In a study of male university students, 35-60% stated they might commit a rape if they were sure they would not get caught 2% of female university students stated that they would enjoy being raped male university students estimated that 32% of female university students would enjoy being raped if no one knew

- What appears to be sexually arousing to these males is the fantasy of engaging in aggressive sexual activity with a complete stranger, over- coming her initial resistance, and stimulating her to the point that she eventually enjoys the experience - Sadistic rapists don’t care about the victim’s enjoyment of the experience

- What is unclear from many of these types of studies is the extent to which rape fantasies are actually acted upon and preferred activity - One study of university students indicated that 25% of males use coercion in the past to achieve sexual relations with an unwilling partner

-10-15% of women report initially being coerced then enjoying sexual activity - This suggests that some degree of coercion can lead to arousal and enjoyment of sexual activity for some men and women and may play a part in some traditional heterosexual courtship behaviour

Etiological Hypotheses: - 75% of male sexual sadists report being aware of their sexual inclinations during their teens -Most do not link the association between sexual arousal and sadistic acts to any specific incident in childhood

- Most report that the propensity towards sexual sadism developed independent of any encouragement from pornography or other individuals -Sexually sadistic fantasies typically predate actual engagement in a sexually sadistic act

-Most are drawn into the behaviour by men who want to be dominated and, thus, these women discover that they are able to be excited by sexually sadistic acts - Female sexual sadists report taking longer to discover their paraphiliac inclinations

Behavioural Views: -Individuals develop a rapid association with sexual arousal and sadistic acts during some early childhood period -Most individuals do not develop fetishes so quickly

- A more likely developmental process is one in which an individual has some experience in which he is sexually excited and then incorporates it into masturbation fantasies Hormonal Abnormalities: - No difference between sexual sadists (n = 20) and controls for nine different hormones including sex hormones

Brain Abnormalities: - Two studies that employed brain imaging and neuropsychological assessment indicates that sexual sadists have right temporal lobe damage - 55% of sexual sadists have neurological abnormalities associated with the temporal lobe - Some sexual sadists have no significant brain abnormalities

Forensic Issues: - Court cases involving brutal and bizarre sadistic crimes are arenas in which concepts of mental illness, evil and criminal responsibility are played out and debated and current social values are decided and enforced

- Most sexual sadists know there behaviour is wrong and would not commit the murder if there was any perceived possibility of apprehension - Nevertheless, insanity pleas sometimes succeed in the absence of clear evidence the individual is psychotic - Some also plan their crimes in advance

-The emotional flattening and introversion common in sexual sadists leads some psychiatric examiners to argue that schizophrenia is over-diagnosed in such individuals - many people take the bizarre nature of sexually sadistic acts as prima facie evidence for mental illness

- Extreme cases of sexual sadism total control, suffering and humiliation of victims seems crucial - Non-criminal, self-identified sexual sadists differ in that their sexual partners are considered precious and they go to lengths to ensure that no non-consensual harm is suffered

- It is unclear whether one evolves into the other or if both can co-exist in the same individual -Also important to recognize gradations of behaviour that falls into the category of “dominance and submission”