Childhood Abuse

The prevalence of childhood abuse in the general (i.e., nonpsychiatric and noncriminal) male population is much higher than commonly believed. Lisak, Hopper, and Song (1996) surveyed a nonclinical population of approximately 600 college men to determine the incidence of abuse in the male population. They phrased questionnaires carefully to eliminate ambiguity, to ensure anonymity, and to increase the likelihood of accuracy in responses. The researchers found that 18% of their sample reported sexual abuse (involving direct contact) by age 16; when noncontact sexual abuse was included, the figure rose to 28%. Moreover, 34% of these men also reported a history of nonsexual physical abuse. The onset of sexual abuse was at about 10 to 15 years; physical abuse began earlier, at about 7 years. Also, 36% of those who were sexually abused reported the use of force, intimidation, or threats in conjunction with the abuse. Most of the men who were sexually abused were victimized by other men (61%), but 28% were abused by women. The majority of the sexual abuse (79%) was extrafamilial, while most of the physical abuse (79%) came from a family member.

Although the prevalence of abuse among men in general is rather high, the prevalence of abuse among sexual murderers is even higher. In fact, Ressler et al. (1988) found that every one of the 36 sexual murderers they studied had a history of some type of severe abuse or neglect. It is seen that 43% of their subjects had been victims of sexual abuse, and 73% had been party to sexually stressful events such as witnessing sexual violence or sexual activity of a parent or receiving harsh punishment for engaging in sexual activities such as masturbation. In fact, Ressler, Burgess, Hartman, and Douglas (1986) noted that sex murderers who had a history of sexual abuse had more serious sexual deviations such as zoophilia, fantasized about rape at a younger age, and often mutilated their victims in contrast with sex murderers who did not have such a history. Myers and Blashfield (1997) noted similar findings: 93% of their sample of 14 juvenile sexual murderers had chaotic families, 69% reported having experienced physical abuse, 62% emotional abuse, and 15% sexual abuse. In a study by Dietz, Hazelwood, and Warren (1990) of 30 sexually sadistic offenders—22 of whom had committed at least one murder—about 20% self-reported a history of physical abuse, and about 50% self-reported sexual abuse. And Prentky, Knight, Sims-Knight, and Straus (1989) found that 90% of offenders who used extreme sexual aggression in their criminal acts had backgrounds of abuse and came from families where sexual deviations were common.

Some studies, however, have uncovered somewhat contradictory results. For example, Gratzer and Bradford (1995) and Meloy (1997) did not find physical or sexual abuse to be that frequent in their sample of sadistic murderers. However, it is hard to understand why the prevalence of abuse among a sample of compulsive murderers would be lower than that of the general population. This finding raises the important issue of the truthfulness of self-reported incidences of abuse, especially among a population of sadistic murderers who, as noted consistently throughout the literature, are notorious liars. In some instances, abuse can be verified and documented, but in most cases researchers must rely solely on the offender s self-report. Therefore, the low incidence of abuse reported by some subjects may not reflect the absence of abuse but may instead reflect a lack of truthfulness, especially in those subjects who were particularly sadistic in their criminal conduct. The markedly sadistic compulsive murderer often likes to appear in control and dominant and may not want to be seen as weak, submissive, or victimized. Notwithstanding the results of these few studies, we generally agree with Myers (2002) who found that “the family background of the sexual homicide perpetrator is usually marred by irresponsible, abusive parenting, and an unstable, impoverished childhood” (p. 28).

Being abused has consistently been found to be unhelpful in a persons development. Recent research by Widom and Massey (2015) has found that being a victim of childhood sexual abuse and its relationship to future sex offending is more complex than previously thought. Although every abused individual may not experience major deleterious effects, researchers found many abuse victims to have significant problems in contrast to people who have not been abused: lower levels of empathy (Miller and Eisenberg, 1988), increased aggressive acting out (Vanderkolk, 1989), more suicide attempts (Cavaiola and Schiff, 1988), more antisocial personalities (Luntz and Widom, 1994), and more general criminality (Widom, 1989a, 1989b). James, Proulx, and Lussier (2018) reviewed a cross- cultural sample of sexual murderers and found a background of childhood victimization (physical, psychological, sexual) occurred anywhere from 32% to 67%. There is a long list of compulsive murderers who have experienced various forms of childhood abuse. For instance, Albert DeSalvo was subjected to cruel punishment by his violent father, who had sexual relations with prostitutes in front of family members and sold his children to work as farm laborers (Rae, 1967). The notorious Albert Fish was raised in an orphanage where he was regularly subjected to severe beatings, often while naked, in front of other children (Schechter, 1990). Henry Lee Lucas reported a brutal upbringing; he said he was “treated like what I call the dog of the family. I was beaten. I was made to do things that no human bein’ would want to do” (quoted in Schechter and Everitt, 1996, p. 294). In cases such as those of Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, a history of sexual abuse was strongly suspected but was difficult to document and even more difficult to corroborate (Fox and Levin, 1994).