Lust murder, also called sexual homicide, is a homicide which occurs in tandem with either an overt sexual assault or sexually-symbolic behavior. ''Lust murder'' is associated with the

paraphilic Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...

term erotophonophilia, which is

sexual arousal Sexual arousal (also known as sexual excitement) describes the physiological and psychological responses in preparation for sexual intercourse or when exposed to sexual stimuli. A number of physiological responses occur in the body and mind as ...

or gratification contingent on the death of a human being. The term ''lust killing'' stems from the original work of

Richard von Krafft-Ebing Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 – 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work ''Psychopathi ...

in his 1898 discussion of

sadistic Sadism may refer to: * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation * Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...

homicides. Commonly, this type of crime is manifested either by murder during

sexual activity Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...

, by mutilating the

sexual organ A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

s or areas of the victim's body, or by murder and mutilation. The mutilation of the victim may include evisceration, displacement of the sexual organs, or both. The mutilation usually takes place postmortem. Although the killing sequence may include an act of sexual intercourse, sexual intercourse does not always occur, and other types of sexual acts may be part of the homicide. In 2019, '' Current Psychiatry Reports'' published a

review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

of the recent findings on sexual homicide research and concluded that sexually-oriented murderers should be viewed as a specific offender with distinct traits which requires an international reporting system. Earlier, the authors of the review reported on comparisons of offenders in the French national police database with the same conclusion.

Characteristics

Lust murder sometimes includes activities such as removing clothing from the body, posing and propping of the body in different positions (generally sexual ones), insertion of objects into bodily orifices,

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

and

necrophilia Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving Cadaver, corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) ...

. Most cases of lust murder involve male perpetrators, although accounts of female lust murderers do exist. In general, lust murder is a phenomenon most common among

serial killers A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. These offenders have made a connection between murder and sexual gratification. When this type of offender chooses a victim there must be something about that victim that the offender finds sexually attractive. This attractive trait might be common among all of the offender's victims and is called the offender's Ideal Victim Type (IVT). There might be many potential targets that an offender passes by because they do not meet their ideal victim. Once the offender has found a victim who is ideal, they might engage in stalking or other predatory behaviors before acting out their fantasy on their victim. Fantasies are a key component in lust murders and can never be completely fulfilled. The lust killer will have a fantasy that continues to evolve over time and becomes increasingly violent as they struggle to fulfill it. The most critical component in the psychological development of a serial killer is violent fantasy, especially in the lust murderer. Fantasies accompany "intrusive thoughts about killing someone that are associated with other distressing

psychopathological Psychopathology is the study of Abnormal psychology, abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era. Biol ...

processes". Fantasies can never be completely fulfilled; sometimes the experience of killing can generate new fantasies of violence, creating a repetitive cycle. The purpose of fantasy is total control of the victim, whereas a

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

can be used as a vehicle for control. Sexual

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

becomes a tool to degrade, humiliate, and subjugate the victim. Often the killer selects victims to stand as a proxy, resulting from childhood trauma. Fantasies may be fueled by pornography and facilitated by alcohol or other causes. Typically, fantasies involve one or several forms of

paraphilia Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...

. The term ''lust murder'' is also used in a related, but slightly different sense, to refer to an individual who gains ''

'' from the act of committing murder, or has persistent ''

sexual fantasies A sexual fantasy or erotic fantasy is a mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's Human sexuality, sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual Fantasy (psychology), fantasy can be created by the person's imaginati ...

'' of committing murder, even if the murder itself does not involve

genital mutilation The terms genital modification and genital mutilation can refer to permanent or temporary changes to human sex organs. Some forms of genital alteration are performed on adults with their informed consent at their own behest, usually for aesthetic ...

or other aforementioned characteristics. As such, it is a type of

. Although the dynamic of violent fantasy in lust murders is understood, an individual's violence fantasy alone is not enough to determine if an individual has or has not engaged in lust murder. Moreover, to conclude that an individual is a violent

psychopath Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent Anti-social behaviour, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and Boldness, bold, Disinhibition, disinhibited, and Egotism, egotistical B ...

because they have drawn multitudes of violent images is overreaching.

