Short essay

Assignment 2: Note: please refer to the DSM IV TR criteria for sadism for this assignment. Please find a real example of a serial murderer in history and provide examples from the individual that justifies that they meet the clinical definition of a sadist. If you want you may pick a character in a film. That said you MUST fully justify that the individual example meets the clinical definition for sadism.

Each assignment response needs to be 1000 words, with APA 6th ed citations and references. Do Not Use MLA or any other form of referencing.

Turnitin.com is a web-based plagiarism prevention application licensed, for campus use, through the APUS Online Library. Students will not have to submit papers to Turnitin. The assignment section automatically checks and the class instructor will check other assignments as needed.

WEEK/LESSON 6

This week we will be discussing sexual sadism and sexual homicide. The focus of learning this week should be in the diagnosis of these disorders.

Objectives

LO1: Summarize the link between mental illness and criminal behavior.

LO2: Debate how mental health issues influence behavior.

LO3: Synthesize the mental health diagnosis of sadism.

Introduction

The topics for this week, sexual sadism and sexual homicide, can be related in that some sexual homicides may be the outcome of the mental illness of sexual sadism (Healey, Lussier, & Beauregard, 2012), but the two are not necessarily inclusive of each other. In general, sexual sadism is a mental disorder that takes the form of rape (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013; Healey et al., 2012), while sexual homicide is a type of murder. The commonalities lie in the fact that they both regard some form of sexual gratification, involve an unwilling partner or victim, and deemed illegal. Also, interestingly, both tend to be perpetrated primarily by men rather than women (Chan & Frei, 2013; Pflugradt & Allen, 2012; Wijkman, Bijleveld, & Hendriks, 2010).

Sexual Sadism

As stated in the introduction, sexual sadism is a mental illness or disorder. It is described as an overwhelming desire to achieve sexual gratification at the expense of pain and suffering (physically and psychologically) of others (APA, 2013) and this is how it differs in general from rape. Rape is the forcing of sexual acts for the primary purpose of sexual gratification, not with the intent to gain gratification through psychological and physical pain rather than from the act of sex itself (Healey et al., 2012). The sexual sadist appears to be numb, unattached, and unaffected by the brutality and cruelty of his/her actions (Mokros, Osterheider, Hucker, & Nitschke, 2011).

Sexual sadism disorder falls under the umbrella of paraphilic disorders and as such is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The “official” criteria for diagnosis of sexual sadism disorder, according to APA (2013), is as follows:

• Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent and intense sexual arousal from the physical or psychological suffering of another person, as manifested by fantasies, urges, or behaviors.
• The individual has acted on these sexual urges with a nonconsenting person, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

However, there are those who argue that the APA diagnostic criteria relies too heavily on self-reported urges and fantasies and so recommend the use of a diagnostic instrument to measure or determine if the individual does indeed have sexual sadism disorder (Nitschek, Mokros, Osterheider, & Marshall, 2012).

In a similar vein regarding the recommendation to not solely rely on the above diagnostic criteria, is the study conducted by Pflugradt and Allen (2012) in which the focus was on female sexual sadists. Their findings indicated there were psychological and behavioral pattern differences in female sadists that are not covered by the APA diagnostic criteria (Pflugradt & Allen, 2012; see also Wijkman et al., 2010). These seeming shortfalls within the DSM criteria listing could be due to the fact that the majority of sadists are men.

It should be noted that while all sexual sadists are sex offenders, not all sex offenders are

sadists (Mokros et al., 2011). In a study of 100 male sex offenders, 50 were diagnosed as suffering from sadistic disorders and the others were believed to have psychopathic tendencies. Interestingly, psychopathic tendencies were found to be the prelude to the development of sexual sadism (Mokros et al., 2011).

Sexual Homicide

As stated earlier and as the name implies, sexual homicide is a type of murder, however there is no set definition or means of determining if the murder was truly sexual or not. The majority of experts state for a homicide to be labeled as sexual, there must be a sexual element present either physically or via symbolism (Chan & Frei, 2013; Greenall, 2012; Healey et al., 2012). The sexual elements can be the absence of clothing, particularly showing genitalia; evidence of some type of intercourse having taken place; positioning of the body in a sexual manner; sexually suggestive clothing on the victim; and or indications of sadism (Chan & Frei, 2013; Greenall, 2012; Healey et al., 2012; Khachatryan, Heide, Hummel, & Chan, 2014).

