NCJ Number
201924
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2003 Pages: 439-451
Date Published
August 2003
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article discusses sex offenders and the relevance of high sexual drive.
Abstract
The most commonly identified static risk variables associated with sexual offense recidivism include deviant sexual preferences including sexual arousal to children, repetitive sex offending, diverse sexual crimes, and stranger-victims. Many sex offenders should be considered as belonging to a specific subgroup of sexually disordered individuals that are characterized by the disinhibited expression of sexual desire or high sex drive. Disinhibited sexual desire can be defined by considering three behavioral domains associated with sexual motivation or appetitive behavior: sexual preoccupation, the repetitive frequency of enacted sexual behavior, and adverse consequences associated with repetitive sexual behavior. Data suggest that clinical samples of males with paraphilias, paraphilia-related disorders, and sexual coercion may be associated with disinhibited sexual appetite. Only certain pharmacotherapies target sexual arousal, appetitive behaviors, and sexual motivation. These include antiandrogens, serotonergic antidepressants, and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonists. These agents work by differing physiological mechanisms, but their net effect is the reduction of deviant sexual appetitive behaviors. The published data support this contention especially for hormonally based treatments, although these data are limited by small samples and the lack of a placebo-controlled trial of GnRH agonists. Antiandrogen pharmacotherapy has been reported to diminish sex-offender recidivism in a meta-analytic study of sex-offender treatments as well. The data for the efficacy of serotonergic antidepressants, although generally supportive, is limited by the absence of randomized treatment studies in paraphilic sex offenders. Biomedical approaches still need to be further integrated with cognitive and behavioral approaches to sex-offender treatment. This integration appears to be lagging in the evaluation and treatment of sex offenders. 1 table, 84 references