Sexual serial killing: A motivational perspective

Conférence en anglais

Conférence de Frederick Toates
Vendredi 29 mai 2026, de 11h45 à 13h
Dans la salle C-1017-11, Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, UdeM et en Zoom.

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Résumé :

There is a vast amount of literature on serial killing but most is written from the perspective of the nature of the crime and its detection. Rather little addresses the issue of developmental and motivational factors. Also, killers are lumped together with no regard to their underlying motivation. The lecture will argue that there are differences in motivation, some being moved not so much by pure sexual lust but by the need for companionship, e.g. Jeffrey Dahmer.

The lecture will argue that a way to gain insight into sexual killing is to consider normal sexual motivation and how it can become distorted in the case of pathological killing. Using principles of incentive motivation, it will address the role of fantasy, fetishes and transformation of arousal into sexual arousal.

Biographie :

Frederick Toates is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the Open University in the UK. He currently gives lectures at the Universities of Amsterdam and Loughborough. Together with his wife, he published Understanding Sexual Serial Killing in 2022.