What are the motivation behind sexual serial homocide - Essay Example

er in which sexual contact is explicit" (Kellaher, 2004), other experts attribute this term to the homicidal act only if "the perpetrator describes an internal feeling of arousal" (Kellaher, 2004). There are some observations which indicate that the murder is sexual homicide. They are exposure of sexual parts of the body of the victim, victim attire, lack of victim attire, presence of the body of the victim in sexual position, presence of foreign bodies in the various cavities of the body of the victim, evidence of intercourse either, vaginally, orally or sexually and presence of evidence of substitute sexual interest, sexual activity or sadistic fantasy (Mirich, 2004).

According to Schlesinger (2004), there is a dire need to understand the acts of sexual homicide by examining the criminal psychodynamics and also the crime context. Schlesinger (2004) emphasizes the need for forensic examiners to review and evaluate the statements made by witnesses and also collateral histories as available from the family members of the criminals and the employers. The numbers of sexual homicide cases which occur are not much known, but they constitute to about less than 1% of all murders.

Over the past 35 years, it has been estimated that the rate of sexual murder has almost tripled. According to experts, in about 43% of cases, the victim was a stranger to the assailant and there was no known connection. According to the FBI study (qtd. in Mirich, 2003), all the serial sexual murderers were male, with most of them being white. The study also revealed that most of the victims of serial sexual killing were women. Another interesting finding in the FBI study (qtd. in Mirich, 2003) was that most of the killers were eldest sons with 80% having average or above average intelligence.

Also, atleast 74% killers had a stable income and about 69% of the killers were alcoholics and 33% drug addicts. There were family histories of psychiatric disorders in 53% of killers. Many of them also