Therapy for Sexual Impulsivity: The Paraphilias and Paraphilia-Related Disorders
Perhaps no single act causes such strong emotions as the act of child sexual abuse. Child molesters cannot even find refuge in prisons where rapists and murderers are commonplace. These offenders are shunned in every aspect of our society, yet there is no consensus as to the causes of this behavior. Sexual abuse of children is not new, and has not always been socially
taboo.
Paraphilias and paraphilia-related disorders are more clinically prevalent than most clinicians suspect. Since these disorders are cloaked in shame and guilt, it is common that the diagnosis of these conditions may not be adequately revealed until a therapeutic alliance is firmly established. Even then, it is more helpful to inquire directly about sexual impulsivity disorders than to hope or expect that a patient will be spontaneously forthcoming. Once a diagnosis is established, appropriate psychoeducation regarding sexual diagnoses, associated Axis I comorbidity and appropriate use of psychopharmacological agents can greatly improve the prognosis for these conditions.
Pedophilia is characterized as a long-term disorder that most commonly occurs in males. A pedophile is portrayed as an individual who has sexual urges and fantasies of a child who is 13 or younger. They usually engage in sexual acts such as undressing the child, masturbation, and also fondling and caressing the child. The best way to examine pedophilia is to look at the general information, characteristics, causes, diagnostic, and also the treatment that goes along with the disorder. The specificity of phallometric testing for pedophilia has been calculated using sex offenders against adult women.
Does the offender's actual number of prior sexual contacts with women affect such estimates?
To answer this, the authors studied 82 male sex offenders against adult women, 172 offenders against unrelated children, and 70 offenders against...