Perp Walk

[HereSince1628]

35. So if it is an illness, you must have one in mind.

I could speculate that you are thinking about a sexual paraphilia such as somnophilia. But you may be thinking of something else entirely.

Generally speaking all the paraphiliae are 'deviant' in as much as their diagnoses requires them to be objectively 'non-normophilic' sexual encounters. Moreover, like all sexual encounters, it must be recognized that any paraphilic sexual encounter would be considered sexual assault when it involves persons who do not-consent.

The questions that arise are whether a paraphilia would be the basis for an insanity defense based on some 'irresistible urge', or whether the the root of the problem should more properly be seen in a person having adopted attitudes that even with awareness of wrong-doing nonetheless lead planning and action to achieve an anti-social objective.

Of course, there's no reason to believe that having a paraphilia and commiting anti-social acts must be mutually exclusive.

However research results have argued that psychiatric symptoms, per se, are only weakly correlated to criminal behavior, (http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/lhb-0000075.pdf). The conclusions of that study, and an APA editorial based on that research finding, suggest that rather than looking at the symptoms of mental illness for causation of criminal behavior, the motive for criminal behavior is better sought in factors leading to antisocial orientation.