Examples of lust murderers

Rodney Alcala Rodney James Alcala (born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor; August 23, 1943 – July 24, 2021), dubbed the Dating Game Killer, was an American serial killer and sex offender who died of natural causes while on death row in California. He was senten ...

* Terry Blair *

William Bonin William George Bonin (January 8, 1947 – February 23, 1996), also known as the Freeway Killer, was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of twenty-one young men and boy ...

Ian Brady The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward E ...

Jerry Brudos Jerome Henry "Jerry" Brudos (January 31, 1939 – March 28, 2006) was an American serial killer and necrophilia, necrophile who murdered at least four women in Oregon between 1968 and 1969. Early life Jerry Brudos was born in Webster, South ...

* Doug Clark &

Carol M. Bundy Carol Mary Bundy (née Peters; August 26, 1942 – December 9, 2003) was an American double murderer and suspected serial killer. Bundy and Doug Clark became collectively known as the Sunset Strip Killers after being convicted of a series of lu ...

Ted Bundy Theodore Robert Bundy ( born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade ...

Kenneth Bianchi Kenneth Alessio Bianchi (born May 22, 1951) is an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist. He is known for the Hillside Strangler murders committed with his cousin Angelo Buono Jr. in Los Angeles, California, as well as for murdering two mor ...

Angelo Buono Jr. Angelo Anthony Buono Jr. (October 5, 1934 – September 21, 2002) was an American serial killer, kidnapper and rapist who, together with his adopted cousin Kenneth Bianchi, were known as the Hillside Stranglers. Buono and Bianchi were convicte ...

Andrei Chikatilo Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (russian: Андре́й Рома́нович Чикати́ло, translit=Andréy Románovich Chikatílo; uk, Андрій Романович Чикатило, translit=Andriy Romanovych Chykatylo; 16 October 1936 ...

* John Christie *

Dean Corll Dean Arnold Corll (December 24, 1939 – August 8, 1973) was an American serial killer and pederast who abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered a minimum of 28 teenage boys and young men between 1970 and 1973 in Houston and Pasadena, Texas. He ...

Joseph James DeAngelo Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, sex offender, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 an ...

Westley Allan Dodd Westley Allan Dodd (July 3, 1961 – January 5, 1993) was an American convicted serial killer and sex offender. In 1989, he sexually assaulted and murdered three young boys in Vancouver, Washington. He was arrested later that year after a failed ...

Peter Dupas Peter Norris Dupas (born 6 July 1953) is an Australian convicted serial killer, currently serving three life sentences without parole for murder and primarily for being a serious habitual offender. He has a very significant criminal history inv ...

Mack Ray Edwards Mack Ray Edwards (October 17, 1918 – October 30, 1971) was an American child sex abuser and serial killer who molested and murdered at least six children in Los Angeles County, California, between 1953 and 1970. Sentenced to death, he died by ...

Albert Fish Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, Rape, rapist, child molestation, child molester, and cannibalism, cannibal who committed at least three child murders from July 1924 to June 1 ...

John Wayne Gacy John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as " ...

Donald Henry Gaskins Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins Jr. (born Donald Henry Parrott Jr.; March 13, 1933 – September 6, 1991) was an American serial killer and rapist from South Carolina who stabbed, shot, drowned, and poisoned more than a dozen people. Before his co ...

* Sean Vincent Gillis *

Harvey Glatman Harvey Murray Glatman (December 10, 1927 – September 18, 1959) was an American serial killer active during the late 1950s. He was known in the media as The Lonely Hearts Killer and The Glamour Girl Slayer. He would use several pseudonyms, posing ...

Sergey Golovkin Sergey Aleksandrovich Golovkin (russian: Серге́й Александрович Головкин; 26 November 1959 — 2 August 1996) was a Soviet-Russian serial killer, rapist and necrophile, convicted for the killing of 11 boys between the ag ...

