The Sexual Criminal cover

The Sexual Criminal

by J. Paul De River

Originally published fifty years ago as a criminology/sexology textbook for law enforcement personnel, The Sexual Criminal is a fascinating glimpse at the seedy L.A. Confidential underbelly of a dark and fetid Los Angeles, a city littered with innumerable true-life noir characters: a hophead butcher who eviscerates his dance-hall girlfriend; an electrician who makes love to his pet collie; an Italian immigrant who engages in clandestine necrophilia; an inebriated hustler who strangles his homosexual meal ticket; an adulterous housewife who puts rat poison in her husband's coffee. Written in a terse, Dragnet-like style by the controversial autocratic director of the Los Angeles Police Department's Sex Offense Bureau, and graphically illustrated with mugshots and harshly-lit photographs of violently torn bodies, The Sexual Criminal is both an amazing sociological time capsule of a not-so-distant era in the history of Los Angeles and a voyeuristic, prurient examination of the explosive sex lives of its inhabitants. from Goodreads

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?