Between black widow and religious mantis: a story of perversion and crime

Abstract

We report a murder case of a 76-year-old invalid civilian killed by a 28-year-old drug addict and prostitute. The case, initially judged as a voluntary homicide, during the subsequent stages of the criminal trial was declassified as manslaughter, although some features even indicated a praeter-intentional homicide. The careful evaluation of the relationship between the victim (a psychotic patient with a perverse and destructive sexuality) and his executioner (suffering from a personality disorder with drug addiction, antisociality and sexual promiscuity), as well as the crime scene and corpse wounds examination, led to the change in sentencing. This singular case shows how in psychopathological and criminological field, sexuality and destructiveness can be so confused to replace each other.