Sadomasochism in the Genesis of Violent Sexual Behavior

Abstract

The last few years have witnessed a considerable increase in the share of persons guilty of violent sexual crimes who have been diagnosed with sexual preferences’ disorders in the form of sadomasochism. There has been a growth in quantitative and a change in qualitative indices of violent sexual crimes which are manifested in more brutal violence, greater physical harm, causing extra suffering not aimed at overcoming the victim’s resistance but acting as a source of additional sexual stimulation. A considerable share of crimes (86 %) is connected with torturing and humiliating victims. These facts testify that there is a correlation between the escalation of sexual violence and sexual preferences’ disorders. The author has conducted a criminological and psychological-psychiatric study of persons guilty of violent sexual crimes that showed that 25 % of participants were diagnosed with sexual preferences’ disorders; besides, 60 % of them had sexual preferences disorders of sadomasochism, mainly in its active form. The author believes that sadomasochism as a psychiatric disorder and sadomasochism as a form of sexual violence have a number of similar manifestations that include violence, cruelty as absolute indifference to the sufferings and the fate of the victim; nevertheless, these destructive phenomena considerably differ in motivation. The current study outlines the diagnostic criteria of sadomasochism which contribute to the correct assessment of a violent sexual offence; it determines the causes and origins of this paraphilia, its impact on the emergence of violent sexual motivation; the study draws clear distinctions between sadomasochism as a psychic disorder accompanied by the weakening of control mechanisms and the disruption in volitional control, and BDSM relationships that are part of modern destructive sexual culture. Research results make it possible to considerably simplify the assessment of the psychic condition of persons who have committed violent sexual crimes; they also help to an important cause of violent sexual crimes, which could become the basis for creating an optimal system for preventing criminal sexual violence.