Dr Rajan Darjee2, Dr Michael Davis1
1Michael Davis Forensic Psychology Pty Ltd, Australia, 2Forensic Behavioural Assessment and Consultation Services Pty Ltd, Australia
Biography:
Dr Rajan Darjee is a forensic psychiatrist in private practice primarily undertaking expert medico-legal assessments in criminal cases across Australia. He is also adjunct professor at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University of Technology. He trained and worked in forensic psychiatry in Scotland before working in forensic mental health services in Australia. He has authored over a hundred publications, is co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Sexual Homicide Studies and is co-author of the second version of the Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol (RSVP-V2). He currently researches sexual homicide, online child sexual abuse, and psychotic homicides.
Abstract:
Sexual homicide is a thankfully rare, albeit extreme, form of sexual violence that has received a great deal of scholarly attention. Indeed, one could argue that there are more academics researching sexual homicide than there are offenders committing it. As is the case with all sexual offenders, those who commit sexual homicide are a very heterogenous group. Despite this heterogeneity, typological frameworks for this type of offending behaviour have arguably been more simplistic in nature than those developed for non-homicidal offenders who sexually victimise children and adults. This paper will provide an overview of the most common typological frameworks and note that many are arguably simple dimensional elaborations of a decades-old pseudo-dichotomous construct. These extant typologies will be contrasted with typologies of rape behaviour to identify crucial overlaps with applied relevance. Recent empirical results from Australian data will be described and it will be argued that many sexual homicide offences can be validly and practically considered through the lens of typologies developed for non-homicidal sexual offenders. Guidance for identifying ritualistic/preferential and impulsive/situational offenders will be provided with a pragmatic focus on assisting both law enforcement and forensic mental health professionals.