Journal de médecine légale

Sexual Homicide Committed by a Family Member: Report of Two Cases and Discussion of Its Motivation Factors

Abstract

Nouma Youssef, Ben Amar Wiem, Hammami Zouheir and Maatoug Samir

Sexual homicide is a distinctive form of homicide and an extreme form of sexual violence. This phenomenon has been well addressed in psychiatric, psychological and forensic literatures. Nevertheless, sometimes it is difficult to understand the motivations behind a sexual homicide mainly when it occurs within the closed family environment.

We report two cases of women’s sexual homicide committed by a family member, other than a sexual partner or an ex-partner. The sexual character was confirmed by laboratory evidences which also allowed the offender identification. In both cases, the offenders did not have any history of violence conviction and were not under substance abuse influence. In addition, psychological autopsy has not revealed any psychiatric disorder of the offenders.

In this paper, we describe the findings, we discuss the characteristics of this type of murder and its motivation factors related to our socio-cultural and legislative context.