One of the largest studies of sexual killers ever undertaken in Canada has turned up some surprising findings about how socially normal they may actually appear.
Contrary to previous research, B.C. criminologist Eric Beauregard says his study's larger sample size shows sexually motivated killers aren't generally loners.
"Many of these guys were looking to have social activities with people and they were good at interacting with people," said Beauregard, who teaches at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.
Beauregard says a significant number of sexual killers developed the social skills necessary to get close to their victims.
"So it's important to consider the fact that some of these guys are actually good with people and instead of using a blitz approach to get their victims, they can actually use a ruse or a con," he said.
The study, which was conducted with Melissa Martineau of the RCMP, looked at 350 solved and unsolved cases of sexual homicide dating back 62 years from across Canada, with the aim of helping police investigators investigating similar crimes.
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Sex Offenders Are Not Loners
According to a new study, sex offenders who kill are not the typical loners many consider them to be. Rather, they are quite deft at social interactions.
One of the reasons I have never liked the term "antisocial personality disorder" is that the general public thinks "antisocial" refers to socially awkward loners. In fact, many "antisocials" are slick, charming con men.
The older term "sociopath" was better. It wasn't broken; there was no need to "fix" it.
Personally, I would prefer to call to rename "antisocial personality disorder" as "just plain evil," but there is no chance of getting that in the DSM.
Sociopath is a great term. Really captures the malevolence--which is probably why it was junked.
One thing, I think, gets overlooked--it's not just evil--it's also the just plain balls to actually do it.