ABSTRACT
There is a scarcity of comparative studies on sexual murderers of children. Three studies have compared sexual murderers of children to sexual aggressors of women. In the former group, the prevalence of deviant sexual fantasies, prior convictions for non-contact sex crimes, consumption of pornography, compulsive masturbation, and social isolation was higher than in the group of sexual aggressors of women. Despite the value of these comparative studies, they were based on a limited number of sexual murderers of children (N = 61). Consequently, the aim of the current study was to replicate and extend the previous ones. The total sample includes 66 adult male sexual murderers (26 of children, 40 of women). In our sample, sexual sadism and homicidal fantasies were less frequent in sexual murderers of children than in sexual murderers of women. Psychopathy was quite prevalent in both types of sexual murderers. Finally, the prevalence of psychosocial problems (social isolation, feelings of rejection, family problems) was lower in sexual murderers of children than in sexual murderers of women. These results obtained in a sample from France differ in many ways from those obtained in Canadian and German samples. The role of cultural factors is a possible explanation for these discrepancies.
