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On the surface, negative comments by students about race, gender, or sexual preference may seem to be part of the benign banter of youth, but they're exactly where teachers should start their battle — and lessons — to build a better child and world.

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (1957) functions as a searing retort against the American medical model which, for decades, demonized drug and alcohol users by labeling them as “disabled”; medicalized social “deviants”; pathologized sexual preference; and attempted to eradicate physical, psychological, and sexual non-normativity through eugenics. By depicting characters grappling with issues such as substance addiction, homosexuality, and euthanasia, Tennessee Williams not only exposes and challenges the flawed logic of eugenic theory and the fallacies of such medical discourse, but also, in the process, reveals that the provincialism, rigid social norms, and narrow-mindedness of the South—a society of “double games”—in effect paralleled such ideologies and facilitated the construction of non-conformity and non-normativity as medical “pathologies.”

This chapter focuses on women’s processes of getting tattooed and their relationship with their tattooed bodies. Interviews showed that the process of tattooing changed the women’s perspectives on their bodies. It gave them a feeling of agency and a sense of control. The women found tattoos desirable, but there seemed to be no relation between women’s feelings about tattoos and their choice of partner. The feeling of desirability was, therefore, less a sexual preference, than a feeling connected with the positive experience of embodiment which the act of tattooing had provided for the women. According to my analysis, in the context of getting tattooed, it was a question of desire being powerfully productive.

Background: The sexual interest in minors with a prepubescent or early pubescent body age, defined as pedophilia or hebephilia, respectively, constitutes a major risk factor for initial and repeated sexual offenses against children, i.e. for child sexual abuse or the use of child abuse images. A sexual interest in minors is often perceived as synonymous with legally relevant problematic sexual behaviors involving minors. As a result, knowledge on pedophilia usually relies on samples of male detected sexual offenders against children. However, many offenses remain undetected by legal authorities in the Dunkelfeld (literally ‘dark field’). The inclusion of this subgroup in the research and the use of self-reports outside the forensic context can considerably broaden our understanding of pedophilia and hebephilia. Aim: The present study aims to investigate and describe clinical characteristics of pedophilia and hebephilia via self-reports in a sample of judicially unknown men from the Dunkelfeld. Method: The target group of men with a sexual interest in pre- and early pubescent minors was encouraged by a media campaign to take part in a treatment program providing anonymity and confidentiality. Drawing on the sample of participants in the project, three separate studies were conducted to investigate 1) if hebephilia can be considered as a distinct sexual phenomenon, 2) the stability of a pedophilic and hebephilic sexual preference, and 3) the effects of treatment on risk factors for problematic sexual behaviors. Results: Clinical characteristics of pedophilia and hebephilia can be described comprehensively drawing on self- reports by individuals in the Dunkelfeld. In our research, hebephilia fulfilled the relevant criteria of a sexual disorder, the stability of a pedo-/hebephilic sexual interest over time, as well as the reduction of forensically relevant risk factors was shown., Hintergrund: Das sexuelle Interesse für Kinder mit einem vor- oder frühpubertäre Körperschema, definiert als Pädophilie bzw. Hebephilie, stellt einen relevanten Risikofaktor für erstmalige und wiederholte Sexualstraftaten gegen Kinder dar, d.h. für sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch und die Nutzung von Missbrauchsabbildungen. Dabei wird ein pädophiles sexuelles Interesse häufig mit strafrechtlich relevantem Verhalten gleichgesetzt. Entsprechend basiert ein Großteil unseres Wissens über Pädophilie als sexuelle Störung auf klinischen Daten von männlichen, verurteilten Sexualstraftätern. Viele Taten werden jedoch juristisch nicht erfasst und die Täter verbleiben im Dunkelfeld. Die Einbindung dieser Subgruppe und die Verwendung von Selbstberichten im nicht-forensischen Kontext kann das Verständnis von Pädophilie und Hebephilie deutlich erweitern. Ziel: Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht und beschreibt klinische Merkmale von Pädophilie und Hebephilie unter der Verwendung von Selbstberichtsverfahren in einer Stichprobe von justizunbekannten Männern im Dunkelfeld. Methode: Die Zielgruppe von Männern mit einem sexuellen Interesse an vor- und frühpubertären Kindern wurde durch eine Medienkampagne auf ein anonymes und durch die Schweigepflicht geschütztes Therapieangebot aufmerksam gemacht. An dieser Stichprobe wurde in drei separaten Studien 1) ein hebephiles sexuelles Interesses als distinktes sexuelles Phänomen, 2) die Stabilität einer pädophilen bzw. hebephilen sexuellen Ansprechbarkeit und 3) die therapeutische Beeinflussbarkeit von Risikofaktoren für problematisches sexuelles Verhalten untersucht. Ergebnisse: Klinische Merkmale von Pädophilie und Hebephilie können durch die Nutzung von Selbstberichten im Dunkelfeld umfassend dargestellt werden. Dabei erfüllt die Hebephilie Kriterien einer sexuellen Störung und es lassen sich sowohl ein zeitlich stabiler Verlauf pädo-/hebephiler Ansprechbarkeit, sowie die Reduktion von forensisch relevanten Risikofaktoren durch therapeutische Interventionen nachweisen.

