Serial and non-serial sexual murderers: An exploratory study of developmental antecedents

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

When an individual is accused of committing a sexual homicide, one objective is to collect as much information as possible on the accused’s childhood, in order to prepared the trial and answer one of the main questions posed by professionals and the general public: “What was it in this person’s childhood that made him into a sexual murderer?” To this end, the accused, his family, his childhood friends, his neighbours, and his teachers are interviewed extensively: “Could you tell us about your childhood? What type of child was he?” etc. The information collected serves not only to understand the origins of the murder, but also to identify the risk factors associated with his sexual homicide, in order to attenuate them and thus reduce the risk of recidivism. The objective of this study was to identify similarities and differences in the developmental antecedents of serial and non-serial sexual murderers. To this end, multiple domains—such as neuropsychological functioning, family and social environment, and educational and behavioural development during childhood and adolescence—were examined from birth to adulthood. A sample of 55 male individuals was included for this study. Forensic and theoretical implication will be discussed.

Authors

• Jonathan James, University of Montreal

• Patrick Lussier, Université Laval

• Jean Proulx, University of Montreal