Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction or acts involving corpses, including both direct intercourse with corpses and sexual excitement at the thought or presence of one. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnostic manual, as well as by the American Psychiatric Association in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Reported motivations vary widely, ranging between sexual domination of a non-responsive partner, fetishization of death and corpses, and bereavement of a close sexual partner. Necrophilia can coincide with sexual roleplay of the subject instead pretending to be a corpse while their partner takes on the role of the necrophile.
In contrast to human paraphilias, many cases of animal necrophilia (also known as Davian behavior) have been observed, primarily as a result of being unable to distinguish between a receptive mate and a recently deceased one. Some species of arthropods and frogs can instead fully procreate with a recently killed mate.
Origins of term
Various terms for the crime of corpse violation animate seventeenth- through nineteenth-century works on law and legal medicine. The plural term "nécrophiles" was coined by Belgian physician Joseph Guislain in his lecture series, Leçons Orales Sur Les Phrénopathies, given around 1850, about the contemporary necrophiliac François Bertrand:
Psychiatrist Bénédict Morel popularised the term about a decade later when discussing Bertrand.
Classification In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), recurrent, intense sexual interest in corpses can be diagnosed under Other Specified Paraphilic Disorder (necrophilia) when it causes marked distress or impairment in important areas of functioning.
Forensic Psychologist Anil Aggrawal introduced a ten-tier classification of necrophiliacs based on the increasing severity of the disorder.
+ Class Name Characteristics Class I Role players People who get aroused when pretending their partner is dead during sexual activity. Class II Romantic necrophiliacs Bereaved people who remain attached to their dead lover's body. Class III Necrophiliac fantasizers People who fantasize about necrophilia, but do not physically interact with corpses. Class IV Tactile necrophiliacs People who are aroused by touching or stroking a corpse, without engaging in intercourse. Class V Fetishistic necrophiliacs People who remove objects or body parts from a corpse for sexual fetishes, without engaging in intercourse. Class VI Necromutilomaniacs People who derive pleasure from mutilating a corpse while masturbating, without engaging in intercourse. Class VII Opportunistic necrophiliacs People who normally have no interest in necrophilia, but take the opportunity when it arises. Class VIII Regular necrophiliacs People who preferentially have intercourse with the dead. Class IX Homicidal necrophiliacs Necrosadists, people who murder someone to have sex with the victim. Class X Exclusive necrophiliacs People who have an exclusive interest in sex with the dead, and cannot perform at all for a living partner.
In humans History In the ancient world, sailors returning corpses to their home country were often accused of necrophilia. Singular accounts of necrophilia in history are sporadic, though written records suggest the practice was present within Ancient Egypt. Herodotus writes in The Histories that, to discourage intercourse with a corpse, ancient Egyptians left the corpses of particularly high-ranking or beautiful women to decay for "three or four days" before giving them to the embalmers. Herodotus also alluded to suggestions that Periander had defiled the corpse of his wife, employing a metaphor that the tyrant "baked his bread in a cold oven." Hittite law from the 16th century BC through to the 13th century BC explicitly permitted sex with the dead.
Necrophilia against men is depicted on ceramics from the Moche culture, which reigned in northern Peru from the first to eighth-century CE. A common theme in these artifacts is the masturbation of a male skeleton by a living woman. In what is now Northeast China, the ethnic Xianbei emperor Murong Xi (385–407) of the Later Yan state had intercourse with the corpse of his beloved empress Fu Xunying after the latter was already cold and put into the coffin.
In Renaissance Italy, following the reputed moral collapse brought about by the Black Death and before the Roman Inquisition of the Counter-Reformation, literature was replete with sexual references; these include necrophilia, as in the epic poem Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, first published in 1483.
In a notorious modern example, American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was a necrophiliac. Dahmer wanted to create a sex slave who would mindlessly consent to whatever he wanted. When his attempts failed, and his male victim died, he would keep the corpse until it decomposed beyond recognition,continuously masturbating and performing sexual intercourse on the body. He would perform sexual activities before and after murdering his victims. Dahmer explained that he only killed his victims because he did not want them to leave.Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes. Directed by Joe Berlinger, 2022. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/title/81173345 Other modern necrophiliacs include Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen, and English David Fuller, who is considered the worst offender of this kind in English legal history.
Research Necrophilia is often assumed to be rare, but no data for its prevalence in the general population exists. Some necrophiliacs only fantasize about the act, without carrying it out. In 1958, Klaf and Brown commented that, although rarely described, necrophiliac fantasies may occur more often than is generally supposed.
Havelock Ellis, in his 1903 volume of Studies of the Psychology of Sex, believed that necrophilia was related to algolagnia, in that both involve the transformation of a supposed negative emotion, such as anger, fear, disgust, or grief, into sexual desire.
