Sadistic Offender or Sexual Sadism? Taxometric Evidence for a Dimensional Structure of Sexual Sadism

Abstract

Severe sexual sadism is a disorder of sexual preferences that focuses on humiliation and domination of the victim, sometimes causing grievous injury or death. Because offenders with high levels of sadism represent a risk to both reoffend and cause considerable harm should they reoffend, a diagnosis of sexual sadism has serious implications. The actual diagnosis of sexual sadism is fraught with problems (i.e., low reliability and validity) and exhibits poor consistency across assessments and studies (Levenson, 2004; Marshall, Kennedy, & Yates, 2002a). Various authors have proposed that sadism should be reconceptualized and have suggested that a dimensional approach may be more effective than a classificatory one for diagnosing sexual sadism (e.g., Marshall & Kennedy, 2003; Nietschke, Osterheider, & Mokros, 2009b). The dimension versus taxon question also impacts debates about the etiology and treatment of sadism. We assessed the taxonicity of sexual sadism by conducting a taxometric analysis of the scores of 474 sex offenders from penitentiary settings on the MTC Sexual Sadism Scale, using Meehl's taxometric methods (Meehl & Yonce, 1994; Waller & Meehl, 1998). Findings indicated that sexual sadism presents a clear underlying dimensional structure. These results are consistent with earlier research supporting a dimensional assessment of sexual sadism and indicate that the diagnosis of sexual sadism should be reconceptualized. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

A taxometric analysis of psychopathy in a Chinese prison sample

“…The aim of the present study was to investigate the latent structure of psychopathy in a Chinese prisoner sample, measured by the YPI-SV. As found in other latent structure analyses focused on personality (Longley et al, 2017;Longpré, Guay, Knight, & Benbouriche, 2018;Tran et al, 2018), the latent structure was found to be dimensional in the present study, which was further confirmed using factor analysis methods. More and more studies show that psychopathy is a bifactor model, which defines both a general factor and several specific factors (Boduszek, Dhingra, Hyland, & Debowska, 2016;Debowska, Boduszek, Kola, & Hyland, 2014;Patrick, Hicks, Nichol, & Krueger, 2007;Zwaanswijk, Veen, & Vedder, 2016).…”

Hunting for Snarks: A Reply to McPhail (2019a)

“…Sadism has, however, been plagued with an absence of pathognomonic symptoms, and many symptoms supposedly identifying sadism have been found among non-sadistic offenders and non-delinquents (for more details, see Longpré et al, 2018). Based on the results obtained in Longpré et al (2018), but also on the convergence of results across studies and samples, we concluded that sexual sadism is distributed as a dimension. These results are not only in stark contrast to the categorical orientation that has been and continues to be supported in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (e.g., American Psychiatric Association, 2013), but they also provide empirical evidence for the importance of reformulating existing categorical diagnoses of sadism.…”

“…No potential trimodal structures were evident, either on the full scale or on the sub-scales, with a baserate of 10% and 15%, for MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and L-Mode curves (all curves available upon request). In all the taxometric studies of sexual sadism (Knight et al, 2013;Longpré, Knight, & Guay, 2019b;Longpré et al, 2019c;Mokros, Schilling, Weiss, Nitschke, & Eher, 2014), only Longpré et al (2018) produced an L-Mode that could potentially be interpreted as trimodal.…”

“…In 2018, we examined the latent structure of sexual sadism and published our results in Archives of Sexual Behavior. Because sadism is treated as a disorder that one does or does not have, sadists have been conceptualized as fundamentally different from non-sadists, and research is directed at a very specific subgroup of offenders (Longpré, Guay, Knight, & Benbouriche, 2018). Sadism has, however, been plagued with an absence of pathognomonic symptoms, and many symptoms supposedly identifying sadism have been found among non-sadistic offenders and non-delinquents (for more details, see Longpré et al, 2018).…”

“…Because sadism is treated as a disorder that one does or does not have, sadists have been conceptualized as fundamentally different from non-sadists, and research is directed at a very specific subgroup of offenders (Longpré, Guay, Knight, & Benbouriche, 2018). Sadism has, however, been plagued with an absence of pathognomonic symptoms, and many symptoms supposedly identifying sadism have been found among non-sadistic offenders and non-delinquents (for more details, see Longpré et al, 2018). Based on the results obtained in Longpré et al (2018), but also on the convergence of results across studies and samples, we concluded that sexual sadism is distributed as a dimension.…”