* Charles Ray Hatcher *

Gary M. Heidnik Gary Michael Heidnik (November 22, 1943 – July 6, 1999) was an American criminal who kidnapped, tortured, and raped six women (murdering two of them), while holding them captive in a self-dug pit in his basement floor, in Philadelphia, Pennsyl ...

H. H. Holmes Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an American con artist and serial killer, the subject of more than 50 lawsuits in Chicago alone. Until his execution in 1896, he ...

Paul Bernardo Paul Kenneth Bernardo (born August 27, 1964), also known as The Scarborough Rapist and The Schoolgirl Killer, is a Canadian serial killer and serial rapist. He is known for initially committing a series of rapes in Scarborough, Ontario, a subu ...

Karla Homolka Karla Leanne Homolka (born May 4, 1970), also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale, and Leanne Bordelais, is a Canadian serial killer who acted as an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, taking active part in the actual rapes and murde ...

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer wa ...

Patrick Kearney Patrick Wayne Kearney (born September 24, 1939), also known as The Trash Bag Killer, is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered a minimum of 21 boys and young men from 1962 to 1977 in southern California. He is one of three men re ...

Edmund Kemper Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948) is an American serial killer who murdered a total of 10 people, including a 15-year-old girl, as well as his own mother and her best friend, from May 1972 to April 1973, following his parole for m ...

* Paul John Knowles *

Timothy Krajcir Timothy Wayne Krajcir (pronounced /ˈkraɪtʃər/) (born Timothy Wayne McBride; November 28, 1944) is a convicted American serial killer from West Mahanoy Township, Pennsylvania who has confessed to killing nine women: five in Missouri and four ...

Randy Kraft Randy Steven Kraft (born March 19, 1945) is an American serial killer and rapist known as the Scorecard Killer, the Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer, who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of sixteen young m ...

Lam Kor-wan Lam Kor-wan (; born 22May 1955) is one of Hong Kong's two known serial killers. Crimes Lam, who worked as a taxi driver, would pick up female passengers, strangle them with electrical wire, take them to his family home, and dismember them. Hi ...

Peter Kürten Peter Kürten (; 26 May 1883 – 2 July 1931) was a German serial killer, known as "The Vampire of Düsseldorf" and the "Düsseldorf Monster", who committed a series of murders and sexual assaults between February and November 1929 in the city of ...

Hiroshi Maeue was a Japanese serial killer who lured his victims via the internet and killed three people in 2005. Also known as the "Suicide Website Murderer", Maeue suffered from a paraphilic psychosexual disorder that translated into being unable to achie ...

Luka Magnotta In May 2012, Jun Lin (December 30, 1978 – May 24/25, 2012), a university student, was fatally stabbed and dismembered in Montreal, Canada, by Luka Rocco Magnotta, who then mailed Lin's hands and feet to elementary schools and federal political ...

Armin Meiwes Armin Meiwes (; born 1 December 1961) is a German former computer repair technician who received international attention for murdering and eating a voluntary victim in 2001, whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly ...

Tsutomu Miyazaki was a Japanese serial killer who murdered four young girls in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture between August 1988 and June 1989. He abducted and killed the girls, aged from 4 to 7, in his car before dismembering them and molesting their corpses. ...

Dennis Nilsen Dennis Andrew Nilsen (23 November 1945 – 12 May 2018) was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 in London. Convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two of ...

Gordon Stewart Northcott Gordon Stewart Northcott (November 9, 1906 – October 2, 1930) was a Canadian serial killer, child rapist, and child abductor who was convicted of the murders of three young boys in California and confessed to the murders of nine in total. Sen ...

Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker (September 27, 1940 December 13, 2019) and Roy Lewis Norris (February 5, 1948 February 24, 2020), also known as the Tool Box Killers, were two American serial killers and rapists who committed the kidnapping, rape, ...

Robert Pickton Robert William "Willy" Pickton (born October 24, 1949) is a Canadian serial killer and former pig farmer. He is suspected of being one of the most prolific serial killers in Canadian history. After dropping out of school, Pickton left a butcher ...

