Fred West Case Study Summary

Frederick West’s behavior is clearly defined by the symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder paired with several types of sexual paraphilia’s. Fred West did not show any remorse for his victims, even when it came to his own children. He abducted young girls, rape and tortured them, then eventually killed them and dismembered their bodies. Fred West used his wife Rosemary to his advantage to make young girls more likely to get into his car during his abductions. Fred often switched jobs, this switch caused changes in his interests and tendencies. Fred’s job as an ice cream truck driver allowed for interaction with young females and his job in a slaughterhouse opened him up to gore and blood; which is when he began to dismember the bodies …show more content…
Fred West shows the characteristics of the paraphilia hebephiliac. Fred was recurrently and intensively sexually aroused by specifically women who have gone through puberty, another indicator of this paraphilia is his asking of women on the streets before he abducted them if they were virgins or not. Fred’s crimes did include the sexual abuse of pre-pubescent women, such as his daughter Anne-Marie. These actions include him in the description of a pedophile as he has acted upon his urges on a non-consenting child. The etiology of pedophilia and hemophilia is attributed to the fact that the people themselves were victims are children (Dobbert, 2004). This is seen in both Fred and Rose west as the environments as children exhibited these acts as a normal expression of love or …show more content…
Fred’s voyeur tendencies were always with his wife and one of her several clients that Fred would watch through a peep hole he made in the wall. So though he was recurrently sexually aroused by this act, he is not a true voyeur due to his victim of the act (Dobbert, 2009). Often times a person who is diagnosed with pedophilia or hebephilia shows signs of other sexual paraphilia’s, which is called comorbidity. Comorbidity can also involve several personality disorders(Dobbert,2004). This is seen in Fred’s case with his interest in sexual sadism, voyeurism, hebephiliac, and his pair of ASPD.
Fred’s actions were about power and control, as it is for many lust murders. This need for power and control is often based off of not having power in their own lives; in Fred’s case was his inability to perform sexually. This is thought to have been the cause of his exploration with several different paraphilia’s. In reports from his surviving victims it was said that the acts often only lasted a few