Testosterone has been linked to a sexual preference for bodies rather than faces. Low digit ratio (2D:4D) and high facial width-to-height ratio (WHR) are associated with high prenatal testosterone. We tested whether low 2D:4D and high facial WHR were correlated with a preference for bodies over faces. Our sample consisted of 109 college students (64 males). A two-way analysis of variance demonstrated a significant main effect of digit ratio on the priority placed on paying attention to faces or bodies such that low 2D:4D was linked to a preference for bodies, but the effect of sex was not significant. There were no significant interaction effects. Another two-way analysis of variance revealed no significant effects for facial WHR and attentional priority but significant associations between sex and attentional priority. There were no significant interaction effects. Our findings indicate that individuals with low digit ratios tended to pay more attention to bodies than to faces compared with individuals with higher digit ratios, independently of sex. We also found that males tended to pay more attention to bodies than to faces compared with females, independently of facial WHR.

Sexual orientation is a complex area. It is unclear to date how people precisely establish their preferred sexual objects. This paper presents two cases, whose heterosexual preference were changed in late adolescent age after a severe psychological event, to draw attention to the study of the possible underlying mechanism. Case 1, one identical male twin, was seriously punished at age 12 years, as he loved a girl in his classroom. Afterwards, he feared to contact with girls, and became attracted to young men at age 17 years, and kept same-sex sexual behaviors since then. However, his twin brother is always heterosexual. Case 2, a girl at age 16 years, was unexpectedly betrayed by her boyfriend, she bore great pain and distress in the beginning. Since then, she had a definite opinion that men were unbelievable, and gradually turned her heterosexual preference and had same-sex sexual behaviors with a girl classmate more than 3 years. Our case presentation indicates that severe frustration of primary heterosexual desires or behaviors and the successive cognitive regulation might lead susceptible adolescents into reorienting their sexual preference. The role of prefrontal cortex and related neuromodulatory pathways were discussed.

A patient in her 20s was referred to us for psychological assessment due to her depression and suicide attempts. She mentioned being anorgasmic except when diapered and emphasized her erotic preference for diapers. Her childhood included maternal deprivation in an impecunious family headed by an irritable physically disabled father on social assistance. Given the maternal deprivation in childhood, her erotic fixation on diapers parallels the emotional attachment to diapers observed by Harlow in mother deprived infant monkeys. Etiological hypotheses should also include the paradigm of avoidance learning from theories of behavior therapy. Our patient does not wish to change her sexual preference: in such cases, fetishism is not considered as an illness by DSM5. However, she needs to be treated for pathological levels of depression with suicidal ideation and low self-esteem.

Testosterone, after being converted to estradiol in the brain, acts on estrogen receptors (ERα and ERβ) and controls the expression of male-type social behavior. Previous studies in male mice have revealed that ERα expressed in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) and medial amygdala (MeA) are differently involved in the regulation of sexual and aggressive behaviors by testosterone action at the time of testing in adult and/or on brain masculinization process during pubertal period. However, a role played by ERβ in these brain regions still remains unclear. Here we examined the effects of site-specific knockdown of ERβ (βERKD) in the MPOA and MeA on male social behaviors with the use of adeno-associated viral mediated RNA interference methods in ICR/Jcl mice. Prepubertal βERKD in the MPOA revealed that continuous suppression of ERβ gene expression throughout the pubertal period and adulthood decreased aggressive but not sexual behavior tested as adults. Because βERKD in the MPOA only in adulthood did not affect either sexual or aggressive behaviors, it was concluded that pubertal ERβ in the MPOA might have an essential role for the full expression of aggressive behavior in adulthood. On the other hand, although neither prepubertal nor adult βERKD in the MeA had any effects on sexual and aggressive behavior, βERKD in adulthood disrupted sexual preference of receptive females over nonreceptive females. Collectively, these results suggest that ERβ in the MPOA and MeA are involved in the regulation of male sexual and aggressive behavior in a manner substantially different from that of ERα.

