Punishing Sexual Fantasy

The Internet has created unprecedented opportunities for adults and teenagers to explore their sexual identities, but it has also created new ways for the law to monitor and punish a diverse range of taboo sexual communication. A young mother loses custody of her two children due to sexually explicit Facebook conversations. A teenager is prosecuted for child pornography crimes after sending a naked selfie to her teenage boyfriend. An NYPD officer is convicted for conspiracy to kidnap several women based on conversations he had on a “dark fetish” fantasy website. In each of these cases, online sexual exploration and fantasy easily convert into damning evidence admissible in court. This Article reveals a widespread and overlooked pattern of harshly punishing individuals for exploring their sexual fantasies on the Internet. It shows, for the first time, that judges and juries have repeatedly conflated sexual fantasy with harmful criminal conduct, have largely been dismissive of fantasy-based defenses, and have relaxed evidentiary standards to prejudice individuals whose desires provoke disapproval or disgust. Even as celebrated decisions by the United States Supreme Court provide broader constitutional protection to sexual minorities, this Article shows that actual venues for exploring sexuality remain on the social and legal margins. Drawing from recent criminal law, family law, and First Amendment cases, this Article shows that courts have struggled to adapt free speech, privacy, and due process principles to the uncomfortable realities of the digital environment

Sexual interaction in digital contexts and its implications for sexual health: a conceptual analysis

Based on its prevalence, there is an urgent need to better understand the mechanisms, opportunities and risks of sexual interaction in digital contexts (SIDC) that are related with sexual arousal. While there is a growing body of literature on SIDC, there is also a lack of conceptual clarity and classification. Therefore, based on a conceptual analysis, we propose to distinguish between sexual interaction (1) through , (2) via , and (3) with digital technologies. (1) Sexual interactions through digital technologies are face-to-face sexual interactions that (a) have been started digitally (e.g., people initiating face-to-face sexual encounters through adult dating apps) or (b) are accompanied by digital technology (e.g., couples augmenting their face-to-face sexual encounters through filming themselves during the act and publishing the amateur pornography online). (2) Sexual interactions via digital technology are technology-mediated interpersonal sexual interactions (e.g., via text chat: cybersex; via smartphone: sexting; via webcam: webcam sex/camming). (3) Sexual interactions with digital technology occur when the technology itself has the role of an interaction partner (e.g., sexual interaction with a sex robot or with a media persona in pornography). The three types of SIDC and their respective subtypes are explained and backed up with empirical studies that are grouped according to two major mediators: consent and commerce. Regarding the causes and consequences of the three types of SIDC we suggest a classification that entails biological, psychological, social, economic, and technological factors. Regarding implications of SIDC we suggest to focus on both opportunities and risks for sexual health. The proposed conceptual framework of SIDC is meant to inform future research

Dissociation and interpersonal autonomic physiology in psychotherapy research: an integrative view encompassing psychodynamic and neuroscience theoretical frameworks

Interpersonal autonomic physiology is an interdisciplinary research field, assessing the relational interdependence of two (or more) interacting individual both at the behavioral and psychophysiological levels. Despite its quite long tradition, only eight studies since 1955 have focused on the interaction of psychotherapy dyads, and none of them have focused on the shared processual level, assessing dynamic phenomena such as dissociation. We longitudinally observed two brief psychodynamic psychotherapies, entirely audio and video-recorded (16 sessions, weekly frequency, 45 min.). Autonomic nervous system measures were continuously collected during each session. Personality, empathy, dissociative features and clinical progress measures were collected prior and post therapy, and after each clinical session. Two-independent judges, trained psychotherapist, codified the interactions\u2019 micro-processes. Time-series based analyses were performed to assess interpersonal synchronization and de-synchronization in patient\u2019s and therapist\u2019s physiological activity. Psychophysiological synchrony revealed a clear association with empathic attunement, while desynchronization phases (range of length 30-150 sec.) showed a linkage with dissociative processes, usually associated to the patient\u2019s narrative core relational trauma. Our findings are discussed under the perspective of psychodynamic models of Stern (\u201cpresent moment\u201d), Sander, Beebe and Lachmann (dyad system model of interaction), Lanius (Trauma model), and the neuroscientific frameworks proposed by Thayer (neurovisceral integration model), and Porges (polyvagal theory). The collected data allows to attempt an integration of these theoretical approaches under the light of Complex Dynamic Systems. The rich theoretical work and the encouraging clinical results might represents a new fascinating frontier of research in psychotherapy

Pornography Use in Adolescents and Its Clinical Implications

(1) Background: The Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (DSMM) suggests that pornography use effects are conditional and they depend on dispositional, developmental, and social differential susceptibility variables. This framework also highlights that the differential susceptibility variables act as predictors of pornography use and as moderators of the effect of pornography on criterion variables. (2) Methods: By administering a survey to n = 1500 adolescents, we tested whether these assumptions were met. (3) Results: Pornography use was related to being male and older, having a bisexual or undefined sexual orientation, higher substance use, being non-Muslim, and reporting sexual interest and the use of the media to obtain sexual information. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) showed that higher levels in the criterion variables were directly related to pornography use, older age, substance use, and being women. Some mediational links also emerged. Pornography use mediated between the age and criterion variables. Moreover, substance use mediated the association between age and gender with the criterion variables. (4) Conclusions: Our findings support the clinical applicability of the theoretical DSMM framework. Knowing adolescent pornography consumers' profiles and the impact of pornography on this population would allow for the designing of more effective prevention and regulation proposals

Empirically supported emerging and marginalized psychotherapies: Integration of non-concurrent multiple baseline design and hermeneutic single case efficacy design

