Book review: Understanding Sexual Homicide Offenders: An Integrated Approach
| Author | Stuart Milnes |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895817719796 |
| Published date | 01 April 2018 |
| Date | 01 April 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895817719796
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2018, Vol. 18(2) 245 –252
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895817719796
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Book reviews
Heng Choon Chan, Understanding Sexual Homicide Offenders: An Integrated Approach, Palgrave
Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2015; 179 pp.: 9781137453716, £60.00
Reviewed by: Stuart Milnes, Social Worker Edinburgh City Council, UK
DOI: 10.1177/1748895817719796
In Understanding Sexual Homicide Offenders Heng Choon Chan provides a clinical,
forensic analysis of the research in the field of investigating sexual homicide to this point
and attempts to move forward our understanding of those who commit these types of
offences. Chan highlights the strengths and weaknesses of previous studies and explains
how he used that knowledge to develop, along with colleagues, a new model that
attempted to move the debate forward. This volume’s primary objective is to test that
model. He brings exceptional rigour to testing Chan et al.’s (2011) integrated theory on
the offending process of sexual homicide offenders and finds some evidence to support
the framework, as well as acknowledging the need for further research. This book feels
like both a full stop, and a springboard, for researchers, with many potential future lines
of enquiry highlighted.
This is a well-organized book that begins with an attempt to provide a new standard-
ized definition for sexual homicide. While this new definition builds on previous theo-
ries, the new additional element, evidence that the offender has been thinking about
sexual murder, evidenced through journals or material on a home computer, seems to
move the definition of such crime into a grey area, beyond crime scene evidence and
legally admissible confession, and should probably be either more clearly defined, or
used with some caution.
In the first chapter Chan goes on to give a brief summary of studies that attempt to
discern differences between homicidal and non-homicidal sexual offenders. He uncovers
a confusing picture with many contrary findings which might indicate that there are few
discernible characteristics to separate the two groups.
In considering the various offender classifications that have been proposed across
a series of studies Chan carries out a thorough and useful dissection. He highlights the
value in each study but also focuses on the shortfalls. He shows that one of the diffi-
culties of researching in this field is the small sample size, sexual homicide being a
relatively rare criminal act. He is also critical of the breadth of the analysis in the
formulation of several of the classifications with some relying on expertise alone and
719796CRJ0010.1177/1748895817719796Criminology & Criminal JusticeBook review
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