A 21-year-old white man is alleged to have entered three different spas in the greater Atlanta area on March 16 and shot dead eight people, six of whom were Asian women. The following day, Cherokee County sheriff’s officials announced what the suspect blamed as a possible motive for the killings: sex addiction.
The alleged shooter has been described as a devoutly conservative evangelical Christian who had, according to numerous reports, been struggling to control his sexual behaviors. Law enforcement officials said the suspect claimed to have been dealing with a sex addiction and ultimately killed as a way to “eliminate” the “temptation” he felt these women posed.
I am a researcher who specializes in behavioral addictions, specifically sexual addictions. A lot of my research has focused on how religion interacts with sexual behaviors and feelings of addiction. Over the past decade, my research has found that religion and sexual addiction are deeply intertwined.
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