Sexual sadism in sexual offenders: An elusive diagnosis

The present review considers the various conceptual and operational definitions of sexual sadism as this has been diagnosed among sexual offenders. The most persistent problem this review identified concerns the criteria of the fusion of sexual arousal with one or more of the various features of the offenders’ actions or of the victims’ responses. Not only do the definitions of sadism vary considerably in what it is that is thought to provoke sexual arousal, the operationalization of these definitions also varies. Furthermore, none of the operational definitions appears to satisfactorily or reliably measure sadism. In face of these discouraging observations we recommend abandoning the present diagnostic criteria and shifting to a dimensional approach to defining sadism. D 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.