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In Review
The true prevalence of sexual sadism (and its variants) is unknown. However, all clinicians
will knowingly or unknowingly encounter patients with this disorder. Regretfully, few
programs offer adequate education in normal sexuality and even less provide training in the
assessment and treatment of pathologic sexual interests. This review synthesizes current
theories about possible etiologies of criminal sexual sadism and the resulting implications
for diagnosis and treatment of this sexual disorder. Included is a review of theories of
criminally sadistic sexual motivations, response patterns, and physiology, including
possible neurophysiologic factors and more complex interactions. This review focuses
primarily on published English-language scientific studies of sexual sadism. It should be
noted that my use of the term sadism refers to nonconsensual sexual aggression.
Can J Psychiatry 2008;53(10):637646
Highlights
! While some scientific evidence supports an interaction between sexual behaviours and
aggression, the purported association between sex and violence in media reports is
misleading. This is due to a focus on sensational cases, lack of consistency in diagnostic
criteria, inconclusive study designs, overgeneralization, and reliance on opinion.
! Sexual arousal from consensual interactions that include domination should be distinguished
from nonconsensual sex acts. Nonconsensual sex may be opportunistic, disinhibited, or
sexually motivated. Often motivations are mixed.
! Future research needs to integrate studies to account for how neurophysiologic and
neurohormonal events translate into psychologic experiences that in turn are modified by
social variables within specific populations across the lifespan.
! The frequency of reported sex crimes is decreasing. The efficacy of treatment for paraphilias
of all types is improving. Further research into the relation between sex and violence will aid
in decreasing sex crimes but more importantly will aid in understanding how to facilitate safe,
healthy, and happy sexuality for everyone.
Sadism and masochism occupy a special place among he topics of sex and violence are of almost universal
the perversions, for the contrast of activity and T interest. A Google search using the word sex produces
687-million hits. A search linking sex with synonyms for vio-
passivity lying at their bases belong to the common
traits of the sexual life. Sigmund Freud1, p 23 lence results in 274-million searchable links. A more specific
review of the scientific literature was conducted using SUM
search, which combines a metasearch strategy with contin-
How one thing depends upon another is the greatest gency searching of major databases including PubMed and
mystery about life in my opinion, and no doubt if we PsycLIT. In our review, the following key words were linked
could see the network of cause and effect spun and with the word sexual: violence, sadism, homicide, coercion,
spinning around us, it would be a very interesting and and predator. This search, limited to human subject research
wonderful spectacle.2, p 1 published in the English language within the last 10 years,
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 53, No 10, October 2008 ! 637
In Review
resulted in 4211 journal article citations. These citations were Table 1 Case history
combined with 148 journal articles identified by the key word
You are a psychiatry resident on call in a busy downtown
sadomasochism, followed up by referral to articles and books emergency room. A young patient is brought to the ER by
cited in the materials listed above. ambulance with a fractured femur. Radiologic examination
indicates this is a third fracture. You are asked whether a
To capture articles not yet cited within standard research data- psychiatric consultation is indicated.
bases, the results were combined with a recent review of the What is your answer if:
published literature on sexual violence.3 Full details of the ! The injuries were sustained during high school football
search strategies and results for this article are available on games?
request. ! The injuries were sustained during consensual,
sadomasochistic sex play?
Introduction ! The injuries were sustained during nonconsensual sexual
The incidence and prevalence of sex crimes in North America activity?
is declining,4 and no one knows why.5 In Canada, the rate of ! The patient is a child; is female; is intellectually disabled;
sexual assault in 2004 was 74 incidents per 100 000, repre- does or does not think there is a problem?
senting a 33% drop from 1985. Since then, published rates Finally, what would your answer be in each case if the patient
report a further decrease to 72 per 100 000. 6 were the sexual partner of another individual with the same
medical injury?
