Understanding Sexual Serial Killing

Frederick Toates, D.Sc., is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the Open University, UK. His book How Sexual Desire Works: The Enigmatic Urge (Cambridge, 2014) won the 2015 PROSE Award for Psychology from the Association of American Publishers. His other books include Biological Psychology (2011) and Motivational Systems (Cambridge, 1986). Olga Coschug-Toates, PhD, is a trilingual translator and interpreter with responsibilities for legal and social services and mental health translation. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Open University, UK, and the principal coordinator for the NATO Scientific Programme between the UK, Russia and Moldova. She co-authored Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (2002) with Frederick Toates.

'Understanding Sexual Serial Killing fills a hole in our theoretical narrative while offering a comprehensive overview of this type of offender. With updated psychological and neuroscientific research, this book dissects the motivational roots of the most depraved sexually compelled serial killers. It should be in the library of anyone who deals with or teaches about them.' Katherine Ramsland, DeSales University, USA

• Part I. The Factors that Underlie Lust Killing: 1. How to gain understanding; 2. A focus on the individual; 3. States of brain and mind; 4. A focus on the context; 5. Ways of explaining; 6. The motivation underlying serial lust killing; 7. Inhibition; 8. The making of a sex-linked killer; 9. Linking normality to abnormality; 10. Looking for a thrill; 11. Beyond conventional desire: Paraphilias; 12. Can it become addictive?; Part II. Biographical Sketches: 13. Similarities and differences; 14. A focus on the males in the family; 15. A focus on the (ex) wife; 16. A focus on the mother: Being given up for adoption; 17. A focus on the mother: Uncertainty; 18. A focus on the mother: Her behavior; 19. A focus on revenge; 20. Just for being gay; 21. Fetishes and partialisms; 22. Imprinting on powerful events; 23. Living in farmyard squalor; 24. Cross-dressing; 25. Attachment-linked killers; 26. A desire for child victims; 27. Stress and disorganization; 28. Problems with sexual potency; 29. Paired killers: Male; 30. Paired killers: Male and female; 31. Drugs and addiction in focus; 32. More questions than answers; Part III. Final Word: 33. Bringing things together.