TY - JOUR T1 - Psychopathology and personality in juvenile sexual homicide offenders JF - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online JO - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law SP - 497 LP - 508 VL - 25 IS - 4 AU - WC Myers AU - R Blashfield Y1 - 1997/12/01 UR - http://jaapl.org/content/25/4/497.abstract N2 - This project describes the psychopathology and personality findings in 14 juveniles who committed sexual homicide. These incarcerated youth were assessed using a structured interview, a personality assessment instrument, correctional files review, and an author-designed clinical interview. Nearly all of these youth met DSM-III-R conduct disorder criteria at the time of the crime. The presence of personality disorders and moderately high psychopathy scores at follow-up were common. Two-thirds of these youth reported the presence of violent sexual fantasies before their crimes. Weapons, most often knives, were used by these juvenile sexual murderers to kill known victims in a majority of the cases. They usually acted alone and selected a low risk victim. These findings suggest that juvenile sexual murderers are an emotionally and behaviorally disturbed population with identifiable psychopathology, personality disturbances, and criminal patterns. ER -