A theoretical and aporetic framework on sexual murder and the description of a clinical case

Homicide represents a very complex criminal event. While there is a voluminous international literature on the (non-sexual) murder phenomenon, the scientific production on the topic of sexual homicide appears incomplete. This is imputable to a series of problems that hinder the advancement of specialist scientific knowledge. The present article aims, first of all, to describe the problems that go across the activity of research in the field of sexual homicide and, then, to make a review of the main theoretical models developed to understand this type of crime. Finally, a case of Italian crime reports is analyzed through a criminological interpretation emerging from recent studies on sexual homicide.