Despite this welcome trend, the association between sexually
motivated behaviours and violence is unknown. Sexual
offences of all types result in devastating consequences, not Table 2 DSM-IV-TR criteria for sexual sadism
only for victims but also for perpetrators (a third of whom are (302.84)
themselves victims of sexual abuse).7 No clinician who cares Over a period of 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing
for adult patients has the luxury of avoiding contact (know- fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving acts (real, not
ingly or otherwise) with perpetrators and potential perpetra- simulated) in which the psychological or physical suffering
(including humiliation) of the victim is sexually exciting to the
tors whose activities may be modified to the extent that sex person.
crimes can be prevented. The person has acted on these sexual urges with a
Appropriate interventions require adequate education. In a non-consenting person, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause
marked distress or interpersonal difficulty. 15, p 574
survey of 141 medical schools in North America, 54% pro-
vided 10 hours teaching on the general topic of sexual medi-
cine8; however, most medical schools provided prospective
physicians with less than 2 hours of sex education.9 These
numbers are important because physicians are often the first based evaluation and treatment of men and women with
people confronted with situations in which clinical judgments potentially problematic sexual interests and behaviours. This
are crucial. The vignette in Table 1 is an example of the ques- review is intended primarily for psychiatrists in general prac-
tions posed during typical sexual attitude restructuring exer- tice. Reviews of topics of more interest to subspecialists are
cises advocated by experts in medical education. available, such as sexually aggressive women,10 sexually
The purpose of this review is to examine the relation between aggressive juveniles,11,12 intellectually delayed sex offend-
sex and violence, to explain some of the contradictory views ers,13 and neurological comorbidity in sexual violence.14
of researchers, to provide a rational basis for answers to the
questions posed in Table 1, and to advocate for evidence- Diagnostic Criteria
DSM-IV-TR criteria for sexual sadism (302.84) are repro-
Abbreviations used in this article duced in Table 2.15, p574 Examining the A criteria, several
questions arise:
BDSM BondageDiscipline, DominanceSubmission,
SadismMasochism ! Why 6 months?
DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
! What does recurrent mean?
ICD International Classification of Diseases
LH luteinizing hormone ! What does intense mean?
MRI magnetic resonance imaging
! Is it meaningful to discuss sexual urges independent of
PET positron emission tomography
sexual fantasies?
RCBF regional cerebral blood flow
! Why distinguish between real and simulated acts?
Table 3 ICD-10 criteria for sadomasochism (F 65.5) that represented the driving psychological force in the
crimes.20, p 902
A preference for sexual activity that involves bondage or the
infliction of pain or humiliation. If the individual prefers to be the On the basis of a review of studies on the sexual physiology in
recipient of such stimulation this is called masochism; if the
nonsadistic men, these authors assert that anger is incompati-
provider, sadism. Often an individual obtains sexual excitement
from both sadistic and masochistic activities. ble with sexual arousal because sympathetic catecholamines
Mild degrees of sadomasochistic stimulation are commonly used associated with anger (for example, norepinephrine) are also
to enhance otherwise normal sexual activity. This category associated with penile detumescence.32,33
should be used only if sadomasochistic activity is the most
important source of stimulation or necessary for sexual Unfortunately, all but one of the 12 reports involved review-
gratification. ing historic cases, with several involving descriptions by
Sexual sadism is sometimes difficult to distinguish from cruelty in authors with no clinical experience. It is possible that the
sexual situations or anger unrelated to eroticism. Where violence descriptions of sexual pleasure as the prime motivating force
is necessary for erotic arousal, the diagnosis can be clearly
established. Includes: masochism, sadism. 19, p 172
may more accurately reflect the views of the reports authors
than those of the studys participants.
