The classification of murder has been described by various experts including law enforcement personnel, criminologists, and psychologists. Lust serial murder is the act of deviant behaviors by the means of brutally and sadistically killing multiple victims to achieve ultimate sexual satisfaction with cooling off periods. The most common motives within the lust crimes are the gaining of pleasure, control, and satisfaction toward hostile fantasies through the resulting of crimes. Lust murderers are likely to repeat the crimes over a long period of time with increase of aggressive paraphilia process. The paraphilia within the lust murders are usually involving of mutilation, flagellation, picquerism, cannibalism, vampirism, and necrophilia with victim bodies. Defines by the FBI, lust serial murderers are premeditate of each sexual offenses. Both of nature and content of the killing consistence with their sexual fantasy. Lust murderer cannot escape from his own fantasy and over time the imagines increasingly violent and deadly to escalate the lust offenders to attack. The result of the attack satisfies the offender sexual lust including power, domination, molestation, and degradation or humiliation of others. The creation of fantasy and paraphilia within the lust murderers are through their childhood development. They were predispose to trauma events; such as being sexually abuse or violently abuse by caregivers or other adults. Those individual cannot cope with past trauma events will likely to foster feelings of self-doubt, hopelessness, and helplessness. The lack of self-esteem lead the individual to isolate from society and the ability to form attachment with others. From this stage, the individual will daydreaming and fantasy become a stand-in for the social relationships that maladjusted individual is incapable of forming. Fantasy then become a safe place for that individual to fall into once encounter similar trauma events in the past experiences. Sexual fantasy active paraphilia system and eventually become process in and of itself. Most sexual lust offenders sustain their paraphilia process through fantasy, compulsive masturbation, and facilitators. Lust murderers increase the use of drug, alcohol, and pornography can escalate their paraphilic that eventually engaging in sexual homicide or lust murder.
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Classification of Serial Sexual Killers
In order to understand the emotional foundation, behavior, and motive of the lust serial killer, researchers established a set of theoretical typologies in which to categorize serial sexual murderers. The theory includes four different typologies, including power-assertive, power-reassurance, anger-retaliatory, and anger-excitation.
Power-assertive
The power-assertive sexual murderer is characterized by the driving motivation for power and dominance. While sexual assault on the victim is planned by the offender, the murder is not. Consequently, the murder is generally a result of the murderer’s desire for control over the victim, resulting in an increased aggression that ultimately leads to the victim’s death. In the end, the death of the victim demonstrates the offender’s success of dominance over his victim.
Power-reassurance
The power-reassurance sexual murderer does not anticipate the death of his victim either. The initial purpose of the sexual activity is to act out the offender’s fantasy. It is commonly when the victim resists these sexual fantasies that the offender kills in a final effort to gain power and control. In order to complete his fantasy, the power-reassurance murderer explores the body postmortem, engaging in mutilation and necrophilia.
Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, displayed the major signs of a power-reassurance murderer. From a young age, Ridgway experienced unusual, violent sexual fantasies, commonly focused around his mother. These fantasies developed as a coping mechanism to overcome the humiliation his mother subjected him to as a child. As he grew older, Ridgway’s violent fantasies escalated to the point where at age 23, he committed his first sexual murder by strangling a woman to death. Consequently, Ridgway’s fantasies continued to intensify, ultimately being demonstrated through necrophilia with his victims. Because Ridgway's murders were simply a byproduct of fulfilling his fantasies, Ridgeway matches the description of a power-reassurance killer.
Anger-retaliatory
The anger-retaliatory sexual murderer commits a sexual offense with the intent of killing the victim during or after the sexual activity. The drive behind the anger-retaliatory murderer lies in a deep-seated hatred of men or women. This hatred stems from the offender’s resentment of a dominating female or male figure often present in early life. Consequently, the offender’s victim is used as a surrogate for the figure that caused the killer to feel emotionally invalidated.
Anger-excitation
The anger-excitation sexual murderer, is equivalent to the lust murderer. This killer takes sadistic pleasure in torturing his victim. For this murderer, the act of torture-killing is what brings him sexual gratification.