Citation

Carabellese F, Candelli C, Vinci F, Tamma M, Catanesi R. J. Forensic Sci. 2012; 57(5): 1381-1383.

Affiliation

Section of Criminology and Forensic Psychiatry, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare, 70124 Bari, Italy. Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare, 70124 Bari, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1556-4029.2012.02129.x

PMID

22509748

Abstract

The aim of this case report is to describe two cases of sexual abuse by elderly subjects for which the Judge commissioned an expert psychiatric-forensic opinion. The elderly are generally believed to commit nonviolent crimes, whereas the two cases we observed feature forcible rape committed by elderly offenders, who showed no form of mental disease and had rationally planned their offense. They had never previously committed similar acts and had no history of homosexuality; both had been married for many years before the death of their wives and had adult children. Finally, no previous episodes of rape emerged in their personal histories during interrogations. The sociocultural context in which the crimes were committed was identical and arouses interest as regards both the method employed and how the crimes were discovered. The legal authorities then commissioned accurate investigations including medicolegal and psychiatric-forensic evaluations of the offenders and their victims.

Language: en