Exhibitionistic Disorder

Introduction Exhibitionistic Disorder is a person who exposes his or her genitals during inappropriate situations and derives sexual pleasure from it. This disorder has been characterized as a Paraphilic Disorder: a disorder that involves abnormal, extreme, or dangerous sexual desires or activities. Society often rejects exhibitionists; employment becomes difficult, labels and terms are put on people who suffer from this such as “flashers” or “perverts”, and it can become a challenge for exhibitionists to behave appropriately in society. According to the American Psychiatric Association, “in 1990 Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to protect workers from discrimination with mental impairment or physical disabilities”
Symptoms of low severity include sexual fantasies or urges to expose one’s genitals, breasts, or buttocks during inappropriate times for over a period of six months. A moderate level includes symptoms of a person who has already exposed oneself in public less than three times. A severe level of exhibitionism includes symptoms of a person who has exposed oneself multiple times and cannot stop. Exhibitionists target women and children not men. Some exhibitionists will masturbate while revealing themselves or grab their genitals. Their goal is to take their targets by surprise hoping that they get aroused after seeing their most intimate body parts. Exhibitionists get satisfied when their targets show reaction of surprise, confusion, or anger. It is recommended that if a person ever exposes one’s genitals to look away and pretend that you never saw a thing; getting surprised or upset will only get the exhibitionist more
This disorder mainly affects males under the age of eighteen and males in their early twenties. This disorder is very common in younger males because during this age puberty releases more sex hormones. Males over the age of fifty also suffer from Exhibitionistic Disorder but not as much as younger males. The majority of exhibitionists in the United States are Caucasian males. Almost 50% of exhibitionists are married, this happens due to sexual dysfunction between spouses.
Common
Less than 200,000 people suffer from Exhibitionistic Disorder in the United States. Exhibitionistic is rarely diagnosed but mental health professionals say that it is underdiagnosed and underreported. Professionals have also found that this disorder has gender bias. Less than 10% of cases are females.
Demographics
The three most common sexual assaults are Voyeurism, Pedophilia, and Exhibitionism. “One-third of sex offenders are exhibitionists”, which means that exhibitionism is the highest recidivism in the United States (Sex and Crimes: Patterns and Behavior pg. 43). Offenders who get arrested for exhibitionism the first time usually get released twenty-four hours later. 35% of exhibitionists will return to the same behavior after being released; about 20-50% of exhibitionists will get rearrested. 2/3 of women have experienced a sexual offense of exhibitionism in their