Rosman and Resnick (1989) reviewed 123 cases of necrophilia. The sample was divided into genuine necrophiliacs, who had a persistent attraction to corpses, and pseudo-necrophiliacs, who acted out of opportunity, sadism, or transient interest. Of the total, 92% were male and 8% were female. 57% of the genuine necrophiliacs had occupational access to corpses, with morgue attendants, hospital orderly, and cemetery employees being the most common jobs. The researchers theorized that either of the following situations could be antecedents to necrophilia: The necrophiliac develops poor self-esteem, perhaps due in part to a significant loss; (a) They are very fearful of rejection by others and they desire a sexual partner who is incapable of rejecting them; and (b) They are fearful of the dead, and transform their fear—utilizing reaction formation—into a desire. They develop an exciting fantasy of sex with a corpse, sometimes after exposure to a corpse.
Motives The most common motive for necrophiliacs is the possession of a partner who is unable to resist or reject them. However, in the past, necrophiliacs have expressed having more than one motive.
The authors reported that of their sample of 34 genuine necrophiliacs:
68% were motivated by a desire for a non-resisting and non-rejecting partner 21% were motivated by a want for a reunion with a lost partner 15% were motivated by sexual attraction to dead people 15% were motivated by a desire for comfort or to overcome feelings of isolation 12% were motivated by a desire to remedy low self-esteem by expressing power over a corpse
Lesser common motives include:
Unavailability of a living partner Compensation for fear of women Belief that sex with a living woman is a mortal sin Need to achieve a feeling of total control over a sexual partner Compliance with a command hallucination Performance of a series of destructive acts Expression of polymorphous perverse sexual desires Need to perform limitless sexual activity
IQ data was limited, but not abnormally low. About half of the sample had a personality disorder, and 11% of true necrophiliacs were psychotic. Rosman and Resnick concluded that their data challenged the conventional view of necrophiliacs as generally psychotic, mentally deficient, or unable to obtain a consenting partner.
At least one case has been documented of someone having sex with a corpse motivated by the dead person's wishes. A woman in Zimbabwe had sex with her deceased husband's body under the influence of his wishes (documented in his will) and the influence of family members, persuading her to fulfill his wishes.
Case studies Jerry Brudos Jerry Brudos (1939–2006) was an American serial killer from Salem, Oregon, who murdered four young women between 1968 and 1969, motivated by his extreme fetishism for women's feet. Brudos engaged in sexual activity with the corpses of his victims, dressing the bodies and mutilating them. His necrophiliac actions included, in one case, hanging the body of the young female victim from hooks attached to the garage's roof and administering bolts of electricity in an attempt to make the corpse "dance" for his sexual gratification.
Ted Bundy Ted Bundy (1946–1989) was an American serial killer who raped and murdered at least 30 young women during the 1970s. He also confessed to participating in necrophilic acts, claiming to have chosen secluded disposal sites for his victims' bodies specifically for post-mortem sexual intercourse.
Andrei Chikatilo Serial killer Andrei Chikatilo (1936–1994) was a Soviet serial killer who operated in different countries of the Soviet Union between 1978 and 1990. He was known for molesting the corpses of his victims, mostly young children. Chikatilo also engaged in other acts of necrophilia, achieving orgasm by stabbing or mutilating the bodies.
Jeffrey Dahmer Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (1960–1994) was known to perform oral sex or masturbate, or both, upon the corpses of his victims before dismembering them. In unguarded, taped interviews with his defense attorney Wendy Patrickus, Dahmer explicitly stated that he had sex with his victims before and after their deaths. He explained that he wanted to remain with the person as long as possible, preserving some of his victims' selected organs, skeletal tissue, and bones.Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes. Directed by Joe Berlinger, 2022. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/title/81173345
Luis Garavito Luis Garavito (1957–2023) was a Colombian serial killer who murdered more than 100 young boys in the 1990s in his native country of Colombia, as well as in neighboring Ecuador and Venezuela. He was known to sexually assault and mutilate some of the bodies.
Karen Greenlee In 1987, Karen Greenlee gave a detailed interview called "The Unrepentant Necrophile" for Jim Morton's (edited by Adam Parfrey) book Apocalypse Culture. In this interview, she stated that she had a preference for younger men and was attracted to the smell of blood and death. She considered necrophilia an addiction. The interview was held in her apartment, which was a small studio filled with books, necrophilic drawings, and satanic adornments. She also had written a confession letter in which she claimed to have abused 20–40 male corpses.
Tsutomu Miyazaki Tsutomu Miyazaki (1962–2008) was a Japanese serial killer who kidnapped and murdered four young girls aged four to seven in the late 1980s. When Miyazaki was arrested in July 1989 after attempting to abduct another girl, police found video tapes at his Tokyo apartment containing footage of sexual abuse of one of the girls' corpses. Miyazaki later confessed to engaging in sexual activity with the victims' bodies.