The Paraphilic Disorders and Psychopathy

This chapter explores the relationship between the paraphilic disorders and psychopathy within a broad framework of clinical practice. It reviews the clinical features of paraphilic disorders and discusses the features and diagnosis of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorders. The chapter explores the association of psychopathy with the paraphilic disorders in particular and sexual offending behavior in general. Having a sexual preference for children as opposed to a sexual preference for adults, is fundamental to pedophilia. As with all sexual offenders, alcohol and substance abuse are problematic as they may act as behavioral disinhibitors or contribute to emotional dyscontrol. The chapter reviews sexual recidivism studies and the role that psychopathy plays in sexual offense recidivism. Among sexual offenders, recidivistic rapists are generally regarded as being more psychopathic or having higher antisocial traits compared to incest perpetrators and extrafamilial child molesters.