Death in Sadistic Sexual Crimes: A Neural Network Analysis of Factors Associated With a Lethal Outcome

• Author: Julien Chopin,Eric Beauregard,Park Dietz
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211066911
• Published date: 01 August 2022
• Date: 01 August 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 8, August 2022, 1115 –1133.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211066911

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2022 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

1115

DEATH IN SADISTIC SEXUAL CRIMES

A Neural Network Analysis of Factors Associated

With a Lethal Outcome

JULIEN CHOPIN

Simon Fraser University

University of Montréal

ERIC BEAUREGARD

Simon Fraser University

PARK DIETZ

University of California, Los Angeles

Park Dietz & Associates Inc.

This study aims to determine the factors associated with the victim’s death in sadistic sexual crimes. Specifically, this article

examined whether the lethal outcome is more likely to be associated with an escalation of violence during the crime-com-

mission process, an instrumental motivation, or the manifestation of specific sadistic fantasies. We used a database including

735 cases of sadistic sexual assaults. Among this sample, 100 sadistic sexual assaults ended with a lethal outcome. Bivariate

analyses, logistic regression, and neural network models were used to identify how the different factors predicted the lethal

outcome of sadistic crimes. Our results show that the expression of sadistic behaviors associated with torture and/or bodily

punishment plays a fundamental role in the lethal outcome of sadistic sexual crimes. Theoretical and practical implications

are discussed.

Keywords: sexual sadism; neural network analysis; erotophonophilia; SeSaS; lethal outcome

INTRODUCTION

Sexual sadism is a paraphilia characterized by sexual arousal in response to (a) some

form of violent or humiliating behavior (Abel, 1989; Knight et al., 1994), (b) the victim’s

reaction to this behavior (e.g., being frightened, scared, or being in pain; see Marshall &

Kennedy, 2003), or (c) the resulting feeling of power and control as a result of the violence

AUTHORS’ NOTE: The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. the Police Chief of the French Central Office

for the Repression of Violences against Persons (Office Central de Répression des Violences aux Personnes)

and Mr the Central Director of the French Judicial Police (Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire). The

Authors want to acknowledge the Swiss National Science Foundation who kindly supported this research (Fund

no. P400PS_190994). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Julien Chopin, Terrorism,

Violence and Security Institute Research Centre, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, 8888

University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6; e-mail: julien.chopin@umontreal.ca.

1066911CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211066911Criminal Justice and BehaviorChopin et al. / Lethal Outcome in Sadistic Sexual Crimes

research-article2022

1116 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR

inflicted (Brittain, 1970; Dietz et al., 1990). Under certain conditions—met by those who

commit crimes in the service of this arousal pattern—this behavior is classified as a para-

philic disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition

(American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 696) and is described as “recurrent and intense

sexual arousal from the physical or psychological suffering of another person, as mani-

fested by fantasies, urges, or behaviors.” Moreover, sexual sadism has often been associated

with a lethal outcome in sexual crimes (i.e., sadistic sexual homicide; see Brittain, 1970;

Dietz et al., 1990; Warren et al., 1996).

Criminology has shown increasing interest in understanding what differentiates appar-

ently similar crimes that result in different outcomes. This issue has become an important

avenue of research in the area of sexual violence, and several studies have compared nonle-

thal sexual assaults with sexual homicides (e.g., Chopin & Beauregard, 2019; Chopin et al.,

2021; Mieczkowski & Beauregard, 2010). The goal of these studies was to understand what

factors were associated with the death of the victims and how these factors interact with

each other. Such studies were conducted with both heterogeneous and homogeneous sam-

ples (e.g., samples limited to child or elderly victims) of sexual assault cases and found that

the risk of a lethal outcome depended on various crime parameters (e.g., type of victims and

crime location). Surprisingly, no such exercise has been previously attempted with sexually

sadistic cases despite the fact that sadism has been commonly associated with sexual homi-

cide (e.g., Dietz et al., 1990; Warren et al., 1996). This research aims to fill that gap by

identifying which factors may explain why some individuals involved in sadistic crimes kill

their victims while others do not.

Specifically, the objective of this study is to test three hypotheses to explain the lethal

outcome. The first is associated with a crime escalation hypothesis, suggesting that the vic-

tim’s death is not part of the deviant crime-commission process (i.e., the victim’s death is

not planned or necessary to obtain sexual gratification) but rather arises from unforeseen

events (e.g., victim resistance leading to excessive force). A second hypothesis is that the

killing of the victim is instrumental in the sense that the death of the victim constitutes a

strategy for the individual involved in a crime to avoid police detection after a sexual assault

(i.e., killing a victim to prevent police identification). The third hypothesis is that lethal

outcome is related to the deviant crime-commission process, as would be expected if sadis-

tic crimes varied along a continuous spectrum that reflect a gradation in the severity or

injuriousness of sadistic behaviors, the most extreme of which could lead to the death of the

victim. Thus, the killing of the victim would be part of the expression of sadism. This

research aims to test indicators related to these three hypotheses to determine whether some

factors are more important to explain a lethal outcome in sadistic sexual crimes or if a com-

bination of these various factors better explains the risk of a lethal outcome in sexual crimes.

LETHAL OUTCOME IN SEXUAL CRIMES

The crime escalation hypothesis (see Beauregard et al., 2020; Beauregard & Mieczkowski,

2012; Mieczkowski & Beauregard, 2010) suggests that a victim’s death in a sexual assault

is often related to a combination of factors leading to the use of excessive violence against

the victim. This excessive violence leads to the death of the victim without being planned.

In line with this hypothesis, studies have identified contextual factors that are associated

with a lethal outcome in sexual assaults. The intoxication with alcohol and/or drugs was

identified in several studies as an important risk factor leading individuals involved in