Dennis Rader Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Par ...

Richard Ramirez Ricardo "Richard" Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), dubbed the Night Stalker, the Valley Intruder (as his attacks were first clustered in the San Gabriel Valley), and the Walk-in Killer was an American serial kill ...

David Parker Ray David Parker Ray (November 6, 1939 – May 28, 2002), also known as the Toy-Box Killer, was an American kidnapper, torturer, serial rapist and suspected serial killer. Though no bodies were found, Ray was accused by his accomplices of killing ...

* Melvin Rees *

Gary Ridgway Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), also known as the Green River Killer, is an American serial killer and sex offender. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, brin ...

Harvey Miguel Robinson Harvey Miguel Robinson (born December 6, 1974) is an Americans, American serial killer currently imprisoned on death row in Pennsylvania. He was 18 when he committed his violent spree, killing three and injuring two. Background Robinson's father ...

Issei Sagawa also known as Pang or The Kobe Cannibal, was a Japanese murderer, cannibal, and necrophiliac known for the killing of Renée Hartevelt in Paris in 1981. Sagawa murdered Hartevelt then mutilated, cannibalized, and performed necrophilia on her c ...

Moses Sithole Moses Sithole (born 17 November 1964) is a South African serial killer and rapist who committed the ABC Murders, so named because they began in Atteridgeville, continued in Boksburg and finished in Cleveland, a suburb of Johannesburg. Sithole ...

Henry Lee Lucas Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 – March 12, 2001) was an American convicted serial killer. Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely c ...

Ottis Toole Ottis Elwood Toole (March 5, 1947 – September 15, 1996) was an American serial killer who was convicted of six counts of murder. Like his companion Henry Lee Lucas, Toole made confessions which resulted in murder convictions, and which h ...

Jane Toppan Jane Toppan (born Honora Kelley; March 31, 1854 – August 17, 1938), nicknamed Jolly Jane, was an American serial killer who is known to have committed twelve murders in Massachusetts between 1895 and 1901; she confessed to a total of thirt ...

Karla Faye Tucker Karla Faye Tucker (November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was an American woman sentenced to death for killing two people with a pickaxe during a burglary. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since Velma Barfield in 1984 ...

Chester Turner Chester Dewayne Turner (born November 5, 1966) is an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death for sexually assaulting and murdering fourteen women in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1998. Turner spent much of his adult li ...

Fred West Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 September 1941 – 1 January 1995) was an English serial killer, who committed at least twelve murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, most of them with his second wife, Rose West. All the victi ...

Rosemary West Rosemary Pauline West (née Letts; born 29 November 1953) is an English serial killer who collaborated with her husband, Fred West, in the torture and murder of at least nine young women between 1973 and 1987;

Christopher Wilder Christopher Bernard Wilder (March 13, 1945 – April 13, 1984), also known as the Beauty Queen Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted and raped at least twelve young women and girls, torturing some, and killing at ...

* Russell Williams *

Yang Xinhai Yang Xinhai (; July 17, 1968 – February 14, 2004), also known as Yang Zhiya, and Yang Liu, was a Chinese serial killer who confessed to committing 67 murders and 23 rapes between 1999 and 2003. He was sentenced to death and executed. He was ...

* Bruce McArthur * Richard Benjamin Speck * Peter Gerard Scully * Gordon Frederick Cummins *

Wayne Couzens Wayne may refer to: People with the given name and surname * Wayne (given name) * Wayne (surname) Geographical Places with name ''Wayne'' may take their name from a person with that surname; the most famous such person was Gen. "Mad" Anthon ...

Levi Bellfield Levi Bellfield (born Levi Rabbetts; 17 May 1968) is an English serial killer, sex offender, rapist, kidnapper, and burglar. He was found guilty on 25 February 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted murde ...

* Russell Bishop

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lust Murder Murder Paraphilias Killings by type

Characteristics

Examples of lust murderers

See also

References