Editing Lust murder (section)

==Characteristics==
Lust murder sometimes includes activities such as removing clothing from the body, posing and propping of the body in different positions (generally sexual ones), insertion of objects into bodily orifices, [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] and [[necrophilia]], as most infamously seen with the cannibalistic lust murderer [[Issei Sagawa]].

Most cases of lust murder involve male perpetrators, although accounts of female lust murderers do exist.<ref name="Female_Lust_Kill">{{cite journal |first=Katherine |last=Ramsland |authorlink=Katherine Ramsland|title=When Women Kill Together |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1613/is_1_16/ai_n29335603/ |journal=The Forensic Examiner |publisher=American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (ACFEI) |location=Springfield, Missouri |date=March 22, 2007 |access-date=August 8, 2009  |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829110653/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1613/is_1_16/ai_n29335603/ |archive-date=August 29, 2010 }}</ref> In general, lust murder is a phenomenon most common among [[serial killers]]. These offenders have made a connection between murder and sexual gratification.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Myers |first1=W.C. |last2=Husted |first2=D.S. |last3=Safarik |first3=M.E. |last4=O'Toole |first4=M.E. |title=The motivation behind serial sexual homicide: Is it sex, power, and control, or anger? |journal=[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]] |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]|location=Hoboken, New Jersey|date=2006 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=900–907 |doi=10.1111/j.1556-4029.2006.00168.x|pmid=16882237 |s2cid=22424515 }}</ref> When this type of offender chooses a victim there must be something about that victim that the offender finds sexually attractive. This attractive trait might be common among all of the offender's victims and is called the offender's Ideal Victim Type (IVT). There might be many potential targets that an offender passes by because they do not meet their ideal victim. Once the offender has found a victim who is ideal, they might engage in stalking or other predatory behaviors before acting out their fantasy on their victim. Fantasies are a key component in lust murders and can never be completely fulfilled. The lust killer will have a fantasy that continues to evolve over time and becomes increasingly violent as they struggle to fulfill it.<ref name="Holmes & Holmes">{{cite book |first1=Ronald |last1=Holmes |first2=Stephen |last2=Holmes |title=Serial Murder |edition=3rd |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |date=2010 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/serialmurder0000holm_c5e3/page/107 107–121] |isbn=978-1-4129-7442-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/serialmurder0000holm_c5e3/page/107 }}</ref>

The most critical component in the psychological development of a serial killer is violent fantasy, especially in the lust murderer.<ref name="Hickey, Eric W. 2010">{{cite book |first=Eric W. |last=Hickey |title=Serial Murderers and Their Victims |date=2015 |edition=5th |publisher=[[Cengage Learning]] |location=Belmont, California |isbn=978-1-305-26169-3}}</ref> Fantasies accompany "[[intrusive thought]]s about killing someone that are associated with other distressing [[psychopathological]] processes".<ref>{{cite journal |first=Peter B. |last=Crabb |title=The Material Culture of Homicidal Fantasies |journal=[[Aggressive Behavior (journal)|Aggressive Behavior]] |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |location=Preston, Lancashire, England |issue=3 |date=April 19, 2000 |volume=26 |pages=225–234|doi=10.1002/(SICI)1098-2337(2000)26:3<225::AID-AB2>3.0.CO;2-R }}</ref> Fantasies can never be completely fulfilled; sometimes the experience of killing can generate new fantasies of violence, creating a repetitive cycle. The purpose of fantasy is total control of the victim, whereas a [[sexual assault]] can be used as a vehicle for control. Sexual [[torture]] becomes a tool to degrade, humiliate, and subjugate the victim.<ref name="Hickey, Eric W. 2010"/> Often the killer selects victims to stand as a proxy, resulting from childhood trauma. Fantasies may be fueled by pornography and facilitated by alcohol or other causes.<ref name="Hickey, Eric W. 2010"/> Typically, fantasies involve one or several forms of [[paraphilia]].<ref name="Holmes & Holmes"/>

The term ''lust murder'' is also used in a related, but slightly different sense, to refer to an individual who gains ''[[sexual arousal]]'' from the act of committing murder, or has persistent ''[[sexual fantasy|sexual fantasies]]'' of committing murder, even if the murder itself does not involve [[genital mutilation]] or other aforementioned characteristics. As such, it is a type of [[paraphilia]].

Although the dynamic of violent fantasy in lust murders is understood, an individual's violence fantasy alone is not enough to determine if an individual has or has not engaged in lust murder. Moreover, to conclude that an individual is a violent [[psychopath]] because they have drawn multitudes of violent images is overreaching.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Frank S. |last1=Perri |first2=Terrance G. |last2=Lichtenwald |url=http://www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com/support-files/criminal-profiling.pdf |title=When Worlds Collide: Criminal Investigative Analysis, Forensic Psychology And the Timothy Masters Case |journal=Forensic Examiner |publisher=American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (ACFEI) |location=Springfield, Missouri |volume=18 |number=2 |date=January 2009}}</ref>