Abstract
Sadomasochistic (SM) sexual interest is reported by a wide range of individuals. Within the sex offender literature, the presence of SM interest is often viewed as a herald of criminal sexual behavior; however, research indicates that SM interests are not predictive of coercive sexual behavior. In the current study, we measured a range of sexual fantasies and behaviors, and then applied cluster analyses to determine (1) if individuals endorsed elevated SM interests also endorsed coercive fantasies and, (2) to explore cluster membership correlates using measures of sensation seeking, externalizing and antisocial behaviors, attitudes toward rape, and empathic capacity. A total of 550 participants were recruited through a variety of on-line discussion areas. A four cluster solution best fit the data with distinct clusters observed for those endorsing SM behaviors and those reporting coercive sexual behavior. Additional analyses revealed greater endorsement of victim blaming attitudes and lower empathic concern among members of the coercive sexual behavior cluster. Elevated sensation seeking and externalizing behaviors were reported by members of clusters marked by SM and coercive sexual behavior. Results provide further support for the differentiation between SM and coercive sexual behaviors as representative of individuals with divergent attitudes, traits, and behaviors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, H. E., Wright, L. W., Jr, & Lohr, B. A. (1996). Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 3, 440–445.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Arbuckle, J. L. (2012). IBM SPSS Amos 21 user’s guide. Crawfordville, FL: Amos Development Corporation.
Barbaree, H. E., & Marshall, W. L. (1989). Erectile responses among heterosexual child molesters, father-daughter incest offenders, and matched non-offenders: Five distinct age preference profiles. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 21, 70–82.
Burt, M. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217–230.
Cochran, H., Quirk, S., & Meadows, E. (2004). Development of a subtle version of the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, LA.
Connolly, P. H. (2006). Psychological functioning of bondage/domination/sado-masochism (BDSM) practitioners. Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, 18, 79–120.
Cross, P. A., & Matheson, K. (2006). Understanding sadomasochism: An empirical examination of four perspectives. Journal of Homosexuality, 50, 133–166.
Damon, W. (2003). Dominance, sexism, and inadequacy: Testing a compensatory conceptualization in a sample of heterosexual men involved in SM. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 14, 25–45.
Davis, M. H. (1980). A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85.
Dawson, S. J., Bannerman, B. A., & Lalumière, M. L. (2014). Paraphilic interests: An examination of sex differences in a nonclinical sample. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. doi:10.1177/1079063214525645.
Fedoroff, J. P. (2008). Sadism, sadomasochism, sex, and violence. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 53, 637–646.
Fernandez, Y., & Marshall, W. L. (2003). Victim empathy, social self-esteem and psychopathy in rapists. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 15, 11–26.
Fowles, D. C. (1980). The three arousal model: Implications of Gray’s two-factor learning theory for heart rate, electrodermal activity, and psychopathy. Psychophysiology, 17, 87–104.
Gannon, T., Terriere, R., & Leader, T. (2012). Ward and Siegert’s pathways model of child sexual offending: A cluster analysis evaluation. Psychology, Crime, & Law, 18, 129–153.
Hanson, R. K., & Morton-Bourgon, K. E. (2005). The characteristics of persistent sexual offenders: A meta-analysis of recidivism studies. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 1154–1163.
Hare, R. D., Harpur, T. J., Hakstian, A. R., Forth, A. E., Hart, S. D., & Newman, J. P. (1990). The Revised Psychopathy Checklist: Reliability and factor structure. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2, 338–341.
Harris, G. T., Lalumière, M. L., Seto, M. C., Rice, M. E., & Chaplin, T. C. (2012). Explaining the erectile responses of rapists to rape stories: The contribution of sexual activity, non-consent, and violence with injury. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 221–229.
Hèbert, A., & Weaver, A. (2014). An examination of personality characteristics associated with BDSM orientations. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 23, 106–115.
Krueger, R. F., Markon, K. E., Patrick, C. J., Benning, S. D., & Kramer, M. D. (2007). Linking antisocial behavior, substance use, and personality: An integrative quantitative model of the adult externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 645–666.
Lalumière, M. L., Quinsey, V. L., Harris, G. T., Rice, M. E., & Trautrimas, C. (2003). Are rapists differentially aroused by coercive sex in phallometric assessments? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 989, 211–224.
Lalumière, M. L., Harris, G. T., Quinsey, V. L., & Rice, M. E. (2005). The causes of rape: Understanding individual differences in male propensity for sexual aggression. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Larue, D., Schmidt, A. F., Imhoff, R., Eggers, K., Schönbrodt, F. D., & Banse, R. (2014). Validation of direct and indirect measures of preference for sexual violence. Psychological Assessment, 26, 1173–1183.
