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JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE / September 1986 Identifying murderers who had earlier been sexually abused was accomplished by using interview or official record information about whether the subject had been sexually abused as a child, adolescent, or adult. Information about symptoms and criminal behaviors was obtained in a similar manner. A ‘‘yes” response required confirma- tion through offender disclosure and background record; an answer recorded as “suspected” was based on the offender's recollection. For this aspect of the research, both answers were coded as “‘yes.”” We acknowledge the limitations of this variable, which could be either underreported due to memory loss over the years or incorrect because of offender error in memory reconstruction. In addition, the increased public attention to sexual victimization may have influenced offend- ers to give a positive response. It is important to keep in mind thatall subjects in this study were convicted of sexually oriented murder. This report is based on our analysis of convicted, incarcerated, sexual murderers for whom there were data available on early sexual abuse in their life histories; on their sexual/aggressive interests, fantasies, and practices; and on their criminal behaviors. At the time of data collection, these men represented a group of sexually oriented mur- derers who were available for research purposes (thatis, whose appeal process was complete), and who were also able to participate in the in-depth interview conducted by the agents. Murderers were excluded from the sample if they were actutely mentally disordered and unable to respond to interview questions (N = 2). They were selected for a project to investigate law enforcement profiling techniques (Ressler et al., 1985); in addition, they do not represent a random sample. FINDINGS When questioned about prior sexual abuse, 12, or 43%, of those murderers responding (28) indicated such abuse in childhood (age 1-12); 9, or 32%, were abused in adolescence (age 13-18); and 10, or 37%, gs adults (over age 18). Symptoms and behavior indicators. The comparison of sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence by symptoms and behaviors presentin childhood, adolescence, and adulthood for murderers who had and who had not been sexually abused is presented in Table 1. For the overwhelming majority of symptoms and behavioral indica- e5