In addition, many sex crimes involve activities that do not
require an erection.34,35 The act of planning and carrying out a
! Appearing to be a fairly inclusive criteria, why is
humiliation specifically identified in addition to sex crime may itself be associated with subjective sexual
psychological and physical suffering? arousal.36 Presumably these phases of the crime are inde-
pendent of penile tumescence and not incompatible with
Few experts follow the DSM-IV-TR criteria.16 For example, other emotions such as anger directed at the victim. Several
in a series of survey studies involving respected and experi- studies have indicated that anger itself can be a major factor
enced forensic psychiatrists, investigators found that the contributing to the commission of sex crimes.3739
diagnosis of sexual sadism was not being applied in the
Canadian prison system in a way that matched any of the crite- Sexual Fantasies, Experiences, and Behaviours
ria identified in the literature. 17, p 2 If serial violent sex offenders are primarily motivated by sex-
ual arousal, how unique to offenders is sexual arousal in
These findings also applied to internationally renowned psy-
response to sadistic stimuli or scenarios? Meyers et als
chiatrists, in which a kappa coefficient for reliability across
review of 3 studies20, p 904 in which a percentage of presum-
diagnosis was only 0.14.18
ably noncriminal male college students were aroused by fan-
Table 3 lists the ICD-10 criteria for sadomasochism.19 There tasies of infliction of pain on others40 and found pictures of
are several obvious differences between these criteria and women with distressed faces41 more sexually arousing, and
those of the DSM-IV-TR. First, the conditions of sexual in which the degree of arousal increased together with the
sadism and sexual masochism are combined. Second, there is degree of distress depicted in pictures of semi-nude women
an indication that elements of sadomasochism may be present in bondage.42
in so-called normal sexual life. Third, there is an explicit dif-
These and other studies have been summarized.43 Among the
ferentiation between sexually motivated sadomasochistic acts
general male population, 39% have had fantasies of tying
and those motivated by cruelty or anger in a sexual context.
up and 30% of raping a woman.44, p 571 Among male col-
The differences between the DSM and ICD diagnostic criteria lege students, 51%44, p 130 indicated they would rape a woman
underline a major cause of confusion in the literature as it is if they thought they could get away with it, and perhaps most
often hard to know what is meant by the term sadist. Also, controversially, 25%44, p 134 of the male and female college
most studies use samples of convenience consisting of men students in the sample thought women would enjoy being
convicted of violent sexual crimes. Examination of samples of raped if no one knew about it. 45
this type begs the question of the relation between sexual Most rapes involve the use of alcohol. In one representative
sadism and sexual violence. study, according to 61% of the victims, the offender was
under the influence of alcohol.46 It is unknown whether the
Etiologic Theories percentages of students apparently approving of rape in the
Sexual Motivation previous study would have been higher had the surveys been
In a recent paper,20 12 series of serial sexual murderers were done after the respondents had consumed alcohol.
reviewed.2031 The men in these surveys were judged to have One of the most influential studies of sexual murderers
shown evidence of positive feelings of sexual pleasure, even involved a sample of only 36 men, interviewed in custody by
exhilaration- rather than anger or other unpleasant states . . . FBI special agents.47 Authors of the FBI study hypothesized
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 53, No 10, October 2008 ! 639
In Review
that offenders begin with deviant fantasies that graduate to Sexual Response Patterns
minor crimes that in turn become increasingly serious. This If criminal sadists cannot be reliably distinguished from
degeneration hypothesis was originally advanced by noncriminal men on the basis of sexual fantasies, childhood
Marquis Donatien-Alphonse Francois de Sade, after whom experiences, or behaviours, can they be distinguished on the
the term sadism was eponymously named.48 This influential basis of laboratory testing of penile tumescence in response
uncontrolled FBI study has supported the theory that men who to stimuli designed to simulate or approximate sadistic sce-
commit extreme sex crimes can be identified and classified on narios? This possibility was also investigated.5965Marshall66
the basis of unique characteristics, including deviant sexual pointed out that results of these early studies have yielded
fantasies.40,49,5153 inconsistent results when arousal in response to rape was
compared between groups consisting of rapists and normal
Problems with the sensitivity and specificity of sexual fanta-
men. In response to rape stimuli, rapists were found to show
sies characteristic of sadistic sex offenders have been
