Contrary to theoretical models, experiences of victimization are not central to the development of sexual killers; instead, it is the adoption of various problematic behaviors in childhood that appear as most important

Stepping stones to sexual murder: the role of developmental factors in the etiology of sexual homicide. Eric Beauregard et al. Journal of Criminal Psychology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JCP-02-2018-0010

Abstract:

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of a variety of developmental factors on sexual homicide offenders (SHOs), while taking into account other components of sexual homicide theoretical models.

Design/methodology/approach: A series of logistic regression models are performed using a total of 616 incarcerated adult male sexual offenders from Canada to distinguish between three groups of sexual offenders, SHOs, violent non-homicidal sex offenders (NHSOs) and NHSOs.

Findings: Results indicate that contrary to theoretical models, experiences of victimization are not central to the development of SHOs. Instead, it is the adoption of various problematic behaviors in childhood that appear as most important in the etiology of this particular type of sexual crime. This suggests that the various existing theoretical models of sexual homicide need to be revised and/or tested with additional empirical data.

Originality/value: This is the first study to look at developmental factors using two control groups of NHSOs and violent NHSOs.

Keywords: Theoretical model, Sex offender, Etiology, Sexual homicide, Developmental factor, Sexual murder

People are consistently more sensitive to action than to outcome value in judging the praiseworthiness of good deeds, but not harmful deeds. This observation echoes the finding that people are often insensitive to outcomes in their giving behavior

Yudkin, Daniel A., Annayah M. B. Prosser, and Molly Crockett. 2018. “Actions Speak Louder Than Outcomes in Judgments of Prosocial Behavior.” PsyArXiv. July 14. doi:10.31234/osf.io/vbsp6

Abstract: Recently proposed models of moral cognition suggest that people’s judgments of harmful acts are influenced by their consideration both of those acts’ consequences (“outcome value”), and of the feeling associated with their enactment (“action value”). Here we apply this framework to judgments of prosocial behavior, suggesting that people’s judgments of the praiseworthiness of good deeds are determined both by the benefit those deeds confer to others and by how good they would feel to perform. Three experiments confirm this prediction. After developing a new measure to assess the extent to which praiseworthiness is influenced by action and outcome values, we show how these factors make significant and independent contributions to praiseworthiness. We also find that people are consistently more sensitive to action than to outcome value in judging the praiseworthiness of good deeds, but not harmful deeds. This observation echoes the finding that people are often insensitive to outcomes in their giving behavior. Overall, this research tests and validates a novel framework for understanding moral judgment, with implications for the motivations that underlie human altruism.