Reactive and proactive aggression in sexual homicide offenders

The reactive-proactive aggression dichotomy is a valid, reliable, and useful concept widely used in psychology and criminology but paradoxically largely ignored in the field of sexual offending research. The objective of this study was to test whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as well as psychopathology relevant to physical and sexual violence (psychopathy and sexual sadism) predict the type of aggression (reactive/proactive) exhibited in the commission of a sexual homicide. Data were collated from criminal case files held across 46 courthouses in France. Reactive sexual homicide offenders (SHO-R, n = 31) and proactive sexual homicide offenders (SHO-P, n = 58) were compared in terms of ACEs and psychometric measures of psychopathy (PCL: SV) and sexual sadism (SeSaS). The findings indicated that ACEs and PCL: SV Factor 2 were associated with reactive aggression in the context of sexual homicide, whereas PCL: SV Factor 1 and sexual sadism were associated to proactive aggression. This study emphasized the role of ACEs and personality traits in the development of different types of aggression exhibited in sexual homicide and highlighted advantages of applying mainstream psychological and criminological concepts to extreme violence phenomena. •Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Sexual Homicide Offenders.•Adverse childhood experiences were associated with reactive aggression (RA).•Sexual sadism was associated with proactive aggression (PA).•Impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits were associated with RA.•Affective-interpersonal psychopathic traits were associated with PA.