Case study
Bill has been convicted for the manslaughter, kidnapping, forcible confinement, and sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman. He had no previous convictions when he committed this sexual homicide.
Bill came from a dysfunctional family. He had a brother and a sister. His father was described as submissive; he was often away due to his forestry work. His mother on the other hand was portrayed as authoritarian, and violent; a woman who liked to humiliate and degrade her children. Bill was her preferred target. He was subjected to psychological and physical violence at the hands of his mother. For instance, when he would contradict his mother, she would use physical violence to correct him. She paired this physical violence with psychological abuse, treating him as if he was worthless. This violence led Bill to develop deviant fantasies toward his mother but also a positive bond with his father. His father was well aware of his wife’s disposition and tendency toward abusive behavior. He would tell Bill: “Don’t worry, your mom is crazy; I know, I live with her.” Bill felt assured when he was with his father. However, because his father was often away, Bill often had to face his mother alone.
During our interview, Bill reported a number of traumatic events that happened during his childhood. At seven years old, Bill was sexually assaulted by his brother. His brother committed fellatio on him and masturbated in front of him. Three years later, his brother sodomized him, as he wanted to experience penetration. Bill was hesitant to characterize this event as abuse. To him, it seemed more like sexual experimentation. However, he reported that during the event, he wanted his brother to stop because of the pain and his brother did not. In addition to the physical pain Bill suffered, he explained that his brother reported what he had done to his mother. Instead of punishing his brother, Bill’s mother laughed at him. She continued to refer to the event in the coming weeks, always laughing at him.
Bill had another traumatic experience at the age of 12 or 13. Bill wanted to experience penetration. One evening, while he was feeling sexually aroused, he decided to penetrate a goat that was living close by. Unfortunately, Bill’s brother saw what Bill did and told their mother. According to Bill, he was only experimenting. His mother’s reaction was to humiliate Bill. Often, during dinner time, she would take the goat and attach it to the dinner table. She would then ask the other family members if the goat was getting bigger, suggesting it might be pregnant. Moreover, she often threatened Bill that she would tell his future girlfriends that his first girlfriend was a goat. Bill explained that living with his mother felt like a death sentence. He lived in constant fear that she would tell someone about the incident with the goat. As long as he did everything his mother asked of him everything would be fine. However, Bill decided that if his mother told anyone else about the event, he would kill himself. To make matters worse, following this event, his father became distant.
Bill was acting-out at school in order to blow off some steam. He had disciplinary problems, he was rebellious, and he was obtaining poor grades. He finally decided to leave his family at 18 years of age. It is at this age that Bill first experienced sexual intercourse with a woman. He only had two serious relationships with women. The frequency of sexual relations – when he was in a relationship – was two to three times a day. Bill reported a problem of premature ejaculation.
Bill reported that before the murder he had been having deviant sexual fantasies. Specifically he would fantasize about picking up a hitchhiker in his van and driving to a deserted area where he would tie the victim to a tree, naked. In his fantasy, the victim would first try to resist and then would eventually agree to sexual contact. The day of the murder, Bill was particularly upset. He was worried about losing his girlfriend and he was very jealous. At times when he felt this way he would use pornography and erotic phone lines compulsively. As the deviant sexual fantasies became overwhelming, Bill decided to go out to a bar to have a few drinks. After a few drinks, he decided to leave the bar and stopped at a 24-hour restaurant to have something to eat. At the restaurant, the waitress refused to serve him indicating that the owner did not accept intoxicated patrons. This angered Bill and he went outside to retrieve his knife from his truck. He grabbed the waitress by the arm and forced her into his truck. His anger did not dissipate but rather accumulated, especially given his deviant sexual fantasies of rape. He drove for a while and began to think about the trouble he would find himself in if he continued. He realized that he could lose the things in his life that were most important to him: his girlfriend and his job. When he decided to turn around, his truck got stuck in the snow. Bill got out of the truck and intended to go get some help. The victim, afraid to be left alone, grabbed him by the arm. In response, Bill punched her in the face. Bill then raped her outside of the truck. After raping the victim, he left to go get some help. When he returned to the truck, the victim had disappeared. Just as he was getting into the truck, the victim jumped on him from behind. Bill took his knife and stabbed her seven times. Bill left the victim, who was still alive, at the scene. After returning home, Bill noticed blood on his face and on his clothes. He took a shower, made sure to wash all his clothes and went to bed. He did not sleep well, thinking about what he had done. He decided to return to the crime scene, bringing along some garbage bags. The victim’s body was not in the location where he had left her. The victim had crawled about 10 feet from the attack site before succumbing to her injuries. Bill wrapped the body in garbage bags and disposed of the body a few kilometers from the crime scene. What he had failed to notice at the time, is that he dumped the body directly under a street light. The police found the body a few hours later, and through investigation were able to identify Bill as the prime suspect.
Introduction
In his 2003 paper, Langevin asked the question of whether it is possible to identify sexual murderers before it is too late. More specifically, at issue is whether it is possible to identify sex offenders who will eventually kill a victim by examining factors present in childhood. Despite the enormous amount of research in developmental and life-course criminology (e.g., Laub & Sampson, 2003), very few studies have looked specifically at the developmental factors that are associated with sexual homicide. Most of the studies have identified factors that can partially explain why certain individuals commit crime but very few are able to predict the particular type of crime that an individual will go on to commit. It is important to identify general criminogenic factors so that we can better identify those most at risk of engaging in a criminal lifestyle. However, it would be of greater use to criminal justice professionals if we could map out those developmental factors which lead to specific types of criminality. Can we identify development factors that lead to sexual offending? Needless to say, sex crimes attract a lot of attention. If we can identify a developmental pathway that fosters sexual deviance, then the concern becomes not only which offenders will recidivate, but which ones will escalate. What is the likelihood that the offender will kill his next victim? Is it possible to identify these cases through a comprehensive examination of factors that are present during the childhood of these individuals?
This chapter focuses on the developmental factors associated with sexual homicide. The aim is to review existing literature and attempt to identify risk factors present in the childhood of sexual murderers that may explain why, compared to other sex offenders, they commit fatal crimes. This chapter begins with a review of the various theoretical models that have been proposed by researchers over the years. Interestingly, all the theoretical models suggest that the etiology of sexual homicide can be found in childhood. Then, we examine existing empirical research to find support for those factors identified by the theoretical models and whether empirical research has been able to confirm the hypotheses suggested by the theoretical models. The chapter continues by presenting findings on the developmental factors associated with sexual homicide and investigating whether these factors are more important in sexual murderers compared to non-homicidal sex offenders. We conclude by suggesting new ways to look at developmental factors related to sexual homicide and how this could influence criminal investigation and correctional practice.
Despite research indicating that the outcome (e.g., lethal or not) of a sexual crime is highly dependent on situational factors (e.g., Beauregard & Mieczkowski, 2012;...
