Down the rabbit hole : a case study on Russell Williams and severe sexual sadism

Abstract

In 2010, Russell Williams was a senior officer in the Canadian Forces and a respected figure of the community. He was also a serial rapist and sexual killer whose crimes shook those few closest to him and the nation itself. Of particular interest, his assaults contained tangible elements of sadism grounded in themes of control and domination; yet, in other ways he expressed pseudo-sympathy towards his victims thus representing a behavioural enigma. Moreover, at 44 years of age, his apparent late-onset of extreme sexual deviancy along with no apparent catalyzing factors make Williams a unique and even rarer type of offender. This study qualitatively assesses Williams’s sadistic nature through a contemporary measurement scale and attempts to ascertain its aetiological basis through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Motivational Model of Sexual Homicide. Analysis confirmed the presence of sadism within Williams to a level comparable with other severe sadistic offenders. An analysis of Williams formative developmental experiences, however, showed them to be significantly inconsistent with those proposed by the Motivational Model.