Paraphilia

Sexual deviants display psychosexual disordered behavior classified as non-coercive paraphilia and coercive paraphilia.

Paraphilia literally means “beyond usual or typical love” and is the term generally used to describe sexual behaviors wherein sexual arousal and response are triggered by an unusual object or a bizarre activity. The American Psychiatric Association deems such behavior as a negation of loving relationship and expression of “psychosexually disordered behavior.”

Paraphilia has come to mean a “non-traditional sexual behavior” where the object of sexual arousal is an inanimate object, non-human, or a bizarre activity. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) describes paraphilia as “sexual disorders characterized by recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors generally involving –

Nonhuman objects
The suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner, or
Children or other nonconsenting persons, that occur over a period of 6 months" (Criterion A), “which cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning" (Criterion B).

It must be mentioned that there are those who argue that the categorical distinctions between normal and abnormal sexual behavior are unjustified. There is a whole market that thrives on sex toys and other adult novelties that cater to what some would label “kinky sex”. However certain sexual fetishes, sexual role play and other adult fantasies are considered normal requirements by some people—as a kind of sexual foreplay to enhance the overall sexual experience.

Broadly all Deviant sexual behaviour may be classified into two types depending on presence of mutual consent or not - Non-coercive paraphilias and Coercive paraphilias.

Non-coercive paraphilia - because some of them are strictly solo activities or they involve consensual adults who agree to participate in a particular variant behavior and coercive paraphilia that is a sex offense forced upon another. Sometimes there maybe use of force in non-coercive paraphilias that involve sexual gratification for money as in prostitution.

Nor-coercive Paraphilia

Fetishism: Refers to obtaining sexual excitement primarily or exclusively from inanimate objects such as women’s lingerie, gloves and high-heeled shoes.

Partialism is sexual obsession with a nonsexual part of the human body such as feet and legs.

Transvestic Fetishism or Cross dressing: In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association linked two conditions—transvestitism and fetishism to the diagnostic category transvestic fetishism. This involves getting sexually aroused by wearing clothes of the opposite sex.

Sexual Sadomasochism: Sexual sadism andsexual masochism are discussed in the common category that associates sexual expression with pain. People with sadomasochistic preferences are sexually aroused by being whipped, cut, pierced with needles and pins and spanked or by inflicting all of the above on another.

Sexual sadism refers to the act of finding sexual excitement through inflicting physical or psychological pain on another. Sexual masochism refers to being sexually aroused by receiving physical or psychological pain.

Bondage or Vincilagnia: Some people derive sexual pleasure from being bound or restricted by a co-operative partner who then “administers discipline” such as spanking or whipping.

BDSM is a complex acronym emerging from the terms Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission and Sadomasochism. Those who participate in sadomasochistic sexual practices say that the common BDSM rule of thumb is that “one should hurt, not harm.”

Recent studies have shown that BDSM need not always reflect a pathological condition or a personality disorder. Instead people who indulge in it may be normal people who do it as a form of sexual enhancement or to escape from the routine, rigid, often monotonous role they play in their daily lives.

Autoerotic Asphyxia: This is a very rare and dangerous form of deviant sexual behavior where a person tries to reduce the oxygen supply to the brain using a rope and then releasing it at the time of orgasm. It follows an age-old sexual ritual of tightly constricting the neck to intensify sexual stimulation while masturbating.

Coercive Paraphilia

This is a deviant sexual behavior forced on an unwilling person that violates the person’s basic rights and almost always leaves the person traumatized after the distasteful experience.

Pedophilia: An adult’s sexual attraction to a child is called pedophilia.Child sexual abuse likeinappropriate touching, oral-genital stimulation or sexual intercourse with a child is a crime.

Exhibitionism: It is a recurrent urge or behavior of indecently exposing one’s genital areas to an unsuspecting, unwilling person. It is also includes the recurrent urge or behavior to perform sexual acts in a public place or before unsuspecting, unwilling persons.

Voyeurism: Some people derive sexual pleasure from looking at others undressing, others’ naked bodies or sexual activities of others without their knowledge or consent.

Frotteurism: This is a common coercive paraphilia in which a fully clothed man derives sexual pleasure by rubbing against a fully clothed female in a crowded public place as in a bus or an elevator. Sometimes the person may be sexually aroused when he pretends to accidentally let his hand brush against a woman’s thighs, breasts or buttocks.

Zoophilia/Bestiality: Sexualcontact between humans andanimals is called bestiality. Studies show that some people who work in farms use calves, sheep, donkeys, ducks, dogs and cats for sexual arousal and also that some women allow domestic pets like dogs and cats to fondle and lick their body for sexual arousal.

In addition to these there are other instances of sexual deviance like –