A Descriptive Model of Voyeuristic Behavior.

Over the last 50 years, there has been a plethora of research exploring sexual offending with a recent focus on online offending. However, little research has focused on voyeurism despite convictions and media awareness growing rapidly. Currently, there is sparse theoretical or empirical literature to guide research and practice for individuals engaging in voyeuristic behaviors. As such, 17 incarcerated men with a conviction of voyeurism in the UK were interviewed on the cognitive, affective, behavioral, and contextual factors leading up to and surrounding their offense(s). Grounded theory analyses were used to develop a temporal model from background factors to post-offense factors; the Descriptive Model of Voyeuristic Behavior (DMV). The model highlights vulnerability factors for men engaging in voyeuristic behaviors in this sample. Following this, the same 17 men were plotted through the model and three key pathways were identified: Sexual Gratification, Maladaptive Connection Seeking, and Access to Inappropriate Person(s). The characteristics of each pathway are discussed, and treatment implications considered.

More Than a Nuisance: The Prevalence and Consequences of Frotteurism and Exhibitionism.

Despite indications that acts of frotteurism and exhibitionism are frequent occurrences, these sexual paraphilias have received little empirical attention. To address this gap in our knowledge about these paraphilias, 459 undergraduate students in a major metropolitan city completed a self-report measure designed to investigate the frequency and correlates of frotteurism and exhibitionism. Results indicate a high rate of victimization among female college students for both paraphilias. Furthermore, acts of frotteurism and exhibitionism most often occurred in places related to public transportation (e.g., subway trains or platforms) in this urban setting. In addition, victims reported a number of negative outcomes as a consequence of victimization, including feelings of violation, changes in behavior, and even long-term psychological distress. Older females were the most likely to be victimized. These findings are discussed as they pertain to the prevention and deterrence of paraphilic sexual acts.

The Body Worlds Exhibits and Juvenile Understandings of Death: Do We Educate Children to Science or to Voyeurism?

Gunther von Hagens' development of plastination as a method for preserving human remains has enabled his public display of skinless, dissected bodies in a series of popular international exhibitions entitled Body Worlds. These spectacular displays claim to be educative, democratizing the study of anatomy and liberating it from the traditional confines of professional medical study. However, Body Worlds has raised various ethical objections to its commercial purpose, sourcing of some bodies and arrangement of bodies in poses or dissections that some viewers find offensive. Here we consider a different, often overlooked ethical conundrum raised by these exhibitions: the likelihood that the viewing of plastinates posed in 'frozen motion' is ill­suited to the psychological development of young children (5-10 years old) whose understanding of death is still in formation. Often young children mistake corpses for models, even for living beings if they are posed in arrested motion. The educative value of Body Worlds for younger viewers is questionable and the display may even interfere with their understanding of death. If the exhibition of human remains can be justified where their authenticity can be made known to viewers and the remains invested by them with sympathetic emotional meaning, it may be pointless if not unethical to show quasi­lifelike posed plastinates to young children in lieu of replica models.

Assessment of the paraphilias.

Paraphilias are recurrent, persistent, and intense sexual interests in atypical objects or activities. The most commonly encountered paraphilias in sexological or forensic settings are pedophilia, sexual sadism, exhibitionism, and voyeurism. Paraphilias are often comorbid with other sexual, mood, and personality disorders. Assessment and diagnosis require an integration of multiple sources of clinical information, given the limits and biases of self-report (through clinical interview or questionnaires). Clinicians ideally have access to more objective assessment methods, such as phallometric testing of sexual arousal. The accurate assessment and diagnosis of paraphilias is essential to effective treatment and management.

[Clinical consequences of modernity]. / Des conséquences cliniques de la modernité.

When they receive patients in their treatment centre, clinicians witness symptoms which are sometimes very closely related to the inclusion within hypermodernity of hyperbole and instantaneousness. A study of the question of contemporary violence through an analytical explanation of the relationship between the subject and the object.

Suspensão corporal e as três dimensões da intercorporeidade / Suspensión corporal y las tres dimensiones de la intercorporeidad / Body suspension and the three dimensions of the intercorporealty

Este artigo focaliza a suspensão corporal, que consiste na elevação de uma pessoa por meio de ganchos cravados em sua pele. Essa prática é um fenômeno tipicamente contemporâneo e, facilitada pela internet, tem-se difundido intensamente no mundo ocidental. Para compreendê-la, utilizamos uma escuta psicanalítica para ressaltar a dinâmica da relação entre as personagens típicas de um evento de suspensão: a pessoa suspendida, a pessoa que suspende e a platéia. Pretendemos, então, enfocar o caráter intersubjetivo dessa intervenção corporal e, para tanto, utilizamos a noção de intercorporeidade. O seu desenvolvimento inspira-se em instrumentos já utilizados para pensar a intersubjetividade: a condição fusional mãe-bebê, a empatia, o voyeurismo, a relação especular e a mediação simbólica.(AU)