Female rats display a conditioned partner preference for males that bear odors paired with different types of rewarding unconditioned stimuli (UCS). Here we examined whether tickling constitutes a rewarding UCS that supports the development of partner preferences. In Experiment 1, we tested the possibility that odors associated with a tickling UCS in prepubescent rats would induce a conditioned partner preference in adulthood. Two groups were formed with 31-day-old, single-housed females, tickled for 6 min daily for 10 days, by a hand that wore a scented glove (almond or lemon). At 47 days of age, females were ovariectomized (OVX), hormone-primed (EB + P), and tested for sexual partner preference with two scented stud males (one almond and one lemon). In each group, females displayed a sexual preference toward males bearing the odor paired with tickling, as observed with longer visits, more solicitations, hops & darts, and receiving more intromissions and ejaculations from the preferred male. In Experiment 2, we used 3-month old, OVX, hormone-primed rats conditioned every 4 days for 10 trials. In contrast to juvenile females, adult females failed to prefer males that bore the odor paired with tickling but instead preferred the novel male. These results suggest that tickling has opposite age-dependent effects in the conditioning of partner preference. Tickling in juvenile females appears to act as a rewarding UCS, whereas in adult females it may act as an aversive UCS. Further research is needed to understand brain mechanisms that might account for such differences.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the sexual preference effect in depicted male sexual assault. Consistent with Davies et al., the study seeks to predict that males are more blaming toward gay victims of male perpetrators and heterosexual victims of female perpetrators, while females would not blame the victim.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 200 participants read a hypothetical scenario depicting a case of the non‐consensual touching of an adult male, and then completed a victim blame scale.FindingsAnalysis of variance confirmed predictions. Results are discussed in relation to gender beliefs and homophobia. Suggestions for future work are proposed.Originality/valueThis study confirms the existence of the sexual preference effect in attributions toward male victims of sexual assault utilising a scenario depicting non‐consensual touching. These findings extend current knowledge in this growing area.

If your son likes sissy stuff or your daughter shuns feminine frocks, he or she is more likely to buck the heterosexual norm. But predicting sexual preference is still an inexact science

In general, patients with prostate cancer are able to maintain a relatively high quality of life (QOL), commonly reporting improvements in physical, emotional, and social functioning within 1 year of treatment. However, certain subpopulations of patients are susceptible to significant reductions in QOL during the course of their treatment. Data suggest that ethnic background and sexual preference both have significant effects on QOL for patients with prostate cancer. These parameters are often poorly documented and addressed by medical practitioners. Greater attention is needed to identify patients who are at increased risk of QOL reduction as a result of these factors.

In her recent article, Hebephilia: Quintessence of Diagnostic Pretextuality (published in Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 2010), Karen Franklin expands on her previous argument that psychologists and psychiatrists should not diagnose as abnormal hebephilia, the sexual preference for early pubescent children. She supports her argument with a series of claims about the contents of the empirical literature and the scientists who produced it. The present document provides fact-checking of those claims, revealing that Franklin's conclusions are based largely on demonstrable falsehoods.

In this research, the objective is to determine the level of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of university students on the matter of sexual health. The research was descriptive and cross-sectional. The sample is comprised of the students from the Istanbul University Bakirkoy School of Health and Hasan Ali Yucel Faculty of Education (N = 877). The survey form used for data collection includes questions on socio-demographic features, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of students on sexual health. In analyzing the data, averages and percentages are calculated and Chi-square tests are performed. The average age of the students in our study was 20.7 ± 1.718 years and only 39.0% of them had sufficient knowledge on sexuality. Analysis revealed that there were differences between men and women about their reported relationship with the opposite sex (p < 0.001), premarital sexual intercourse (p < 0.001), expectation of virginity from spouse (p < 0.001) and sexual preference (p < 0.001) were significant. We have concluded that university students’ sexual knowledge is insufficient, their behaviors and attitudes are influenced by traditional approaches and understanding of sexuality differs between two genders.

