Piquerism in Overkill Homicides: Identifying the Sexual Component in a Series of 'Ripper' Killings.

Piquerism, the sexual gratification yielded from the infliction of cutting, stabbing, and slicing wounds, remains an under-researched sexual paraphilic disorder with consequences for understanding, identification, detection, case linkage, and offender treatment. To help remedy that research deficit, a detailed case analysis is presented of a series of 'ripper' homicides to demonstrate common crime scene indicators and characteristics of piquerism. A case in which victims displayed overkill injuries has been chosen owing to the difficulty, even for seasoned investigators, to identify piquerism when the crime scene immediately suggests anger rather than a sexual motivation. In so doing, the knowledge base regarding this rare paraphilic disorder is expanded and directions for future research are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]