Juvenile Sexual Homicide

From our regular book review column.

This monograph addresses a form of psychopathology that mental health clinicians may encounter only once or twice in their careers—sexual homicide by an adolescent. The author estimates that there are about 9 juvenile sexual homicides in the United States each year committed by youngsters who will be evaluated by forensic psychiatrists and psychologists and ultimately treated by therapists who work in prisons. However, this short book should interest clinicians who work with adolescents because it graphically presents the thoughts, fantasies, and psychodynamics of many disturbed teenagers, although only a few of them act out their fantasies in the form of sexual homicide.