penile tumescence responses that were either more
reviewed.54 One study of 94 men with no history of sexual
than,64,6769 equal to,59,60,7074or less than61 those of the control
offences found 33% reported rape fantasies and 14.9%
group. It may be that differences in results may be due to dif-
reported humiliation fantasies.44 Although men far outnumber
ferences in the number of sadists in each group. 75,76
women convicted of sadistic sex crimes, surveys have found
no difference in frequency of sadistic fantasies in men and A second explanation for variance in ability to distinguish
women.5557 In fact, nonscientific reports indicate that between rapist and nonrapists on the basis of penile tumes-
womens fantasies may be becoming more sadistic even cence testing may be due to the types of stimuli used in the
though the number of sadistic women convicted of sex crimes test procedure.77,78 Two potentially important variations
has remained constant or even dropped.58 Variables identified include the degree of brutality of the audiotape stimuli79 or
as characteristic of criminal sadists by Burgess49 were com- the degree of humiliation.80 In all likelihood, an interaction
pared with frequencies of these variables in a sample of 18 exists between the degree of sadism in the man tested and the
undergraduate men and 32 undergraduate women. None of type of stimuli presented. In a group of rapists with few
the university students were known to have committed crimes sadists, manipulation of sadistic elements in the stimuli pre-
of any type. Among 11 childhood experiences identified as sented during penile tumescence testing would not be
characteristic of criminal sadists, only a history of convul- expected to assist in discrimination from nonrapist,
sions was more frequent in Burgess criminal sadist group. nonsadistic controls. This is in fact what was found. 81
Three childhood experiences were more common in the uni- In a study involving 41 sexual offenders diagnosed with sex-
versity group: daydreaming, accident proneness, and head- ual sadism and 18 sexual offenders without sadism, Boer65
aches. The university group also reported more adolescent found that on a composite index of phallometric responses,
experiences than the sexual sadists, including: poor body only 17.1% of sadists appeared deviant and yet 44% of the
image, sleep problems, and headaches. Sexual sadists were so-called nonsadists displayed deviant responses.p 2 This
more likely to report eneuresis and convulsions during adoles- raises the question of whether sadistic interest necessarily
cence. In adulthood, the university group continued to show increases risk of sexual offences.
more worrisome behavioural indicators than did Burgess
criminal sexual sadists: daydreaming, poor body image, sleep Penile tumescence (phallometric) testing is at best a crude
problems, and headaches. measure of sexual interest because it measures only one
aspect of sexual arousal (penile erection) and because it does
A similar lack of specificity was found for the childhood not measure propensity to act on sexual interests.82
behavioural indicators previously identified to be associated
with criminal sadists. The only exceptions were self- Physiology
identified compulsive masturbation and fire-setting, which More proximal measures of physiologic associations associ-
were significantly more prevalent in the sadist group. ated with sexual violence have been investigated. Testoster-
It should be noted that more differences emerged between the one is a hormone that has received great interest based on the
2 groups during adolescence and adulthood. Unfortunately, observations that most sex offenders are male and that men
data concerning the time of onset of criminal behaviour in the have more testosterone than women. In a sample of 4462
offender sample were not available. Still, the failure to find male war veterans, serum testosterone was associated with
consistent clear differences between the criminal sadists and antisocial behaviours.83
the university student group, even though the university stu- However, the only reported association with sexual behav-
dent group consisted of both men and women, suggests that iours was between high testosterone levels and more than 10
experiences and behaviours, at least as identified in the FBI sex partners in one yearp 210 and the association between
sample, are unreliable. high testosterone and antisocial behaviours was moderated
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 53, No 10, October 2008 ! 641
In Review
test battery, compared with the sadists (17%) or the control whose crimes included dismembering female body parts,
group (17%). While the other studies reviewed in this series cannibalizing, and even attempting to wear body parts of
did not explicitly examine sadists, it is notable that temporal their victims. Perhaps the most well known was Edward
lobe abnormalities were also described in other sex offender Theodore Gein, after whom the fictional sadistic killer in The
groups.103105 Raine101 also summarized 6 PET scan, regional Silence of the Lambs was modelled.110
cerebral blood flow, and MRI studies.
