Necrophilia
Necrophilia is a paraphilia characterized by a sexual attraction to corpses. This has been a charactistic of several serial killers, notably Ed Gein, though it is very rare even in that context.
In California, there were laws against mutilating a corpse or digging it out of a grave, but not against having sex with it. However, this changed on September 10, 2004, when Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill making necrophilic acts a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison.
In Colorado it might be covered by the misdemeanor "treats the body or remains of any person in a way that would outrage normal family sensibilities" (Colorado Statutes/Title 18 Criminal Code/Article 13 Miscellaneous Offenses/18-13-101. Abuse Of A Corpse).
Similarly in Alabama, where it was considered that sexual acts with a body may constitute "abuse of a corpse", but not rape.
In the United Kingdom, sexual penetration of a corpse was banned with the new Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Necrophilia is also lesser known in some contexts as "the desire to control." This term has been used in this sense by certain authors, for example, by Erich Fromm, for describing those with so much need for control of others that the extent of control which the victims are subjected to is such that, in effect, they are dead, ie, they have zero self control.
From Fromm's "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" (1973), he states that necrophilia is "the passion to destroy life and the attraction to all that is dead, decaying, and purely mechanical."
This definition has been used to describe the Holocaust, as well as other atrocities.
See also
