JonBenet was a six year old female. Some people hold the view that she may have engaged in autoerotic practices thereby incurring a fatality, or been party to consensual activity?
What follows is a brief overview of FEMALE SEXUAL ASPHYXIA, taking particular note of any gender differences. Some of the examples may OFFEND since they are GRAPHIC so please dont read any further if you dislike sexual details.
These cases highlight the fact that female autoerotic deaths do NOT appear to present the same as male autoerotic deaths scenes.
Byard, Hucker and Hazelwood ( 1990 ) presented a comparison of male and female autoerotic death scenes. They gave an age range in males of 9 to 80 years and in females 19 to 68 years, they atribute the use of bizarre props, unusual clothing, *advertiser censored*, devices to cause pain etc, evidence of fetishism to the male death scene, and their absence to the female death scene.
So in statistical terms the likelyhood of Burke engaging in autoerotic activity is close to zero ie on the bottom left side of the bell curve tail. And JonBenet at 6-years old does not even fall into the female range!
So next lets consider Consensual Autoerotic Asphyxia. In the context of JonBenet's death, Burke has been proposed, possibly including an unknown accomplice.
Whilst its not possible to rule this out completely its probabilty or likelyhood is very very low.
Anyone wanting to construct the death of JonBenet by consensual autoerotic asphyxia, and taking into account the above information on Female Sexual Asphyxia may wish to factor Patsy or another female relative into the frame?
In the United States deaths are commonly classified as Natural, Suicide, Accident, or Homicide.
Now in the event where a death has occured and it can be shown to be from an accident some Insurance Companies will pay out higher insurance claims.
Also when true consensual sexual asphyxia results in death, say as in between Burke and JonBenet, the death is ACCIDENTAL, and NOT a homicide!
Although well meaning relatives may alter the crime scene or the surviving actor does not wish to trust the police with a valid version of events. It is still the case it would be judged as an accident and NOT a homicide!
Recent insurance claim refused by the Danaher Corporation and its appeal.
Excerpt:
... In its decision, the court agreed that the autoerotic behaviour engaged in by Mr Parker was foolish, and high risk. However, the court also recognized that research regarding autoerotic asphyxiation suggests that it is "a repetitive pattern of behaviour that individuals engage in over a period of years and that the intent of the individuals performing this act is not death" ( Danaher Corporation et al vs Parker 1994 )
They also believed that the "common understanding of man" would be that Mr Parker's death was the result of an accident. They subsequently ruled it was an accident, and awarded Mary Parker the accidental death benefits.
So did the Ramsays file an insurance claim after the Grand Jury decision? If they did not, why not?
Obviously any non-consensual autoerotic asphyxia, that is where some person restricts the air supply of another person, then this is an intentional criminal act, any subsequent death would be classified as a homicide!
References:
Turvy1995 :-
http://www.corpus-delicti.com/auto.html
Autoerotic Asphyxiation Paraphilia:-
http://www.cwu.edu/~jenkinsa/aeaarticle.html