Leitenberg, H., & Henning, K. (1995). Sexual fantasy. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 469–496.
Malamuth, N. M. (1983). Factors associated with rape as predictors of laboratory aggression against women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 432–442.
Malamuth, N. (1986). Predictors of naturalistic sexual aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 953–962.
Malamuth, N. M., & Check, J. V. P. (1980). Penile tumescence and perceptual responses to rape as a function of victim’s perceived reactions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 10, 528–547.
Malamuth, N., Haber, S., & Feshbach, S. (1980). Testing hypotheses regarding rape: Exposure to sexual violence, sex differences, and the “normality” of rapists. Journal of Research in Personality, 14, 121–137.
Marshall, W. L., & Moulden, H. (2001). Hostility toward women and victim empathy in rapists. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 13, 249–255.
Milligan, G. W., & Sokol, L. M. (1980). A two-stage clustering algorithm with robust recovery characteristics. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 40, 755–759.
Moser, C., & Kleinplatz, P. J. (2006). Introduction: The state of our knowledge on SM. Journal of Homosexuality, 50, 1–15.
Murphy, W. D., Coleman, E. M., & Haynes, M. R. (1986). Factors related to coercive sexual behavior in a nonclinical sample of males. Violence and Victims, 1, 255–278.
O’Brien, E., Konrath, S. H., Grühn, D., & Hagen, A. L. (2013). Empathic concern and perspective taking: Linear and quadratic effects of age across the adult life span. Journal of Gerontology, Series B, 68, 168–175.
Patrick, C. J., Hicks, B. M., Kreuger, R. F., & Lang, A. R. (2005). Relations between psychopathy facets and externalizing in a criminal offender sample. Journal of Personality Disorders, 19, 339–356.
Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 556–568.
Pelletier, L. A., & Herold, E. S. (1988). The relationship of age, sex guilt, and sexual experience with female sexual fantasies. Journal of Sex Research, 24, 250–256.
Peterson, Z., & Muehlenhard, C. (2004). Was it rape? The function of women’s rape myth acceptance and definitions of sex in labeling their own experience. Sex Roles, 51, 129–144.
Porter, S., Fairweather, D., Drugge, J., Hervè, H., Birt, A., & Boer, D. P. (2000). Profiles of psychopathy in incarcerated sexual offenders. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 27, 216–233.
Richards, H. J., Washburn, J. J., Craig, R., Taheri, A., & Yanisch, D. (2004). Typing rape offenders from their offense narrative. Individual Differences Research, 2, 97–108.
Ridgeway, D., & Russell, J. (1980). Reliability and validity of the Sensation-Seeking Scale: Psychometric problems in Form V. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 662–664.
Santtila, P., Sandnabba, N. K., & Nordling, N. (2006). Sadomasochism. In R. D. McAnulty & M. M. Burnette (Eds.), Sex and sexuality (Vol. 3, pp. 21–45). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.
Seto, M. C., & Fernandez, Y. M. (2011). Dynamic risk groups among male sexual offenders. Sexual Abuse, 23, 494–507.
Seto, M. C., Lalumière, M. L., Harris, G. T., & Chivers, M. L. (2012). The sexual responses of sexual sadists. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121, 739–753.
Smith, B. D., Davidson, R. A., Smith, D. L., Goldstein, H., & Perlstein, W. (1989). Sensation seeking and arousal: Effects of strong stimulation on electrodermal activation and memory task performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 671–679.
Smith, B. D., Perlstein, W. M., Davidson, R. A., & Michael, K. (1986). Sensation seeking: Differential effects of relevant, novel stimulation on electrodermal activity. Personality and Individual Differences, 7, 445–452.
Sue, D. (1979). Erotic fantasies of college students during coitus. Journal of Sex Research, 15, 299–305.
Ward, J. H. (1963). Hierarchical grouping to optimize an objective function. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 58, 233–244.
Weinberg, M. S., Williams, C. J., & Moser, C. (1984). The social constituents of sadomasochism. Social Problems, 31, 379–389.
Yost, M. R. (2010). Development and validation of the attitudes about sadomasochism scale. Journal of Sex Research, 43, 79–91.
Zuckerman, M. (1983). A biological theory of sensation seeking. In M. Zuckerman (Ed.), Biological bases of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and anxiety (pp. 37–76). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Zuckerman, M. (1990). The psychophysiology of sensation seeking. Journal of Personality, 58, 313–345.
Zuckerman, M. (1994). Behavioral expression and biosocial bases of sensation seeking. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Martin, S.M., Smith, F. & Quirk, S.W. Discriminating Coercive from Sadomasochistic Sexuality. Arch Sex Behav 45, 1173–1183 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0595-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0595-0