The Physiological Basis of Problematic Sexual Interests and Behaviors

Abstract

This chapter examines the physiological basis of sexual interests and behavior in humans in general before discussing the same for problematic sexual interests and behavior. With respect to sexual offenses, it is important to gain an adequate understanding of the risk factors for becoming an offender. For example, recent neurobiological findings regarding sexual preference disorders, such as pedophilia and hebephilia, have supported the notion of child sexual abuse and pedophilia to be two distinguishable phenomena. Current research in this field seeks to disentangle the sexual interests from the behavioral dimensions of pedophilia by comparing the respective roles of sexual preference and behavioral regulation in processes such as (visual) sexual stimulation, impulse inhibition, executive control, or emotion regulation. Overall, the chapter reviews the various physiological underpinnings of problematic sexual interests and potentially problematic sexual behaviors and provides a conceptual framework to direct future research endeavors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)