Sexual homicide in Canada: A descriptive analysis

Several cases of sexual homicide over the past few years have generated widespread professional and public interest in the subject. At the same time, these incidents have provoked the federal government into introducing far-reaching proposals to give correctional authorities additional powers to detain inmates considered dangerous. Little quantitative research has addressed the issue of sexual homicide in Canada. In this article, the results of an analysis of a homicide data-base are presented. The focus is upon cases of homicide occurring during the commission of a sexual offence. This is the Criminal Code definition of sexual homicide. The results indicated that over the period 1974–1986, sexual homicides accounted for 4% of all homicides recorded by the police. There has been no change in the incidence of sexual homicide in recent years. However, the narrow definition of sexual homicide employed by Statistics Canada, along with the fact that a substantial percentage of homicides were of unknown motive, leads us to believe that the incidence of this crime is higher than the approximately 20 cases recorded annually in the homicide data-base. There has been a shift in the age profile of victims: almost half the victims in the period 1974–1976 were under 21. In the period 1961–1970, only 20% of victims were in this age category. The incidence of sexual homicide involving strangers is significantly higher than the incidence of homicide in general involving strangers. These and other results are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research in the area.