Este artículo enfoca la suspensión corporal, consistente en la elevación de una persona a través de ganchos clavados en su piel. Esta práctica es un fenómeno típicamente contemporáneo que, facilitado por la internet, se ha difundido intensamente en el mundo occidental. Para comprenderla, utilizamos una escucha psicoanalítica destinada a resaltar la dinámica de la relación entre los personajes típicos de un evento de suspensión: el suspendido, el que suspende y la platea. Pretendemos, así, destacar el carácter intersubjetivo de esa intervención corporal y, con esta finalidad, utilizamos la noción de intercorporeidad. Su desarrollo se inspira en instrumentos ya utilizados para pensar la intersubjetividad: la condición fusional madre-niño, la empatía, el voyeurismo, la relación especular y la mediación simbólica.(AU)

This article focus on the body suspension, which consists in the elevation of a person by means of hooks pierced on the skin. This practice is a tipical contemporary phenomenon and, facilitated by internet, has been intensely diffused over the western world. In order to comprehend it, we use a psychoanalitical aproach to emphasize the relation dynamics among the typical actors of a suspension event: the suspendee, the suspender and the audience. In order to focus the intersubjective basis of this body intervention, we use the notion of intercorporealty. Its development is inspired on tools already used to comprehend the intersubjectivity: the fusional condition mother-baby, the empathy, the voyeurism, the specular relation and the simbolic mediation.(AU)

Suspensão corporal e as três dimensões da intercorporeidade / Suspensión corporal y las tres dimensiones de la intercorporeidad / Body suspension and the three dimensions of the intercorporealty

Este artigo focaliza a suspensão corporal, que consiste na elevação de uma pessoa por meio de ganchos cravados em sua pele. Essa prática é um fenômeno tipicamente contemporâneo e, facilitada pela internet, tem-se difundido intensamente no mundo ocidental. Para compreendê-la, utilizamos uma escuta psicanalítica para ressaltar a dinâmica da relação entre as personagens típicas de um evento de suspensão: a pessoa suspendida, a pessoa que suspende e a platéia. Pretendemos, então, enfocar o caráter intersubjetivo dessa intervenção corporal e, para tanto, utilizamos a noção de intercorporeidade. O seu desenvolvimento inspira-se em instrumentos já utilizados para pensar a intersubjetividade: a condição fusional mãe-bebê, a empatia, o voyeurismo, a relação especular e a mediação simbólica.

Este artículo enfoca la suspensión corporal, consistente en la elevación de una persona a través de ganchos clavados en su piel. Esta práctica es un fenómeno típicamente contemporáneo que, facilitado por la internet, se ha difundido intensamente en el mundo occidental. Para comprenderla, utilizamos una escucha psicoanalítica destinada a resaltar la dinámica de la relación entre los personajes típicos de un evento de suspensión: el suspendido, el que suspende y la platea. Pretendemos, así, destacar el carácter intersubjetivo de esa intervención corporal y, con esta finalidad, utilizamos la noción de intercorporeidad. Su desarrollo se inspira en instrumentos ya utilizados para pensar la intersubjetividad: la condición fusional madre-niño, la empatía, el voyeurismo, la relación especular y la mediación simbólica.

This article focus on the body suspension, which consists in the elevation of a person by means of hooks pierced on the skin. This practice is a tipical contemporary phenomenon and, facilitated by internet, has been intensely diffused over the western world. In order to comprehend it, we use a psychoanalitical aproach to emphasize the relation dynamics among the typical actors of a suspension event: the suspendee, the suspender and the audience. In order to focus the intersubjective basis of this body intervention, we use the notion of intercorporealty. Its development is inspired on tools already used to comprehend the intersubjectivity: the fusional condition mother-baby, the empathy, the voyeurism, the specular relation and the simbolic mediation.

Exhibitionistic and voyeuristic behavior in a Swedish national population survey.

