De Block, A., & Adriaens, P. R. (2013) ‘Pathologizing sexual deviance: A history’, Journal of
Sex Research, 50 (3-4) pp.276-298.
1. Why is sexuality of interest to criminology?
- Medicalized
- Changes in categorization of what is normal and what isn’t normal; unusual
sexual desires to usual sexual desires
- Changes over time – look at Foucault – as society changes, so do sexual norms
2. Why does sexual deviance often stimulate strong visceral reactions?
- Sex is important for our identity -
- Foucalt: what is accepted as normal and healthy sexuality is not determined by
nature but changes with the values and norms of a particular society at a
particular place and time (Crawford 2006).
- Before the 19th century, sexual perversions seen as diseases of the genitals,
caused by an anatomical abnormality therein (Davidson 1991).
- More and more defined as functional diseases of this sexual instinct over time
- 1847; diagnosed a necrophilic soldier as suffering from a pathological failure of
the sexual instinct (Kamieniak 2003).
- During the 17th and 18th centuries, acts against nature were severely punished e.g
homosexuality, anal sex, bestiality – if the evidence was considered strong, men
and women or other domestic animals sentenced to death (Peakman 2009).
-
3. What is meant by pathologizing sexual deviance and why is it relevant?
- Sexual behavior becoming a medical and psychiatric issue.
- Medicalization of aberrant sexual behaviour
- Not new
- Medical writings on sexual behavior and the dangers of masturbation,
prostitution and venereal diseases existed long before 1850
- 1761; Samuel August Tissot and many other 18th century enlightenment thinkers
believe that masturbation and other kinds of nonreproductive sexual behavior
could cause health hazards to both body and mind
- Internal development of psychiatry as a medical discipline; as long as insanity was
seen as an illness of the human intellect, sexual deviance could less easily be
conceptualized as a mental illness because sexual deviance did not affect
intellectual judgement.
- The perversions could and should be treated psychologically
- French Psychiatrists Charcot and Magnan believe that the psychogenesis of
sexual perversions implied that they could be treated by means of psychotherapy
(Ellenberger 1970).
-
4. Should sexual deviance be tackled by the criminal law?
Notes
- Binet argued sexual deviance was caused by learned associations
Sex Research, 50 (3-4) pp.276-298.
1. Why is sexuality of interest to criminology?
- Medicalized
- Changes in categorization of what is normal and what isn’t normal; unusual
sexual desires to usual sexual desires
- Changes over time – look at Foucault – as society changes, so do sexual norms
2. Why does sexual deviance often stimulate strong visceral reactions?
- Sex is important for our identity -
- Foucalt: what is accepted as normal and healthy sexuality is not determined by
nature but changes with the values and norms of a particular society at a
particular place and time (Crawford 2006).
- Before the 19th century, sexual perversions seen as diseases of the genitals,
caused by an anatomical abnormality therein (Davidson 1991).
- More and more defined as functional diseases of this sexual instinct over time
- 1847; diagnosed a necrophilic soldier as suffering from a pathological failure of
the sexual instinct (Kamieniak 2003).
- During the 17th and 18th centuries, acts against nature were severely punished e.g
homosexuality, anal sex, bestiality – if the evidence was considered strong, men
and women or other domestic animals sentenced to death (Peakman 2009).
-
3. What is meant by pathologizing sexual deviance and why is it relevant?
- Sexual behavior becoming a medical and psychiatric issue.
- Medicalization of aberrant sexual behaviour
- Not new
- Medical writings on sexual behavior and the dangers of masturbation,
prostitution and venereal diseases existed long before 1850
- 1761; Samuel August Tissot and many other 18th century enlightenment thinkers
believe that masturbation and other kinds of nonreproductive sexual behavior
could cause health hazards to both body and mind
- Internal development of psychiatry as a medical discipline; as long as insanity was
seen as an illness of the human intellect, sexual deviance could less easily be
conceptualized as a mental illness because sexual deviance did not affect
intellectual judgement.
- The perversions could and should be treated psychologically
- French Psychiatrists Charcot and Magnan believe that the psychogenesis of
sexual perversions implied that they could be treated by means of psychotherapy
(Ellenberger 1970).
-
4. Should sexual deviance be tackled by the criminal law?
Notes
- Binet argued sexual deviance was caused by learned associations
