Violence

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“…The explanation for this could be linked to the possibility that the direct perpetrators spend more time with their victims as they enact their deviant sexual fantasies either pre-mortem through confinement and torture or post-mortem. Acts of unusual and ritualistic crime scene behaviours such as piquerism or body arrangement as well as body mutilation are frequent (Stefanska et al, 2017) and if the perpetrator acted on the environment it is possible that potential witnesses had noticed something whilst the perpetrator was still at the crime scene or shortly after when F o r P e e r R e v i e w the evidence had not been compromised. In other words, acting upon environment might draw attention to otherwise a well prepared crime and a similar effect can be found in the use of arson as a strategy to dispose of evidence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, as a next step, each case was assigned as belonging to either the direct or the indirect group and this decision was based on the evidence accepted by the court at trial. The assignment process was based on the definitions provided by Carter and Hollin (2014), and it closely followed the procedure described in Stefanska et al, 2017. In the indirect cases, three typical scenarios emerged: 1) victim was killed in order to eliminate the witness; 2) victim was killed trying to escape a sexual assault; 3) there was no sexual violence but killing occurred in a sexual context (i.e., following consensual sex).…”

Section: Procedures and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A new classification system proposed by Stefanska et al (2017) allows examining the behaviours within the criminal event in order to classify perpetrators depending on the relationship between the sexual element and the act of killing within the criminal event of the homicide. As such, Stefanska et al (2017) proposed the direct/indirect typology. In the direct type, the sexual element and the act of killing are clearly integral, and thus the killing at some point (either pre or post) provided a source of sexual stimulation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as the study relies on the prison population, it is not able to investigate the ability to avoid detection (as measured by solved/unsolved case status). Using the proposed the direct/indirect typology (Stefanska et al, 2017) the study examined whether direct and indirect sexual killers differ in their ability to delay detection and what specific precautions they use during the criminal event.…”

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confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Whiter Than White: The Art of Delaying Detection in Sexual Killers

Stefanska

Carter

2019

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol

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The study investigated whether different types of sexual homicide perpetrators are more or less skilled at delaying detection. Using the newly proposed direct/indirect typology, the time of arrest, the frequency of specific precautions as well as the impact of forensic strategies used by the perpetrators were examined. The results indicated that the time from the killing to the arrest, as measured in days, was longer for the direct than the indirect sexual killers. Despite the fact that the direct aggressors were better at delaying detection, overall the indirect and the direct offenders did not differ in the frequency of use of most of the precautions. However, different forensic awareness strategies were more efficacious for the direct and the indirect offenders. These results are discussed in relation to the crime scripts for the two perpetrator groups.

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