We examined the prevalence and correlates of self-reported sexual arousal from exposing one's genitals to a stranger (exhibitionistic behavior) and spying on others having sex (voyeuristic behavior) in a representative national sample. In 1996, 2,450 randomly selected 18-60 year-olds from the general population of Sweden were interviewed in a broad survey of sexuality and health. A total of 76 (3.1%) respondents reported at least one incident of being sexually aroused by exposing their genitals to a stranger and 191 (7.7%) respondents reported at least one incident of being sexually aroused by spying on others having sex. Exhibitionistic and voyeuristic behaviors were examined for possible associations with 9 sociodemographic, 5 health, 4 risk-taking, and 17 sexuality variables. Both paraphilia-like behaviors were positively associated with being male and having more psychological problems, lower satisfaction with life, greater alcohol and drug use, and greater sexual interest and activity in general, including more sexual partners, greater sexual arousability, higher frequency of masturbation, higher frequency of pornography use, and greater likelihood of having had a same-sex sexual partner. Consistent with previous research in clinical samples of men with paraphilias, respondents who reported either exhibitionistic or voyeuristic behavior had substantially greater odds of reporting other atypical sexual behavior (sadomasochistic or cross-dressing behavior). There was evidence both for general and specific associations between sexual fantasies and their corresponding paraphilia-like behaviors. The implications of these findings for research on atypical sexual interests, atypical sexual behavior, and paraphilias are discussed.

"Private rooms and back doors in abundance": the illusion of privacy in pornography in seventeenth-century England.

This article discusses pornography in seventeenth-century England in relation to the public/private debate. The seventeenth century is seen as bordering a shift from a communal, "public" style of living to a private, confined, inward-looking sensibility discernible from the eighteenth century. The increasing availability and development of a market for pornography, which goes hand in hand with the expansion of print culture, is seen as part of this shift, as it seems to exemplify par excellence the private consumption of printed material for private pleasure. The pornographic literature of the seventeenth century repeatedly invokes the idea of a public/private distinction to produce an eroticised narrative in which the illusion of privacy is constantly breached by the pursuit of voyeuristic pleasure.

Compulsive voyeurism and exhibitionism: a clinical response to paroxetine.

The compulsive behaviors seen in sexual paraphilias may be related to those of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Based primarily upon case reports as well as studies indicating the effectiveness of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the treatment of sexual paraphilias, it has been speculated that sexual paraphilias lie within the obsessive-compulsive spectrum. There have been no reports of the use of paroxetine in the treatment of sexual paraphilias. This is a report of two patients, the first a voyeur and the second an exhibitionist, both of whom responded to treatment with paroxetine. The discussion addresses the need for further comparative studies investigating the role of the serotonin system in the pathogenesis of sexual paraphilias and OCD as well as the effect of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in comparison to other pharmacologic modalities used in the treatment of paraphilias.

Sex offending as a psychosocial sequela of traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the nature and extent of sexual offending after traumatic brain injury (TBI). DESIGN: Retrospective file review. SETTING: A brain injury unit providing inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services. PARTICIPANTS: A review of five years of admissions to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (N = 477) identified a sample of 29 males who committed 128 incidents of sex offending. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A protocol to record data on demographic, injury, radiological, and psychosocial variables and offending behaviors. RESULTS: Of the total population of 445 clients with TBI, 6.5% (n = 29) were identified as having committed some form of sexual offense. Alcohol was a factor in only three (2.3%) of the incidents, and only two clients had a preinjury history of sexual offending. The most common offenses were the "touching" offenses, followed by exhibitionism and overt sexual aggression. Staff members were the most common targets of the offenses, followed by members of the general public, other people with TBI, and family members. CONCLUSIONS: Sex offending is a significant clinical problem among a small minority of men after TBI. The absence of alcohol and preinjury histories of sexual offending suggest that the brain injury and contingent sequelae were a significant etiological factor underlying the offenses. A number of implications for the clinical management of clients with sexually aberrant behaviors is identified and discussed.

Koro-like syndrome in a Bedouin man.

A case report is presented of a koro-like syndrome in a 34-year-old Bedouin man living in the Negev desert in Israel. The patient's disturbance is accompanied by voyeurism and the onset appears to be related to his sexual practices. This is the first reported case among Bedouins, who are an Arab nomadic tribe living in Asia and Africa.

Video voyeurs and the covert videotaping of unsuspecting victims: psychological and legal consequences.

Video voyeurs employ state of the art technology to gain access into the most private places where victims are covertly videotaped. Women are the usual victims of video voyeurs as they change their clothes, perform natural functions or engage in sexual activities. When the videotaping is discovered by the victim, serious psychological harm may result. A civil suit is the most common legal remedy sought. Criminal sanctions, when available, are often insufficient compared to the seriousness of the crime. While unauthorized, covert audiotaping is forbidden by both federal and state codes, videotaping is often not specifically mentioned. It appears that legislators do not fully appreciate the burgeoning of covert videotaping, the technological advances that have greatly expanded the possibilities for voyeuristic viewing and the harm done to victims of video voyeurs. Appropriate criminal sanctions need to be included in privacy statutes for unauthorized, video surveillance with or without accompanying audio transcription.