Erotophonophilia: Investigating Lust Murder By Janet McClellan

of their own interests” (James, 2003, p. 35) and as such, individuals act from a basis of self-interest. Interaction with others, from the view of the violent-prone person, presents an opportunity for violent interactions (new successes), and, therefore, violent-prone individuals present themselves as opportunistic predators (Teichman & Teichman, 2005). Opportunistic violence makes violence possible by the offender who, by definition, is in possession of the motivation to be violent and, as such, seeks or creates instances to take advantage of violent interpersonal interactions.

Suggesting a source or cause of those factors shaping propensity toward violence and/or criminal behavior, DeWall, Baumeister, Stillman, and Gailliot (2007) proposed that “ego depletion, caused by prior efforts at self-regulation…weaken inner restraints and thereby increase the chances that aggressive impulses would lead to aggressive behavior” (p. 73). The opportunistic offenders must have or believe that they have a sufficient amount of time to complete the act of violence combined with the intent (desire/motivation) to do so, access to the target (preference), and a reduced anticipation of apprehension.

Depicting Typologies of Lust Murder

Research in criminology, psychology, and forensics provided an examination of the activities, motivation, and behavior of lust murderers and potential tools for the investigator for the identification and apprehension of the perpetrators of lust murder. One of the earlier attempts to categorize and explain sexual-homicide behavior through a depiction of offender actions and personality traits was proposed by Ressler et al. (1985), later advanced by Burgess, Hartman, Ressler, Douglas, and McCormack (1986), and formalized by Burgess, Burgess, Douglas, and Ressler (1992) in the Crime Classification Manual. Although a significant amount of research has occurred since 1986 and much of the research enumerated the depiction of offender actions and personality traits, no typology or characterization has presented the information in an organized fashion utilizing the categorical features of profile, crime scene behavior, forensic findings, and victimology. Douglas and