Sexual Addiction as a Legal Defense

Abstract

The term sexual addiction is used to describe a range of behaviors involving compulsive and maladaptive sexual behavior. There are mixed opinions in the medical literature regarding whether sexual addiction represents a valid psychiatric diagnosis or instead pathologizes behaviors in the expected range of human behavior. The opinions on sexual addiction in case law are similarly mixed. The condition has at times been used as a successful mitigating factor and at other times been rejected for lack of scientific evidence. The authors searched the LexisNexis database for legal cases that involved the use of sexual addiction as a mitigating or aggravating factor to provide an overview of the available case law. This article is focused on the uncertainty surrounding the diagnosis of sexual addiction and how it has been interpreted by the legal system.