China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Planned Compulsive Homicides
Published in Louis B. Schlesinger, Sexual Murder, 2021
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (in all its various editions) approaches psychopathology from an atheoretical perspective, emphasizing description and classification rather than etiology. The most recent edition, DSM-5 (2013), categorizes sadism as falling under the group of paraphilias, thus emphasizing the sexual element. In fact, the text refers to sadism as “sexual sadism disorder” and places it alongside other sexual deviations, such as exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism, and pedophilia. According to the DSM-5, sexual sadism involves “intense sexual arousal from the physical or psychological suffering of another person, as manifested by fantasies, urges, or behaviors … the person has acted on these sexual urges with a nonconsenting person” (p. 695). Krueger’s (2009) review of the empirical literature on sadism found not only support for the diagnosis but a need for dimensional and structured diagnostic instruments.
Serial Killers
Published in R. Barri Flowers, The Dynamics of Murder, 2012
The relationship between serial murder and sexual sadism has been established by a number of researchers. R. A. Prentky and colleagues noted the role of violent sexual fantasies and sexual deviance in serial homicide.45 John Money advanced that sexual sadism was a brain disease caused by genetic factors, hormonal abnormalities, child-rearing factors, and psychiatric disorders such as antisocial personality disorder and disassociative disorders.46 In his research on serial killers, Joel Norris profiled such murderers as often having a history of head trauma, genetic brain abnormalities, sexual assault, sexually deviant behavior, suicidal ideation, ritualistic behavior, compulsivity, substance abuse, physical and emotional abuse, and feeling inadequate and powerless.47
Beneath the covers
Published in Lester D. Friedman, Therese Jones, Routledge Handbook of Health and Media, 2022
To be diagnosed with a paraphilic disorder, the paraphilia causes significant distress or impairment to the individual or involves personal harm or risk of harm to others. Having a paraphilia does not necessarily mean that the individual has a paraphilic disorder, illustrating how an individual might not have an “illness of sex” until suffering or harm to self or other is experienced and/or identified (e.g., Pedophilic Disorder). In other words, an individual spanking or whipping a consenting adult might simply focus on this erotic activity (rather than the sexual partner) for arousal, which would be deemed a paraphilia (i.e., sadism). But according to the psychiatric community, if the individual experiences distress or impairment in social, occupational settings or acts on their intense urges with a nonconsenting person, they have a Sexual Sadism Disorder. The individual might recognize the illness and seek clinical help or might be criminalized for the act with or without required clinical care. Despite the distinctions between paraphilia and paraphilic disorder according to the psychiatric community, however, an individual may still feel “ill” regarding any emotional distress in the experience of causing physical harm to another consenting individual who, in turn, desires this sexual interaction. Alternatively, some individuals might not feel ill but are regarded as such by medical, religious, and other social communities (e.g., homosexuality). Such emotional distress, for example, can stem from society’s belief that sadism is a sexual perversion and that by failing to uphold social expectations, an individual contends with feeling that they are is abnormal or exhibit unnatural sexual behavior.
From Fantasy to Reality: Self-Reported Aggression-Related Sexual Fantasies Predict Sexually Sadistic Behavior beyond Indirect and Direct Measures of Sexual Preference
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2023
We repeated the analyses with presumably non-consensual sexual sadism as the outcome (Table 5). Again, the model including gender, sexism, and indirect sexual preference as statistical predictors did not differ significantly from the baseline model (χ2[4] = 208.72, p = .719). The inclusion of ASF significantly improved the model (χ2[6] = 45.24, p < .001). More ASF predicted more presumably non-consensual sexual sadism (b = 0.067*). When using the three ASF subscales as statistical predictors, none of them was associated with presumably non-consensual sexual sadism. Again, the pattern of findings was similar for men and women (Table S5 and S6). However, presumably non-consensual sexual sadism was related to the ASF total score (b = 0.115*) and coercive fantasies (b = 0.076*) only in men.
The Prevalence of BDSM in Finland and the Association between BDSM Interest and Personality Traits
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2023
Markus Paarnio, Nils Sandman, Marianne Källström, Ada Johansson, Patrick Jern
Based on the results of the present study, it seems that interest in BDSM is very common in Finland and the personality of individuals who are interested in BDSM does not meaningfully differ from those who do not have such interests. Previous research suggested that BDSM practitioners do not have problems, so it is unlikely that those who are interested in BDSM would have. Furthermore. Brown et al. (2019) suggested that understanding the underlying psychometric structure behind BDSM is important, because BDSM interest and behavior can be a part of a latent factor of paraphilic interests or be a factor of its own. Exploring different personality characteristics’ associations with different BDSM topics may help to identify what separates BDSM practitioners from those whose are diagnosed with sexual sadism disorder. Also of interest may be further exploration of the findings that non-heterosexual individuals displayed significantly more interest and participation in BDSM, and whether this can be explained by different levels of sexual desire between heterosexual and non-heterosexual individuals (Lippa, 2007). A. Brown et al. (2019) also hypothesized that sex drive could be a relevant factor in explaining BDSM interest and behavior. Currently there are no validated questionnaires on BDSM, which means that the same phenomenon is studied with differing definitions, questions and classifications. For example, fantasies are sometimes treated synonymously with interest. An important goal for future research is to develop validated questionnaires for BDSM interest and practice.
Sexual and Violent Recidivism of Empirically-Typed Individuals Convicted of Rape
Published in International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 2023
Laura Freudenthaler, Ulrich S. Tran, Reinhard Eher
The low prevalence of paraphilia diagnosis and PRDs in our study seems to indicate that the quality of paraphilic interest may be more relevant than the quantity (number of diagnoses). Yet, we tested the presence of such diagnoses and did not consider differences with regards to content. Apart from paraphilia diagnosis and PRD, we did not have any other indicators of sexualization factors (e.g., self-reported sexual interests), which likely influenced the outcome on sexual deviance. Sexual sadism was treated as a dimensional construct and found relevant only for a small number of subjects, both of which may have led to the underestimation of its importance for classification and the prediction of sexual offense recidivism. However, previous studies have also found no significant predictive value of injury to victims or force used for sexual offense recidivism (Hanson & Bussière, 1998). Low internal consistency of SESAS scores (Cronbach α = .49) in the present study indicate problems of reliability for this measure, but could also stem from the only small number of sexual sadistic offenders in the sample. The sample was rather homogeneous in this respect, which likely deflated Cronbach alpha of this scale. Sexual sadism is generally a rare offender characteristic (Eher et al., 2019).