Firearm sexual homicide offenders: Criminal careers, psychopathology, and offense conduct
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Iowa State University of Science and Technology Ames Iowa USA
- 2Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology University of Birmingham Birmingham UK
- 3Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra Universidade de Coimbra Coimbra Portugal
- 4School of Criminal Justice & Criminology Texas State University San Marcos Texas USA
Abstract
Most homicides are firearm‐perpetrated, but in sexual homicide, offenders are more likely to utilize personal weapons (e.g., hands and feet), contact weapons (e.g., blunt object), or edged weapons (e.g., knife) to comport with their fantasy life, motivational states, and psychopathology. Despite these conceptual designations, epidemiological data suggest roughly 17% to 31% of sexual homicide offenders kill their victim with a firearm, yet we know surprisingly little about these offenders' criminal careers, psychopathology, and offense conduct. Drawing on a near‐census of condemned capital murderers from a Western US state, we found just 8% are firearm sexual homicide offenders. Relative to sexual homicide offenders who did not use a firearm and other capital murderers, firearm sexual homicide offenders have more murder convictions, total arrests, and total convictions, are more likely Black, are more likely to rob and execute their victims, and are marginally more sexually sadistic. Offenders who kidnap their victims are 6.5 times more likely to be firearm sexual homicide offenders. Our findings add empirical granularity about the criminal history, psychological profile, and offense conduct of those who shoot their victims during sexual homicide.
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BibTeX
@article{delisi2026firearm,
title = {{Firearm sexual homicide offenders: Criminal careers, psychopathology, and offense conduct}},
author = {Matt DeLisi and Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan and Pedro Pechorro and Matthew W. Logan},
journal = {Journal of Forensic Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1111/1556-4029.70441},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70441},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Firearm sexual homicide offenders: Criminal careers, psychopathology, and offense conduct
AU - Matt DeLisi
AU - Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan
AU - Pedro Pechorro
AU - Matthew W. Logan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/16
JO - Journal of Forensic Sciences
DO - 10.1111/1556-4029.70441
UR - https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70441
AB - Most homicides are firearm‐perpetrated, but in sexual homicide, offenders are more likely to utilize personal weapons (e.g., hands and feet), contact weapons (e.g., blunt object), or edged weapons (e.g., knife) to comport with their fantasy life, motivational states, and psychopathology. Despite these conceptual designations, epidemiological data suggest roughly 17% to 31% of sexual homicide offenders kill their victim with a firearm, yet we know surprisingly little about these offenders' criminal careers, psychopathology, and offense conduct. Drawing on a near‐census of condemned capital murderers from a Western US state, we found just 8% are firearm sexual homicide offenders. Relative to sexual homicide offenders who did not use a firearm and other capital murderers, firearm sexual homicide offenders have more murder convictions, total arrests, and total convictions, are more likely Black, are more likely to rob and execute their victims, and are marginally more sexually sadistic. Offenders who kidnap their victims are 6.5 times more likely to be firearm sexual homicide offenders. Our findings add empirical granularity about the criminal history, psychological profile, and offense conduct of those who shoot their victims during sexual homicide.
SN - 0022-1198
SN - 1556-4029
ER -