PurposeBuilding on previous work, concerned with analysis of pre‐treatment apology letters of men who have offended against children, the current research focuses on post‐treatment apology letters of the same group of men.Design/methodology/approachA total of 26 post‐treatment apology letters of men who attended a community‐based introductory sex offender treatment programme were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore how the men conceptualise and understand themselves, their behaviour and their victims after treatment.FindingsThe data suggest that the men express themselves in terms of need, however, primarily this is in terms of pro‐social needs, such as a need for forgiveness, rather than in terms of criminogenic need. The one theme identifiable as a criminogenic need is concerned with sexual needs and very little detail is provided that might explain if the need is not otherwise being met; if there is a sexual preference for children, etc. Thus, from these data, it is not possible to identify a specific target need for treatment related to sexual behaviour.Originality/valueThe results raise the question as to whether criminogenic need is the correct level of analysis for thinking about sexual offending and if treatment programmes that use the language of criminogenic need are an appropriate conceptual fit. The identification of pro‐social needs suggests that interventions may need to include work on what Ward and colleagues have referred to as “personal strivings” in order to have a greater impact on victim empathy.

The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and perceptions of 15 Latina mothers towards Latina lesbian parents. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect the data. While most respondents reported that Latina lesbians' parenting children was normal, they were concerned that by being raised by the Latina lesbian mothers, the children would be confused about their own sexual preference and that they would be teased by their peers. Respondents also reported that children raised in a lesbian household without having a male figure might experience difficulties in adjustment. Respondents reported that religion, how they were raised, and the Latino culture impacted attitudes toward lesbians as parents. Implications of findings are discussed.

Paraphilias (disorders of sexual preference), in particular paedophilia, have been increasingly recognised as a major problem in Western countries and are associated with significant human and material costs. Various treatments have been used to manage sex offenders with varying success. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, such as triptorelin, a depot injection, cause castration-equivalent testosterone levels in men and are emerging as an effective treatment option in cases of severe paraphilia. Triptorelin has recently received a licence in the UK for use in sex offenders. We surveyed the literature on prescribing protocols for triptorelin's use as an antilibidinal medication and compared them with actual prescribing practice in a high-security hospital, which enabled us to suggest improvements in practice with regard to pre-treatment considerations and appropriate monitoring during therapy. Our study highlights the need and proposes a treatment protocol for the safe administration of long-te...

We investigated whether a sexual preference for smoking can be related to past experiences of parental smoking during childhood, as predicted by the theory of sexual imprinting, but also by sexual ...

The authors acknowledge the useful discussions with Dr Suzanne Lenhart and Dr. Sharon Bewick. RDP was assisted by attendance as a Short-term Visitor at NIMBioS, while FBA conducted the work as a Postdoctoral Fellow at NIMBioS. National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) is an Institute sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture through NSF Award #EF-0832858, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We would also like to acknowledge the comments and suggestions of the referee which helped us improve the overall quality of the manuscript.

Multiple experimental evidence now indicates that several traits of human personality, among which temperament, social behavior, sexual preference and drug addiction are, in great part, inherited. Molecular genetics is moving to define which genetic variations are responsible for these traits and to precisely define their causative role. The patent genetic component of our behavior and our personal choices has inevitable ethical, moral and social consequences.

Young adult male offenders in Japanese correctional institutions were questioned confidentially about their history of sexual abuse. The self‐reported information showed that when the sexual abuse went undetected, the relationships between abuser and victim were closer, and more victims were reported to be under the influence of substances. At the same time, the nature of the sexual abuse was even more serious among self‐reported‐only (undetected) offenders in terms of direct sexual acts. In terms of unhealthy sexual preference and childhood sexual victimization, sexual abusers reported higher level of problems comparing to nonsexual abusers. Self‐reported‐only sexual abusers identified even more problems than officially identified sexual offenders. The results suggest that when we focus only on the characteristics shown by officially identified sexual offenders, we may overlook important risk and need factors that should be addressed in psychotherapy for preventing future reoffending.

Although there is strong meta-analytical evidence that deviant sexual interest in children is a major risk factor for recidivism in child sex offenders, the assessment of deviant sexual interest with self-report or phallometric measures is problematic. As an alternative approach for assessment, the Explicit and Implicit Sexual Interest Profile (EISIP) is introduced. It features direct self-report and indirect latency-based measures (Implicit Association Tests [IATs] and viewing time measures) of sexual interest in adults and children. The reliability and validity of the EISIP was investigated using a selected sample of child sex offenders ( n = 38) and offender ( n = 37) and nonoffender ( n = 38) controls. Among the indirect measures, viewing time measures showed higher reliability and convergent and criterion validity than the IATs. However, the IATs independently accounted for criterion variance in multivariate analyses. The combined indirect measures showed good discriminative validity between child sex offenders and controls.

Studies highlighting diversity in ageing tend to focus on how retirement, illness, and the ageing process are experienced differently according to gender, age, sexual preference, location, or ethnicity. Although some research explores the multiplicity of the meanings of home, few studies have examined the diversity of living conditions that can be found in the homes of older people living in the community. Understanding the range of physical conditions that can exist within private residences is important given that, within the current policy context of ageing-in-place, the home is a site for the provision of services to older people. The present article focuses on older people in Sydney (NSW, Australia) who live in such extremely unclean conditions that they have been labelled as living in squalor. We first investigate the origin of the term “squalor” and the policy responses to these situations in the US and UK. We then focus on the Australian context and explore in detail the Squalor Program a...

Most sexual preference studies test female choice between different males or test male choice between females with different reproductive status, but few studies test male preference towards females of different ages within the same reproductive status. In subsocial spiders, males can share the nest with subadult and adult females of different ages. We exposed a male of Anelosimus cf. studiosus to three kinds of females simultaneously: a subadult female, a recently moulted female and a mature adult female (both virgins) comparing male preferences and female interactions. Males courted mature and recently moulted females indiscriminably, but preferentially mated with mature females, while subadult females were not courted. Mature females did not interfere with male courtship towards other females whereas some recently moulted females unsuccessfully attempted to interfere with male courtship towards mature females. In spite of these interferences, no female-female fighting was observed. Taking into account ...

The behavioral processes at the basis of hybridization and introgression are understudied in terrestrial mammals. We use a unique model to test the role of sexual signals as a reproductive barrier to introgression by investigating behavioral responses to male sexual calls in estrous females of two naturally allopatric but reproductively compatible deer species, red deer and sika deer. Previous studies demonstrated asymmetries in acoustic species discrimination between these species: most but not all female red deer prefer conspecific over sika deer male calls while female sika deer exhibit no preference differences. Here, we extend this examination of acoustic species discrimination to the role of male sexual calls in introgression between parent species and hybrids. Using two-speaker playback experiments, we compared the preference responses of estrous female red and sika deer to male sexual calls from conspecifics versus red × sika hybrids. These playbacks simulate early secondary contact between previously allopatric species after hybridization has occurred. Based on previous conspecific versus heterospecific playbacks, we predicted that most female red deer would prefer conspecific calls while female sika deer would show no difference in their preference behaviors toward conspecific and hybrid calls. However, results show that previous asymmetries did not persist as neither species exhibited more preferences for conspecific over hybrid calls. Thus, vocal behavior is not likely to deter introgression between these species during the early stages of sympatry. On a wider scale, weak discrimination against hybrid sexual signals could substantially contribute to this important evolutionary process in mammals and other taxa. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11692-015-9357-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The September 2006 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education included a special supplement on “Diversity in Academic Careers.” It focused primarily on race and ethnicity; sexual preference received minimal attention. No references were made, however, to disability, although disabled Americans can be said to comprise the largest single “minority group” in the United States. Consider the following: according to the 2000 U.S. Census, 49.7 million people, representing 19.3 percent of the 257.2 million people aged five and older in the civilian noninstitutionalized population (or almost one in five U.S. residents), lives with some type of long-lasting condition or disability.

Research on non-offending heterosexual participants has indicated that men's gaze allocation reflects their sexual preference. In this exploratory pilot study we investigated whether naturalistic gaze behaviour is sensitive to deviant sexual preferences. We compared gaze patterns of convicted heterosexual child sex offenders (CSOs; n = 13) with female victims to heterosexual non-offending men (n = 13) in a task of free-viewing images of clothed male and female figures aged 10, 20 and 40 years. CSOs dedicated more fixations to the upper body of the female child than male child figures. The pattern was different for the control sample, whose gaze pattern to male and female figures could only be differentiated when viewing adult figures. CSOs showed significantly greater difference in their gaze towards the upper body of male and female children than non-offenders. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for eye-tracking as a potential method of assessing deviant sexual interest.

