piquerism

n. the derivation of pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from stabbing another person. Subjects: English, Sex & Sexuality

Etymological Note: From the French piquer ‘to sting or prick (someone or something).’

Comments? | Cites | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Citations: 1979 Revision of the Federal Criminal Code (Washington, D.C.) “Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Committee on Judiciary, House of Representatives” no. 80, p. 2966: In Michigan, for example, Detective Lieutenant Darrell Pope, a Vice-Investigator with the Michigan State Police, in a public lecture (May 1, 1979) titled, “Does Pornographic Literature Incite Sexual Assaults?” gave numerous cases where the assailants had immersed themselves in pornographic films and pictures and then had gone out and committed rape, sodomy, and even the bizarre erotic crime of piquerism (piercing with a knife till blood flows, a kind of sexual torture). 1990 Charles Bremner @ New York Times (United Kingdom) (July 9) “Overseas news”: Psychiatrists have been vying for air time to explain piquerism, the disorder which he is said to suffer. “A piquerist tends to get excited by using an instrument to penetrate his victim, usually from afar,” said one. 2003 Charles Patrick Ewing Monitor on Psychology (July-Aug.) “False credentials cause extensive fallout” vol. 34, no. 7, p. 84: “Piquerists experience sexual gratification through any type of penetration of another person, and stab wounds, sniper activity, cutting and bite marks are evidence of such a condition.”…It is now clear that the expert’s qualifications were largely perjured, and that the syndrome, dubbed “piquerism” is referenced nowhere but in a true-crime paperback.

Posted 30 Aug 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend