Sexual Deviance. the Sexual Sadism

Home , Sublimation (psychology)

International Journal of Advanced Studies in Sexology https://www.sexology.ro/jurnal © Sexology Institute of Romania ISSN 2668-7194 (print), ISSN 2668-9987 (online) Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 23-27, January - June 2019

Sexual deviance. The Sexual sadism

Larisa-Maria COSTRACHEVICI1*, Cristian Delcea1, 2

1Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 2Sexology Institute of Romania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Abstract Sexual deviance is in some way a socially constructed phenomenon that shifts over time with public opinion. The various forms of sexual deviancy are grouped and defined utilizing the DSM-IV descriptions (American Psychitric Association, 1994), because this clasification it is the most frequently used in forensic settings. Adult sexual assault is an essential focus of forensic psychology, variously diagnosed as sexual sadism, paraphilia NOS (not otherwise specified), or undiagnosed. Other forms of sexual deviance presented here include voyeurism, exhibitionism, frotteurism, sexual sadism, rape and pedophilia. Each category is briefly explored through its etiology, course, epidemiology, assessment and treatment (Sbraga, 2004). Sexual sadism is said to be a disorder in which sexual satisfaction is reached and causing another suffering, psysical or mental pain through humiliation. In this article, its about addressing some theoretical aspects regarding the sexual deviance, but also the exemplification of a parafilic category, namely sexual sadism.

Keywords: sexual deviance, sadism, parafilic category, sexual behaviour.

Introduction or one’s partner, children and other non- consenting persons. A period of six months The concept of sexual deviance refers last these fantasies, bahaviors or urges, and to the nature of sexual behavior that is they cause distress or interpersonal difficulties nonconforming whit expectations or societal (DSM –IV – TR, 2000; Paulauskas, 2013). norms, is of maladaptive nature and interferes Sexual deviance encompasses a wide with the individual functioning (Laws and O’ spectrum of sexually aberrant behaviors Donohue, 1997; Paulauskas, 2012). Sexually and ranges from exhibitionism, fetishism, deviant behaviors are identified by one or more voyeurism, pedophilia, to incest and sadistic of the following standards: degree of consenst, rape at the extreme end. Many researchers, the nature of the person or object involved in clinicians and law enforcement representatives the action, the actual action and body parts consider this behaviors as a major mental health that are utilized, the setting in which the and criminal justice problem. Other terms bahavior is performed. In clinical literature related to sexual deviance include: sexually sexual deviance is referred to as Paraphilia and abnormal behavior, sexual perversion, sexual manifests itself as a disorder characterized by assault, and sexual offending; however, their recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, meanings are not identical and the terms are sexual urges or behaviors involving nonhuman often used in different contexts (Paulauskas, objects, suffering and humiliation of oneself 2013).

*Corresponding author: 160 Plevnei Street, Cluj-Napoca, 400000, Romania, Phone/Fax: 0264 550247, email [email protected]

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According to the classification made by J. According to the secretive, immoral and Gagnon and W. Simon (1967), there are three criminal nature of most sexually deviant be- types of sexual deviance, depending on the haviors, the actual extent and prevalence of magnitude of the deviation and the degree of this phenomenon is really unknown. Among tolerance manifested by the community. the most common paraphilic acts commited by Normal sexual deviance, including be- sex offenders are child molestation, rape, exhi- haviors, acts or preferences characterized by a bitionism and voyeurism (Abel et al., 1987). low correspondence between social rules, legal The deviant sexual phenomena have to be prescriptions and the behaviors of individuals present over a period of at least six months in (the case of masturbation, pre-marital sexual order to meet criteria for one of the following relations, oral sex, etc.), practices that have be- nine paraphilic categories: exhibitionism; pe- come permissive behaviors and tolerated, giv- dophilia; fetishism; frotteurism; sexual maso- en their private character which does not come chism; sexual sadism, transvestic fetishism and into open conflict with moral, medical or le- voyeurism (Saleh and Berlin, 2008). gal requirements. Moreover, in a functionalist John Money (1984) identified over 32 dif- conception, such acts, are considered to have a ferent and distinct paraphilias. Based on the beneficial character for the society, given that phenomenological feature, he defined six sub- they fulfill numerous social functions with a types of paraphialias, such as: the sacrificial; „sublimation” character. The „normal” sexual the predatory; the mercantile; the fetish; the deviance is, from this point of view, a kind of eligibility and the allurement. „neutral deviance” that does not affect either society or individuals, having the ability to Sexual sadism: definition, etiology, orient biological impulses to socially desirable assesment and treatment paths. Sexual sadism is a extracting sexual The pathological sexual deviance takes into pleasure from causing pain to another living account those cases where there is a high corre- being. Fromm (1977), describe sadism as the spondence between the social norms, the legal drive to have absolut control over another prescriptions and the behaviors of the individ- person or animal. Sadism is commonly seen in uals. Following the predominantly individual individuals with additional paraphilias. The character of this form of deviance, its labeling study from Abel et al., (1988), found that 18% is based, rather, on the invocation of medical of their sample of sex offender sadists were also criteria rather than social or cultural norms. masochistic, 46% had raped, 21% had exposed For example: rape, incest and pedophilia acts. themselves, 25% are engaged in voyeurism, Group sexual deviance occurs when the 25% had engaged in frotteurism and 33% are sexual behaviors of individuals are associated engaged in pedophilia. The collected data on with the norms and values of distinct subcul- 30 sexual sadists by the FBI show their most tures, which is why it is also called „subcultur- interesting findings that include a percent al” deviance. These subcultures are character- of their sample with a history of 43% of ized by a double status: on the one hand, they homosexuality, more than 50% had no prior are stigmatized and marginalized in relation criminal record and 50% had a history of drug to the domination of the legitimate sexual cul- abuse after alcoholism (Dietz, Hazelwood and ture, on the other hand, within their individu- Warren, 1990). Dietz and his colleagues also als they acquire security and their full identity. found these men to be profoundly narcissistic. The most relevant examples of subcultural de- Although some sadists appear to stay within viance are mentioned, prostitution and homo- the realm of consensual sadomasochistic sexuality, which imply different or alternative activities with a masochistic partner (Hucker, forms of organization, behavior, norms and 1990), others seem to thrive on inflicting pain values compared to those of „legitimate” forms on a non-consenting person. of sexuality.

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Etiology while plethysmography and using of the Report data show a number of 75% sadistic records reviews, particularly accounts of the males declarations that they have been aware crimes provides a useful data (Sbraga, 2003). of their deviant interests prior to adulthood Psychological tests that may have investi- (Breslow, Evans and Langley, 1985; Spengler, gative or treatment utility with sexual sadists 1977). On the other side, according to Scott are those that include both sexual and aggres- (1983), sadistic females tend to become involved sive factors. This instruments: Sexual aggres- in the behaviors through adult relationships sion scale (ASA) (Malamuth, 1989) and the with masochistic men, discovering pleasure in Multidimensional assessment of sex and ag- sadism through its practice. gression (MASA) (Knight, Prentky and Cerce, In the literature there are three theories 1994) have the strongest psychometric proper- regarding sexual sadism, namely: psycho ties. The ASA was designed to measure the ap- analytic, behavioral and biological theories. peal of sexual aggression. All scales have an in- In the psychoanalytic theory, Freud (1961) ternal consistency ranging from .78 to .92 with affirms that sadism originates when a child high test-retest reliability. The MASA was de- misinterprets sex as a painful by observing his signed to measure aggressive and sexual fan- parents having sexual relations. tasies, cognitions, and behaviors. The internal Behavioral theory is about: conditioned consistency is in the acceptable range, with all sexual arousal followed by masturbation and scales at least .60 and 89 percent of them higher sexual fantasies that are reinforced encapsu- than .80. Test-retest reliability is also acceptable lates behaviorist thought on the basic origins (Sbraga, 2003). of sadistic behavior (McGuire, Carlisle and Fedora, et al., (1992) found a distinctive Young, 1965). phallometric profile for sexual sadists. Biological theory: It has been hypothe- Sexual sadists in their study became sexually sized that neurological abnormalities may be aroused to slides of nonsexual violence against responsible for sexual sadism. Several studies fully clothed women, unlike comparison have found mild associations between sadism participants. In addition to finding a distinct and temporal lobe abnormalities (Graber et al., pattern of responding that corresponds to 1982; Hucker et al., 1988; Gratzer and Bradford, physical violence against women, a separate 1995). It seems possible that these abnormali- sadistic profile demonstrates deviant arousal ties could also be the result of physiologically to the domination and humiliation of women and psychologically painful sex or an uniden- (Thornton, 1993; Sbraga, 2003). tified third variable. Other studies have ex- amined hormonal differences between sexual Treatment sadists and controls without finding any signif- Treatment objective for sexual sadists in- icant differences (Bain et al., 1987). clude controlling deviant sexual arousal, increasing victim empathy, modifying cognitive Assesment distortions, and increasing social competency According to Holmes and Holmes (1994) and balance in the lifestyle (Sbraga, 2003). to understand what elicit and maintain sexual Techniques for modifying deviant sexual sadism involves assessing four major areas. arousal include electroshock, olfactory aver- These four areas include having fantasies sion, covert sensitization, vicarious sensitiza- about inflicting pain, being attached to an tion, masturbatory satiation and recondition- inanimate object or part of the body, engaging ing, and chemical castration (Sbraga, 2003). in ritualism that focused on the suffering of Victim empathy training includes elements others and they feel a compulsion to act out such as: meeting with victims of sexual aggres- sadistic fantasies. Some of this information sion, hearing audiotaped 911 calls from frantic may be gathered through the self-report of victims, watching videos of victims describing the psychological testing and the perpetrator, their experiences, writing unsent letters to vic-

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