The sexual preference for prepubertal children (pedophilia) is generally assumed to be a lifelong condition. Muller et al. (2014) challenged the notion that pedophilia was stable. Using data from phallometric testing, they found that almost half of 40 adult pedophilic men did not show a corresponding arousal pattern at retest. Critics pointed out that regression to the mean and measurement error might account for these results. Muller et al. contested these explanations. The present study shows that regression to the mean in combination with low reliability does indeed provide an exhaustive explanation for the results. Using a statistical model and an estimate of the retest correlation derived from the data, the relative frequency of cases with an allegedly non-pedophilic arousal pattern was shown to be consistent with chance expectation. A bootstrap simulation showed that this outcome was to be expected under a wide range of retest correlations. A re-analysis of the original data from the study by Muller et al. corroborated the assumption of considerable measurement error. Therefore, the original data do not challenge the view that pedophilic sexual preference is stable.

Every year, scores of Japanese holiday, study, work, or settle abroad, while thousands of non-Japanese enter the country for the same purposes (Fujita 2009; Kelsky 2001). On the surface, the motives for such migrations seem self-evident—to relax or take in the novelty of a different place, get an education, or pursue career opportunities. Yet, when the intimate dimensions of people’s lives are taken into account, migrations often reveal a different character, for such flows often stem from, or result in, racial sexual preferences that shape or even determine a migrant’s decision to go, stay, or leave. In other words, migratory desires and actions may depend, in part or in whole, on the assessment of place as either “sexual paradises” or “romantic wastelands” in relation to migrants’ racial demographics.

The article studies the nature of behavior of a victim of criminal violence; describes the social and psychological portrait of a potential victim of violent sexual actions; reveals the reasons of high victimity of a victim; analyzes the essence of behavior of a victim under the influence of the processes of expectation and socialization and their direct interaction; evaluates the influence of congenital and acquired mental abnormalities on the behavior of a victim of sexual violence, particularly, studies the incidences of disorders of sexual preference and other deviations from normal sexual behavior typical of the modern society.

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is a key modulatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) that plays an important role as a developmental signal. Several lines of evidence associate altered 5-HT signaling with psychopathology in humans, particularly neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). ASD are characterized by persistent social and communication deficits along with stereotyped and repetitive patterns of behavior, with all symptoms emerging early during development. Here, we employed a mouse model devoid of brain 5-HT due to the lack of the gene encoding tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (Tph2), the initial and rate-limiting enzyme of 5-HT synthesis in the CNS. Tph2 null mutant (Tph2 -/- ) mice show normal prenatal development; however, they display for yet unknown reasons severe growth retardation during the first postnatal weeks. We investigated, therefore, whether Tph2 -/- mice display deficits in isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) as pups during early life. Isolation-induced USV are the most commonly studied behavioral measure to assess developmental delays and communication deficits in rodent models for ASD, particularly as they serve an important communicative function in coordinating mother-pup interactions. Tph2 -/- mouse pups displayed a clear deficit in the emission of isolation-induced USV, as compared to heterozygous and wildtype littermates, exactly during growth retardation onset, including reduced call numbers and deficits in call clustering and temporal organization. The ultrasonic communication impairment displayed by Tph2 -/- mouse pups is likely to result in a deficient mother-infant interaction, presumably contributing to their growth retardation phenotype, and represents a prominent feature relevant to ASD.

Hostility towards relationships is one prominent characteristic symptom for disorders of sexual preference (ICD-10) and paraphilias (DSM-IV). Paraphilic symptoms sometimes progress to obsessive or addictive- like forms leading to a loss of self-control but can occur also as single incidents or as episodic events. Besides constitutional aspects, problems in the development of close relationships to primary caregivers (attachment) play an important role in the development of these disorders. Actual relationship- and self-confidence problems often trigger the severity of disturbance, especially in the episodic forms of paraphilia. For patients who are in conflict with the law, cognitive-behavioral therapeutic approaches with the aim to minimize self-deception regarding the effects of the paraphilic behavior have become more and more relevant. Regarding the medical treatment, anti-hormonal therapy plays an important role, but also treatment with serotonergic agents and naltrexone are used. Only little can be advised in terms of prevention; general psycho-hygiene (regarding the parent-child relationship) is recommended. Beside these general measures, institutions which offer special treatment for people in danger to become delinquents may be able to prevent serious harm for possible victims of abuse.

