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JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE / September 1986 with different levels of arousal through fantasy. Development of this type of thinking pattern does not necessarily mean a child will grow up to be an abuser; our example illustrates the role of fantasy and its development. In analyzing the data we obtained through interviews with the murderers, we attempted to link our quantifiable findings with indications from the murderers themselves of long-standing, ageressive thoughts and fantasies directed toward sexualized death. The findings suggest that these thought patterns were established early and existed in a context of social isolation. Murderers were consciously aware of the central role of fantasy in their lives and of their preference for fantasy over reality. Even those men unaware of this reported that their thoughts became retaliatory or vengeful when they perceived themselves as being slighted, rejected, frustrated, or betrayed. Such thinking becomes an important component in the maintenance of sexually aggressive violent behavior. ‘The central role that fantasy plays in the thinking patterns of these men 1S noted in one of the subject's statements: “All my life I knew I was going to end up killing.” It also was observed in the statement of a parent who, after her son was convicted of fetish robberies, feared the outcome of her son’s moodi- ness and isolation would be “something really terrible and tragic.” Early Fantasy Development It is important to keep in mind that not all children respond to their environment with violent fantasies and not all children who fantasize vio- lence act out these fantasies. Nevertheless, from our interviews with the murderers in our study, the high degree of egocentricity in the murderer's negative, aggressive, sexualized fantasy and play is revealed. ‘As children, the murderers often thought of other children and family members as extensions of their inner worlds. The revealed intermittent awareness of the impact of their early childhood behavior on others. They were not influenced by the response of others to their behavior. It continued and repeated itself. They recounted tying up a smaller child and scaring him or destroying another child’s toy. Aman who eventually beheaded his victims did not associate that action with his early childhood activities that involved the systematic decapitation of his sister’s dolls. He saw his actions as a response to his annoyance with his sister, not to his desire todominate, bully, and hurt. Ritualistic play of tying up and scaring a younger child was not associated to one murderer’s abuse as a child. His play was a reenactment. Murderers recounting violent and sadistic behavior as adolescents were more aware of the intentionality of their acts. The interviews with the offenders are remarkable in the absence of any accounts of positive childhood fantasies. However, itis unclear whether such fantasies were actually nonexistent or whether early positive fantasies were dE N ERENT RS ES 46