Sexual homicide offenders distinguished from non-homicidal sexual offenders: A review of the literature

Sexual homicide (or sexual murder) is largely referred to as a homicide that is committed with an apparent or underlying sexual motivation. Although this topic has been increasingly studied in recent years, little is known about how sex offenders who kill their victims differ from those who do not. This article recaps empirical findings related to sexual homicide offenders and then synthesizes 17 empirical studies that distinguish the demographic and psychosocial characteristics of sexual offenders who killed (i.e., sexual homicide offenders) and those who did not kill (i.e., non-homicidal sexual offenders). This review spans a period of 28.5 years (1988 to mid-2016). A number of key distinguishing characteristics emerged between the two groups. Some inconclusive differential features between the two subpopulations of sexual offenders appear to be partly due to different sampling procedures in these studies (e.g., small sample size, recruitment of specific groups of sexual offenders). Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.