NCJ Number
236900
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 56 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2011 Pages: 1626-1631
Date Published
November 2011
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The aims of this study were to compare the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and "psychopathy" in homicidal and nonhomicidal sexual offenders and to investigate the specificity of previous studies on psychiatric morbidity of a sample of sexual murderers.
Abstract
Information from court reports of 166 homicidal and 56 nonhomicidal sex offenders was evaluated using standardized instruments (SCID-II, PCL-R) and classification systems (DSM-IV). Sexual murderers were diagnosed more often with a personality disorder (80.1 percent vs. 50 Percent; p less than 0.001), especially schizoid personality disorder (16.3 percent vs. 5.4 percent; p less than 0.05), as well as with sexual sadism (36.7 percent vs. 8.9 percent; p less than 0.001) and sexual dysfunctions (21.7 percent vs. 7.1 percent; p less than 0.05). Additionally, they had more often used alcohol during the offense (63.2 percent vs. 41 percent; p less than 0.05). The results indicate that sexual murderers have more and a greater variety of psychiatric disorders when compared to nonhomicidal sex offenders. (Published Abstract)