We compared men who have sex with other men on the Internet with the remainder of the sample of men who reported only sex with women on the Internet, in a sample of 1,846 Swedish men recruited from a major Swedish portal. We report on the self-identified heterosexual men in the sample who reported engaging in cybersex in the past year, and for whom there was complete data on sexual identity and the gender of cybersexual partners. Of the 244 cases with full data, 76% were heterosexual in both identity and behavior, 16% were gay or bisexual in identity and reported both male and female cybersexual contacts on the Internet, and 8% indicated their sexual preference was heterosexual but also reported at least one male sexual partner on the Internet. Thus, 11% of self-identified heterosexual men had sex with other men online. Comparing the two groups, the men who had sex with men (MSM) who did not identify (MSM-NI) spent significantly more time per week online, although a similar amount of time on sexual pursuits, as the heterosexual men. The MSM-NI were significantly more likely to agree that their online sexuality had affected their sexuality in a positive way, to have bought sex from prostitutes, to agree that they do things online that they would not do offline, have cybersex more often, use a web-camera and microphone more often, flirt and visit contact sites more often, and agree more often that sexual thoughts and behaviors are causing problems, desire to have sex creates problems, and sometimes fail to meet commitments due to their sexual behavior. These data taken together suggest that MSM-NI online are not uncommon and are characterized by the extent of their cybersexual involvement that sometimes extends to other men. Such men may rationalize this cybersex with other men as not, or minimally, sexual in much the same way as Humphreys characterized MSMs in public restrooms.

Zoophilia, a sexual preference for animals, has lost its character as a severe mental disorder. In clinical practice it is rarely seen nowadays, particularly since it was decriminalized in 1970. This research is based on three case reports and an anonymous interview over the Internet. Findings from this study do not offer explanations about the causes of zoophilia. It is noteworthy, however, that the subjects in question were socially well adapted and displayed good interpersonal social skills. The authors stress that zoophilia shows a variety of manifestations. The subject's desire to be transformed into the animal he or she has contact with can be understood as a narcissistic compound and is not related to lycanthropia. The authors are optimistic over the possibilities offered by this Internet research methodology.

This report describes a strategy that was developed to detect and correct attempts by a child molester to fake normal at phallometric testing. The strategy was successful and led to a full admission of deviant sexual preferences that could then be addressed in treatment.

Disorders of sexual preference or paraphilias are bizarre patterns of sexual behavior that have diverse manifestations and are of complicated sexual orientations. Some of these are harmless, while others are not, robbing sufferers and possibly their partners of loving sexual relationship. At least 40 paraphilias have been named, but the full extent of the field, perhaps, is still undiscovered. Recent studies have reported many paraphilias as long-term effects of sexual abuse in childhood, and the more frequent and persistent the abuse is, the worse the long-term psychologic, behavioral, and relationship problems. Psychopathology within this group of disorders may lead to criminal behavior, ranging from infringement of decency to some of the most heinous crimes known.

WOS: 000182885800010, After its first exposure to the public in 1993, there has been a rapid increase in the use of the Internet for different purposes, particularly for electronic trade. In such a new trade area, there are a lot of issues to be addressed with regard to the consumer's purchasing behaviour. This study analyses the roles of sexual preference, primary place of online access, and online experience as well as demographic and economic factors on the consumer's purchasing decision. Moreover, this study investigates the impact of the potential and/or prevalent critical issues facing the Internet ( e. g. taxation of services, privacy, censorship, etc.) on online orders. Surprisingly, sexual preferences have a large significant effect on online purchases. Gay and bisexual people are more likely to shop from the Internet than the other ones. The results, also, suggest that people with more online experiences in a more private and secure environment like home are disposed to order more from the Internet. In addition to that, only the issues of taxation of services and privacy have some statistically significant effects on online purchasing decisions. The former and latter have positive and negative impacts on online orders respectively.

Since the British columnist Mark Simpson first published his influential article in The Independent (November 15, 1994) entitled ‘Here Come the Mirror Men’, the term ‘metrosexual’ has become ubiquitous, as evidenced by 3.4 million metrosexual discussion listed on Google (as of October 20, 2014). Simpson defined a typical metrosexual as: a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis – because that’s where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they’re pretty much everywhere. (Simpson, 1994a)