Sexual Murder of Women

• In Event: Roundtable: When Men Murder Women

Abstract

Despite a considerable public and academic fascination with sexual serial killings there is scant research on sexual murders. A recent review of this research found only thirty relevant articles and many of these lacked conceptual and empirical rigour. In this paper we briefly consider this research and the analytic and methodological challenges associated with researching sexual murder. We then focus on the analysis of 98 cases of sexual murder of women. The analysis indicates: that the lifecourse of the perpetrators reflects considerable adversity – their childhoods were characterized by isolation and behavioural problems; adult lives by numerous convictions, many for violence; difficulties in intimate relationships, usually linked to a sense of entitlement, and a history of violence against women. Around half of these offenders could be considered sexual aggressors having been convicted of sexual violence and/or characterized by a history of previous sexual violence that was undetected and unreported. The circumstances of these murders generally involved men “changing the project” from a sexual assault using physical violence to one employing lethal violence to overcome women in order to carry-out a sexual attack. Once in prison these men generally expressed little remorse for the murder or empathy with the victim.

Author

• Russell P. Dobash, University of Manchester