EN :

At the end of the Middle Ages, the manner in which the courts of justice punished rapists clearly shows how seriously such crimes were judged at that time. Endeavoring to increase their juristic power and worrying that the propagation of rape would corrupt the entire society and threaten its survival, impelled the judges and their officials —princes, bishops, and municipal bodies — to deal with all complaints and to initiate inquiries about them. A study of the progressive steps undertaken in the preliminary investigations of these cases reveals that after an inquiry into the accuser's reputation, the judges demanded numerous proofs from the victim about the rape. Moreover, a clinical examination was demanded from a midwife. Thus, in addition to the scientific proof and the witness's statements, the investigators were able to arrive at a better assessment of the rapist. The rapist, in turn, under the distressful solitude in his cell where he had been incarcerated by the police as soon as the complaint was made, finally admitted to the crime and renounced having degraded and defamed his accuser, ft was then up to the court to punish the offender. These offenders were treated severely, particularly if they had attacked moral and social values by deflowering children and virgins.

EN :

During the past 30 years, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral theories of rape have evolved considerably. The influence of etio-logic factors related to personality, however, is limited to antisocial traits. The aim of the current study was, therefore, to investigate the presence of personality disorders in rapists. Forty-nine incarcerated rapists answered a French translation of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory questionnaire. On the basis of the Avery-Clark and Laws criteria (1983), 31 rapists were classified as less physically violent and 18 as more physically violent. Among the less physically violent rapists, we encountered most frequently avoidant, dependant, passive-aggressive and schizoid personality disorders. Among the more physically violent rapists, an antisocial personality disorder was predominant. The implications of these results concerning rape theories are being discussed.

EN :

The nature of parent/child attachments is described and their effects on adolescent and adult intimacy and loneliness are outlined. Poor quality attachments are said to result in loneliness and deficits in intimacy, and these, in turn, make the individual vulnerable to those influences and circumstances that lead to sexual offending. These processes are one of the most important sets of factors in our more general theory of the etiology and maintenance of sexually offensive behavior. Implications for the assessment and treatment of sex offenders are derived.

EN :

The purpose of this research project was to gain a better knowledge of juvenile sex offenders in the Montreal area. Do they present differences or similarities with other subjects from studies made in the United States? Can we improve our assessment techniques to better differentiate those who should be treated in a closed setting from those who could benefit from a follow-up in the community? And how does our juvenile justice system deal with this type of offender? In order to find answers to these issues, ten (10) in-depth interviews with personality measures were conducted with juveniles who admitted (or were convicted of) sexual abuse. Moreover, a study of fifty (50) files from the Social Services relating to the same kind of behavior was done in the Montreal area. Our results are similar to other studies made elsewhere : those who where convicted of rape or child molesting committed their first (official) offense at a mean age of 14.5 years and 60 % of their victims were females of an average age of 9. For 38 % of our sample, the sexual offense is part of an heterogenous criminal career. Our personnality measures failed to differentiate between child molesters and rapists. However, on the Jesness Inventory, our ten subjects had high scores on the SM (Social Maladjustment) scale, and on AI (Asocial Index). One other significant finding was that the personnel involved with assessment and treatment of juvenile sex offenders had to get a better knowledge of the dynamics involved with such offenses to record basic information (victim's age, the exact nature of the behavior and the type of violence involved) and recommend appropriate treatment.

EN :

The history of dangerous offender legislation reveals a selective focus on few sexual and violent offenders many of whom are not demonstrably more dangerous than most of the offenders from the larger pool of sexual and violent offenders from which they are drawn. To the extent such legislation draws attention from routine frequently occuring forms of violence in favour of the violence of a few predatory offenders it is clearly problematic. Nonetheless, there are good reasons such legislation is likely to be retained and perhaps modified to place a greater emphasis on community protection.

EN :

The article addresses some of the issues raised in federal correctional institutions by the generation and communication of personal medical information pertaining the HIV infection. It examines, first, whether medical information pertaining to federal inmates — information considered confidential between medical staff and an inmate — can be disclosed absent the inmate's consent. It then examines what conditions or criteria determine whether or not such disclosure is ethically and legally justifiable, and if disclosure is justified, what conditions apply to its disclosure. Finally, specific situations in which a claim for disclosure may arise are examined.

The article concludes that in federal correctional institutions, the disclosure of personal medical information absent consent of the person is seldom justifiable. In most situations, such disclosure is unnecessary and even appears to be counterproductive or harmful. Measures that can be undertaken to prevent exposure to and infection with HIV have to be undertaken regardless of whether an inmate or staff member is or is not known, to staff, wardens, or inmates, to be infected with HIV.

EN :

Conjugal homicide is a situation where one person murders another person with whom he or she is involved through a matrimonial, quasi-matrimonial or other romantic relationship, the study of this type of homicide is based on the entirety of conjugal murders known to police (77) and committed in different municipalities on the island of Montreal during two time periods, namely 1954 to 1962 and 1985 to 1989. The great majority of these crimes are committed by a man onto a woman. Analyses show that possessiveness — understood to be the desire of one person to exclusively control the other — is by far the reason which leads a man to murder the woman he supposedly loves. However, this desire to possess or control is not in itself sufficient for a man to execute his criminal activity, since a number of conditions must coexist : the woman questions her relationship with the man ; the man may physically strike the woman ; the man has the advantage of greater physical strength; the period of time involved is sufficiently lengthy allowing the crisis to develop and enter its critical phase and finally, the perpetrator succeeds in surpassing the inhibitions which initially impede one from killing another.

EN :

This article examines the birth and growth of criminal anthropology in France. French physicians and anthropologists took an interest in criminals and theorized their behaviors before the famous Italian positivist school. French theorizing in this area developped in the early beginnning of the XIXth century with the concept of Esquirol's "monomanie homicide" and phrenology, the later gaining wide acceptance under the July Monarchy. Paul Rroca, leader of anthropology in France, was interested incidentally in the pathology of crime but it is Lombroso's Uomo delin-quente, which through the reactions it provoked, led to the development of this type of studies in France. In opposition to Lombroso, the forensic physician Lacassagne created in Lyon in 1885 a review of criminal anthropology which will continue to appear until 1915. His school of "Milieu social", took a very different viewpoint from Durkheimian sociology. In fact, Lacassagne wasn't so far from Lombroso than he said, and his approach was also in a medical frame. Morel's theory of degeneration deserves mention for the importance it gained at the end of the century with Magnan, a psychiatrist who "regenerated" the concept of "monomanie homicide" in an "impulsion morbide".

This presentation of the most important trends of criminal anthropology in France distinguishes two uses of the terms "criminal anthropology" and "criminology" in the past and today. An attempt is also made to unterstand how the medicalization of deviance was possible and it's historical conditions of emergence.