Why do violent crimes escalate?

Simon Fraser University (SFU) Criminology Professor Eric Beauregard along with Julien Chopin (Laval University) and Park Dietz (University of California) examine the factors associated with fatality in sadistic sexual crimes in their recent study.

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SFU Criminology Professor Eric Beauregard is a prolific scholar whose expertise includes criminal profiling, decision making and Modus Operandi, the psychology of sex offending and crime scene investigation. Prior to joining SFU, he worked for the Correctional Service of Canada where he was responsible for the assessment of individuals who had committed sexual crimes. He has evaluated more than 1200 offenders, many of whom were sexual murderers.

In a recent study, Beauregard worked with Julien Chopin from Laval University and Park Dietz from the University of California, Los Angeles to examine the factors associated with fatality in sadistic sexual crimes. With a database of 735 cases of sadistic sexual assaults of which 100 had lethal outcomes, the researchers sought to determine whether the death of the victim was the result of situational factors, the expression of specific sadistic fantasies or a combination of both. Their article, Death in Sadistic Sexual Crimes: A Neural Network Analysis of Factors Associated With a Lethal Outcome, outlines their findings.