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Psychiatric disorders in single and multiple sexual murderers
Andreas Hill1, Niels Habermann, Wolfgang Berner
1Institute of Sex Research and Forensic Psychiatry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. hill@uke-uni.hamburg.de
Psychopathology
|October 24, 2006
Summary
Multiple sexual murderers often exhibit sexual sadism, antisociality, and schizoid personality disorders. These findings aid in assessing risks associated with sexual homicide perpetrators.
Area of Science:
- Forensic Psychiatry
- Psychopathology
Background:
- Sexual homicides, especially those with multiple victims, garner significant public and expert attention.
- Understanding the psychiatric profiles of sexual murderers is crucial for forensic assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess psychiatric disorders in a large sample of sexual murderers.
- To identify specific disorders associated with multiple sexual homicides.
Main Methods:
- Evaluation of psychiatric court reports for 166 German men convicted of sexual homicide.
- Utilized DSM-IV criteria, Structured Clinical Interview for personality disorders, and the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.
- Compared offenders with single victims (n=130) to those with multiple victims (n=36).
Main Results:
- High prevalence of lifetime substance abuse, paraphilias (sexual sadism), sexual dysfunctions, and personality disorders (antisocial, borderline, sadistic, schizoid).
- Multiple sexual murderers showed higher rates of sexual sadism, voyeurism, sadistic, antisocial, and schizoid personality disorders compared to single-victim offenders.
- No multiple offenders were diagnosed with mood disorders.
Conclusions:
- Multiple sexual murderers are characterized by sexual sadism, 'character' sadism, antisociality, and schizoid personality disorders.
- Comprehensive diagnostic evaluation of Axis I and Axis II disorders is recommended for risk assessment in sexual homicide perpetrators.
- Despite retrospective methodology, sample size and consistency with prior research support the findings.
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