This article presents a review of the existing sexual homicide literature focusing on definitions, general theoretical understanding, and typologies that have evolved over the years. Additionally, issues surrounding the study of sexual murderers, such as sadistic fantasy and developmental deficits, are addressed by the authors. The article notes that sexual homicide is a heavily studied, but unclearly defined area of homicide studies. Numerous topics are provided, to include: psychological development defects among sexual murderers; general theoretical understanding of the offenders and their taxonomy; sexual murderers by victim gender; and a comparison of different types of these offenders. The article concludes with an analysis of various existing studies and discusses implications for practice, policy, and research. The discussion provided in this article was derived from an examination of the empirical studies in sexual homicide from the mid-1980s to 2008. A comparison of different types of sexual homicides through a synthesis of 32 published empirical studies is made.mTables and references