Telephone scatologia: Comorbidity with other paraphilias and paraphilia-related disorders

Abstract

The term scatologia is derived from the Greek word, skato, for dung and logos for speech (Gayford, 1997). Thus, telephone scatologia, also referred to as telephone scatophilia and telephonicophilia, is a paraphilia (PA) characterized by a pattern of sexual arousal associated with exposing an unsuspecting victim to sexual and obscene material over the phone (Milner & Dopke, 1997; Schewe, 1997). Telephone scatologia remains classified as a PA not otherwise specified (NOS) in the DSM-IV, because there has been insufficient description of the disorder in the literature to merit a separate category (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Although specific PAs are distinguished by a characteristic paraphilic focus, all PAs feature recurrent, socially deviant, highly arousing sexual fantasies, urges, and activities that have a duration of at least 6 months and cause clinically significant distress or impairment (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). These latter diagnostic criteria would distinguish true telephone scatologists (TS) from telephone callers who just make a few obscene calls as a prank. Obscene telephone calling is a common behavior with more than 22,000 obscene phone call complaints filed in the Washington, DC area alone in 1989. This is particularly impressive considering that only 7–20% of sexually provocative calls are actually reported to the telephone company (Herold, Mantle, & Zemitis, 1979; Smith & Morra, 1994). Surveys