PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Jose Nassif AU - Parth Joshi AU - Ryan Wagoner AU - William Newman TI - Sexual Addiction as a Legal Defense AID - 10.29158/JAAPL.210151-21 DP - 2022 Dec 01 TA - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online PG - 552--565 VI - 50 IP - 4 4099 - http://jaapl.org/content/50/4/552.short 4100 - http://jaapl.org/content/50/4/552.full SO - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2022 Dec 01; 50 AB - 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.