According to APA division 12, at least two Randomized Clinical Trials (RCT) or alternatively nine Single Case Experimental Design (SCED) are required to be recognized as Empirically Supported Treatments (EST). Multiple baseline is the most suitable SCED in psychotherapy research because the treatment effects do not reverse after conclusion and do not require withdrawal in ABAB phases. Treatment's introduction is staggered sequentially across multiple participants, which allows the researcher to demonstrate that changes occur when treatment is introduced, simulating a waiting list. Hermeneutic Single Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) ensures time series analysis as the SCED, adding also qualitative and hermeneutic analysis that allow the recognition of bidirectional linkage between outcome and process variables. Furthermore, external judges assess the quality of the studies providing a verdict of good, mixed or poor outcome. To present systematic replication of multiple non-concurrent baseline HSCED as a way to empirically support both emerging and marginalized models of psychotherapy. After a phase of assessment and the collection of a stable three-point baseline, change in a convenience sample of five patients was tracked with quantitative (PHQ9, STAI, CORE-OM, PQ) and qualitative (HAT, CI) measures. Hermeneutic analysis and judge evaluation were conducted according HSCED protocol. Quantitative data show Clinical Significant and Global Reliable Change in all patients, supported by qualitative data. Hermeneutic analysis suggests specific outcome-to-process linkage and therapeutic interventions followed by shift in weekly outcome measures, supporting and refining the theoretical predictions of the manualized Intensive Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy. Combining multiple baseline design and HSCED, it is possible to support recognition as EST of emerging and marginalized treatments, involving less resources than RCT

Problematic Internet Use among adolescents and young adults: a systematic review of scholars’ conceptualisations after the publication of DSM5

none2noScholars’ opinions vary considerably regarding many different aspects of Problematic Internet Use (PIU), including whether it should be conceptualised as an addiction, whether it has to be seen as a discrete category or as the pole of a “normal” to pathological continuum, and whether and how the relationship between a person’s characteristics and socio-cultural environment needs to be considered. The aim of the present study is to qualitatively review the evolving body of literature on PIU among adolescents in relation to the three above-mentioned issues, in order to examine how far existing research has progressed since the publication of DSM-5. Following PRISMA guidelines, studies from 2014 to 2019 identified by a search on SCOPUS and Google Scholar were collected. The PIU conceptualisations employed in studies among adolescents and young adults were analysed. Results showed that the debate on PIU as a form of addiction or a distinct clinical disorder is far from over; nonetheless, in the scientific literature about PIU among adolescents and young adults the idea of Internet use as a way to compensate for unsatisfied needs is growing, calling for a better appreciation of what happens in the life-contexts to explain how youths move to/away from PIU over timeopenLucrezia Ferrante; Claudia VenuleoFerrante, Lucrezia; Venuleo, Claudi

Empirical Fallacies of Evidence Law: A Critical Look at the Admission of Prior Sex Crimes

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused\u27s prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on this image of sex crime perpetrators, legislators and judges have ignored the contrary psychological and criminological evidence. Most critiques of the sex-propensity rules concentrate on the unfairness part of the Rule 403 equation, but we approach them in a novel way, focusing instead on the absence of empirical support for their so-called probative value. This Article examines the empirical support for the probative value of such evidence, revealing that current policy rests on bogus psychology and false empirical assertions. Rules 413-414 typify the regrettable seat-of-thepants psychologizing on which evidence rule drafters rely too often; the approach eschews a nuanced approach to questions of recidivism and the different types of sex offenders. We argue that rulemakers should look to the disciplines engaged in the empirical study of perpetrator behavior before asserting notions of deviance and recidivism to justify radical changes to evidence law. Finally, we offer specific guidance to judges about how to conceptualize the probative value of evidence of prior sexual misconduct and how to incorporate this knowledge in applying their discretion in admitting sex-crime propensity evidence

Empirical Fallacies of Evidence Law: A Critical Look at the Admission of Prior Sex Crimes

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused\u27s prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on this image of sex crime perpetrators, legislators and judges have ignored the contrary psychological and criminological evidence. Most critiques of the sex-propensity rules concentrate on the unfairness part of the Rule 403 equation, but we approach them in a novel way, focusing instead on the absence of empirical support for their so-called probative value. This Article examines the empirical support for the probative value of such evidence,revealing that current policy rests on bogus psychology and false empirical assertions. Rules 413-414 typify the regrettable seat-of-the-pants psychologizing on which evidence rule drafters rely too often; the approach eschews a nuanced approach to questions of recidivism and the different types of sex offenders. We argue that rulemakers should look to the disciplines engaged in the empirical study of perpetrator behavior before asserting notions of deviance and recidivism to justify radical changes to evidence law. Finally, we offer specific guidance to judges about how to conceptualize the probative value of evidence of prior sexual misconduct and how to incorporate this knowledge in applying their discretion in admitting sex-crime propensity evidence

Hatred and harm: the influence of digital pimps and the miseducation of the hyper-masculine man

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2021The purpose of this research project is to measure the effects of a correlation between exposure to violent, hardcore sexually-explicit Internet materials, or SEIM (also known as pornography), and behaviors and attitudes that demean, degrade, subjugate, and abuse women and girls resulting in systemic gender inequality. Research is based on peer-reviewed journal articles, subject-matter publications, crime statistics, personal interviews with experts, and meta-analyses of previous research on related topics. The research has demonstrated a very strong correlation between exposure to SEIM and hyper-masculine attitudes and behaviors of gender-inequality toward women, beginning at one end of the spectrum with verbal micro-aggressions or misogynistic cultural biases and ending at the other end with sexual assault or sexual abuse, depending on external factors of the user including environmental, social, family of origin, and psychological. The conclusion is that any exposure to SEIM relates to negative attitudes and behaviors toward women, but that specific types of individuals are more effected by such exposure. All exposure to these materials should be limited to avoid continued gender-inequality in our society