STUDY GUIDE
Unit 6—Sexually Motivated Homicides and Sexual Assault
Overview
One of the rarest major crimes is homicide correlated with sexual deviations. Nonetheless, these crimes draw inordinate attention from the media and the public due to their horrific nature. Popular forensic entertainment shows often feature such offences in their plots. In this unit, we examine the nature of sexual homicide and the types of serial murder with some tentative or hypothetical outlines of the reasons these crimes occur.
In this unit, we also examine in much more detail a very common crime: sexual assault. In Canada, the word rape is no longer found in the Criminal Code, and the crime formerly referred to in this way is now found in the section on assaults in the Code. The acts that would incur a charge are not defined in exact terms; however, sexual assault is described as “assault committed in circumstances of a sexual nature such as to violate the sexual integrity of the victim” (Criminal Code of Canada, section 271(1)).
Like other criminal codes in common law (see “Legal Degrees of Rape and Sodomy,” Kentucky Revised Statutes, 2007), the Criminal Code of Canada also outlines levels of sexual assault:
- Sexual assault (section 271)
- Sexual assault with a weapon, threats to a third party or causing bodily harm (section 272)
- Aggravated sexual assault (section 273)
The most serious offence, aggravated sexual assault, adds to the basic circumstances of sexual assault the finding that the perpetrator “wounds, maims, disfigures or endangers the life of the complainant.” As expected, the maximum penalty range is correlated with the seriousness of the assault—up to 18 months’ imprisonment for sexual assault; up to 14 years’ for sexual assault with a weapon; and up to life imprisonment for aggravated sexual assault.
Many other sexual related offences exist within Canada, as well, including sexual interference; invitation to sexual touching; sexual exploitation; incest; anal intercourse; compelling bestiality; parent or child procurement of sexual activity; householder permitting of sexual activity; corrupting of children; and indecent acts.
STUDY GUIDE
Unit 6—Sexually Motivated Homicides and Sexual Assault
Reading Assignment
- T. Holmes and R. M. Holmes, Sex crimes: Patterns and behavior(3rd ed.), Chapters 11 and 12
Brennan, S., & Taylor-Butts, A. (2008). Sexual assault in Canada 2004 and 2007. Ottawa: Minister of Industry.
STUDY GUIDE
Unit 6—Sexually Motivated Homicides and Sexual Assault
Key Terms and Concepts
- Serial killer
- Necrophilia
- Lust murder
- Stalking
- Agonophilia
- Piquerism
- Flagellation
- Anthropophagy
- Necrosadism
- Vampirism
- Female cannibalism
- Disorganized/organized killer
- Hedonistic killers
- Achilles complex
- Date rape
- Prison rape
- Sexual harassment
- Sodomy
- Rape Myths
- Chain of evidence
- Consent
- Marital rape
- Campus rape
- Axillistic rape
- Anthropophagolagnia
- Sadism
- Biastophilia
