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Burgess et al. / SEXUAL HOMICIDE Nicholas, 1978), with MacCulloch and colleagues (1983) suggesting that sadistic acts and fantasy are linked and that fantasy drives the sadistic be- havior. Current realization of cognitive structures, which help maintain behavior patterns (Beck, 1976), combine with investigation of sadistic fan- tasies (Brittain, 1970; MacCulloch, Snowden, Wood, & Mills, 1983; Ressler et al., !985), criminal reasoning (Yochelson & Saminow, 1977; Saminow, 1984), and criminal fantasy (Schlesinger & Kutash, 1981), and serve as pri- mary foundations for our conceptualization of a motivational model of sexual murder. THE STUDY Many people have speculated on various.aspects of murder: epidemiolog- ical studies report on demographic data concerning victims and perpetrators (Constantino, Kuller, Perper, & Cypress, 1977) and patterns of homicide (Rushforth, Ford, Hirsch, Rushforth, & Adelson, 1977; Wolfgang, 1958); murderers have been categorized in terms of motive (Revitch, 1965), intent (Kahn, 1971), number of victims (Frazier, 1974) and type of victim (Cormier & Simons, 1969). Our study of 36 sexual killers was not designed to examine motivation, yet our research yielded rich descriptive data about what moved these men to kill.. The basis for the Patterns of Homicide Crime Scene Project, from which this article is derived, has been reported elsewhere in this journal (Ressler, Burgess, Douglas, Hartman, & D'Agostino, this issue). The project can be traced to the early 1970s, when agents of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) began, on an informal basis, to deduce certain offender characteristics by examining crime scene information. As a result, a preliminary framework for crime scene analysis and criminal profiling was formulated. Concurrent with the development of the criminal profling project, a study was proposed to analyze crime scene patterns. Using case record :eview, direct observation, and first-hand investigative interviews, the study would examine convicted, incarcerated offenders. This law enforcement study focused on analyzing crime scene evidence in order to identify the murderer. Data collection, which took place in various U.S. prisons between 1979 and 1983, was performed by special agents of the FBI. The data set for each murderer consisted of the best available data from two types of sources: official records /psychiatric and criminal records, pre- trial records, court transcripts, and/or prison records) and interviews with the offenders. The majority of offenders provided written consent to be inter- viewed. Interviews were all conducted in prisons with the cooperation of. officials at the various correctional institutions. 41