The high frequency of transvestic fetishism (DSM-TR 302.3)
However, of these, only one studied a diagnosed sexual sadist. is interesting for a different reason. Transvestic fetishism is a
A flurodeoxglucose PET scan of a sexual sadist was com- paraphilic sexual disorder characterized by sexual arousal
pared with scans of 2 male university students with no known from wearing clothes of the opposite sex.111 Transvestic
paraphilic interests.106 All 3 men were presented with an erotic fetishism often cooccurs with sadomasochism. Evidence of
(nonsadistic) audiotape. Although all 3 men showed evidence both disorders is often found in men who fatally self-
of sexual arousal as evidenced by simultaneous circumfer- asphyxiate themselves.112
ential penile plethysmography, the 2 men without sadism
showed more right hemisphere lateralization than the man This finding is notable for 2 reasons. The first is the fact that
with sadism. Unfortunately, the investigators did not present criminal sexual sadists are often described as resorting to
the study participants with stimuli that were differentially sex- strangulation as a frequent or preferred method of incapaci-
ual stimulating (for example, sexually sadistic materials). tating or killing their victims. In the Dietz study,50, p 50 cause
of death in 130 victims was 32.3% by ligature strangulation,
As in other studies reviewed above, temporal lobe dysfunc- 26.1% by manual strangulation, 1.5% by hanging, and 0.8%
tion was noted in one PET scan study involving violent by suffocation (although it should be noted that 57 of the
patients107 and in another, involving computed tomography, murders by hanging or manual strangulation in this series
MRI scans of patients with organic brain syndrome who were were committed by 2 of the men in the study).
violent.108 In addition, neuroimaging studies showed selective
frontal lobe dysfunction in murderers,101 violent study partici- Is there a reason why criminal sadists appear to be so inter-
pants,107 and sex offenders including rapists. 105 ested in asphyxia or strangulation? Obvious answers may be
that these murder methods are compatible with sexual
Complex Interactions arousal from control of another person.
A frequently cited study compared offender and offence char-
acteristics of 29 men known to have committed sadistic crimi- A second intriguing explanation results if the problem of sex-
nal offences with a control group consisting of 28 men with ual sadism is reformulated from one of problems owing to
nonsadistic criminal sex offences.97 These in turn were com- deviant sexual interest to one of problems arising from failure
pared with a previously published uncontrolled sample of 30 to become sufficiently aroused by conventional scenarios. In
men diagnosed sexual sadism.50 Many characteristics listed in men with normal sexual function, at the time of orgasm,
the Dietz et al paper50, p 50 were found to occur with equal fre- serum norepinephrine increases up to 12 times the baseline
quency in nonsadistic offenders. The 4 characteristics found level.113115 Similar changes in biogenic amines were also
more frequently among sadists in both studies but not in the shown in women at the time of orgasm.116
control group on nonsadistic offenders were: physical abuse If an individual was unable to reach orgasm owing to insuffi-
in childhood; cross-dressing; history of peeping (voyeurism); cient autonomic sympathetic activity during sexual activity,
and obscene phone calls or indecent exposure. With the it is conceivable that an individual might try to heighten
exception of cross-dressing, which is a comparatively rarely release of norepinephrine. One of the most effective ways to
reported activity among nonsadistic sex offenders, the other 3 do so is by breath holding or self-asphyxia. This strategy of
characteristics are fairly high-frequency sex offences that are purposefully engaging in dangerous or frightening activities
perhaps notable only for the fact that they often do not in to accentuate subjective simulation was noted in various
themselves result in referral to specialized forensic paraphilic disorders including sexual sadism117 and specifi-
assessment units. cally transvestic fetishism.118
Cross-dressing occurs with high frequency in 2 groups of This theory gains some support from a study in which
men: those with gender identity disorder and those with patients with Huntington disease were found to develop
transvestic fetishism. paraphilic behaviours only after the onset of inhibited
Gender identity confusion in men with sadism has been noted orgasm.119 For at least some sexual sadists, cruel or humiliat-
in other descriptive studies (for example, see Langevin38 and ing acts may produce sufficient autonomic arousal during
Langevin et al109). Extreme cases of gender identity confusion sexual activity to facilitate or enhance orgasm thereby rein-
were reported in men who have been described as sadists and forcing the problematic behaviour.
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 53, No 10, October 2008 ! 643
In Review
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