ABSTRACT
Sex offending accounts for a small proportion of crime – in England and Wales, it represents just 1% of criminal offences reported to the police in a typical year. The concepts of sex offending, sexual deviance and paraphilia are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are distinct entities. Sex offences are specific, defined behaviours that are proscribed by a society because of the harm they cause its citizens, or because of their impact on public order. Paraphilia is a diagnostic term used in the DSM-IV for sexual behaviours that are considered to amount to mental disorder; in the ICD-10, the phrase ‘disorders of sexual preference’ is favoured. The sexual behaviours that are of special interest to forensic psychiatry are indecent exposure, obscene telephone calls, voyeurism, bestiality, necrophilia, rape, incest, sex with children and collecting pictures of children engaged in sexual activities. Viewing indecent images of children can be used to stimulate, develop and fuel sexual fantasy.