The occurrence of sexual homicides in comparison to all other homicides is relatively low, as some report that it amounts to only 1% of murders nationwide (Chan & Frei, 2013). However, the outcry it creates from society due to the violent nature of the crime makes sexual homicides appear to be more rampant (Chan & Frei, 2013; Greenall, 2012). Additionally, while some sexual homicides include sadistic elements and or be committed by sadists, the diagnosis differs between sadists and sexual murderers (Healey et al., 2012). Healey et al. (2012) found that crime scene indicators and behaviors differed significantly between sadistic murders and non-sadistic murders with sadistic murders aligning with the diagnostic criteria of sexual sadism disorder. Nevertheless, the psychological reasons or causes for the commission of sexual homicide may be related to other mental disorders, such psychopathy, substance abuse, aggression related disorders, and antisocial behavioral disorders (Kerr, Beech, & Murphy, 2013; Sewall, Krupp, & Lalumiere, 2013).

One final note is that sexual homicide most commonly occurs with the opposite sex (predominantly male on female) and race, but same sex and differing race sexual homicides do occur (Chan & Frei, 2013; Kerr et al., 2013; Khachatryan et al., 2014; Pflugradt & Allen, 2012; Wijkman, Bijleveld, & Hendriks, 2010). Also, it is not uncommon for juveniles to commit sexual homicides whereby the majority are tried as adults due to the heinous nature of the crime (Khachatryan et al., 2014).

Summation

Overall, the primary difference between sexual sadism and sexual homicide is the first is believed to be the result of a mental illness (APA, 2013), whereas the later isn’t necessarily related to mental illness, but could be the result of accidental death or loss of control (Greenall, 2012). It was also noted that the diagnosis of sexual sadism differs somewhat between genders, just as it does with respect to sexual homicide (Chan & Frei, 2013; Kerr et al., 2013; Pflugradt & Allen, 2012; Wijkman et al., 2010). Lastly, while both sexual sadists and sexual murderers are identified as sexual offenders, not all sexual offenders are sadists and or murderers (Mokros et al., 2011).

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental

disorders, fifth edition. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.

Chan, H. C., & Frei, A. (2013). Female sexual homicide offenders: An examination of an

underresearched offender population. Homicide Studies, 17(1), 96-118.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1088767912449625

Greenall, P. V. (2012). Understanding sexual homicide. The Journal of Sexual Aggression.

18(3), 338-354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2011.596287

Healey, J., Lussier, P., & Beauregard, E. (2012). Sexual sadism in the context of rape and sexual

homicide: An examination of crime scene indicators. International Journal of Offender

Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 57(4), 402-424. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 0306624X12437536

Kerr, K. J., Beech, A. R., & Murphy, D. (2013). Sexual homicide: Definition, motivation and

comparison with other forms of sexual offending. Aggression and Violent Behavior,

18(1), 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2012.05.006

Khachatryan, N., Heide, K. M., Hummel, E. V., & Chan, H. C. (2014). Juvenile sexual homicide

offenders: Thirty-year follow-up investigation. International Journal of Offender

Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 0306624X14552062

Mokros, A., Osterheider, M., Hucker, S. J., & Nitschke, J. (2011). Psychopathy and sexual

sadism. Law and Human Behavior, 35(3), 188-199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/

s10979-010-9221-9

Nitschke, J., Mokros, A., Osterheider, M., & Marshall, W. L. (2012). Sexual sadism:

Current diagnostic vagueness and the benefit of behavioral definitions. International

Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 57(12), 1441-1453.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306624X12465923

Pflugradt, D., & Allen, B. (2012). A grounded theory analysis of sexual sadism in females.

Journal of Sexual Aggression, 18(3), 325-413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 13552600.2011.597058

Sewall, L. A., Krupp, D. B., & Lalumiere, M. L. (2013). A test of two typologies of sexual

homicide. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 25(1), 82-100.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1079063212452617

Wijkman, M., Bijleveld, C., & Hendriks, J. (2010). Women don’t do such things! Characteristics

of female sex offenders and offender types. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and

Treatment, 22(2), 135-156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1079063210363826

 

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