When we think about who watches pornography, stereotypes often paint a simple, one-dimensional picture.

These assumptions, however, are largely based on older research that relied on self-report surveys, a method notoriously prone to bias when dealing with a stigmatized topic. What happens when you set aside what people say they do and instead look at what they actually do online? 

A massive new study did just that. Using objective, anonymized web-tracking data from 1,933 individuals across five countries, researchers identified 392 pornography consumers, providing one of the most accurate and nuanced portraits of this group to date.

The results challenge many deeply held beliefs about age, gender, politics, and online behavior. 

This article distills the four most counter-intuitive truths from this groundbreaking research, revealing a reality that is far more complex and fascinating than the stereotypes suggest.

1. Viewers Are Creatures of Habit, Not Explorers

The internet seems to offer an endless buffet of adult content, leading to the belief that pornography use is a relentless quest for novelty. The data, however, paints a picture not of explorers, but of creatures of habit.

The study found that consumption is highly concentrated on a few dominant platforms, such as Pornhub, Xvideos, and Xhamster. 

The most surprising statistic revealed a strong sense of brand loyalty and routine. Approximately 46% of users visited only a single, unique adult website during the entire three-month study period.

This behavior suggests that for nearly half of all viewers, pornography is less about exploration and more about visiting a familiar, trusted source. 

As the researchers note: 

This suggests that pornography consumption is not as exploratory as assumed but rather characterized by routine engagement with familiar providers. 

This finding is significant because it reframes consumption as a routine online habit, much like checking a favorite news site or social media platform, rather than a relentless quest for new stimulation. 

2. It’s Not Just a Young Person’s Game 

Conventional wisdom says porn is a young person’s fixation, a habit that fades with age.

The data shows this is simply not true.

Objective tracking reveals that pornography consumption is common across all age groups. It goes from young adulthood well into the 60s and beyond. 

The data shows a clear trend, with consumption peaking among people in their 30s before seeing its most pronounced decline after age 60.

However, the study’s key takeaway is that these variations between most adult age groups aren’t large enough to be statistically significant. This means, for the most part, engagement remains remarkably stable throughout adulthood. 

---

Licensed Professional Counselors, do you need continuing education hours?

Look no further!

If you find this article interesting, Dr. Weeks’ course Sexual Education and Porn Use in Women, and her other unique courses, will engage and educate!

---

Pornography isn’t just a phenomenon of the “digitally native” youth. It’s an integrated part of online habits for a wide and diverse range of adults.

3. Political Ideology is Surprisingly Irrelevant 

In a hyper-partisan world, it’s easy to assume our media habits, even private ones, fall along political lines. But when it comes to pornography, a person’s political ideology is surprisingly irrelevant.

When researchers compared who watches porn and non-watchers based on their self-reported political ideology on a scale from left to right, they found no statistically significant difference between the two groups.

In simple terms, knowing a person’s political leaning gives you no predictive power in guessing whether or not they consume pornography. The user base is ideologically diverse and spans the entire political spectrum. 

But the research did uncover an interesting twist. While personal ideology didn’t matter, media consumption habits showed a small but statistically significant difference. The study found pornography users tended to have slightly more centrist and balanced partisan media diets compared to non-users.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

4. The Gender Gap is More Complicated Than You Think

One stereotype the data confirms is men are the primary consumer of pornography.

But that’s where the simplicity ends.

Digging into the web-tracking data revealed crucial nuances, showing female engagement is “more substantial than previously estimated” and challenging the idea of pornography as an exclusively male domain. This was especially clear when looking at cross-country variations.

In Spain, for example, women constitute nearly 30% of pornography users.

The study hypothesizes this may be linked to the country’s significant progress in gender equality, such as being the first nation to create a Ministry of Equality in 2004 and the third to legalize same-sex marriage in 2005, suggesting cultural shifts can directly influence female consumption patterns.

The study also produced fascinating data on same-sex content.

It found that 16.5% of male users watched gay pornography. A figure significantly higher than the 5-10% of men who typically identify as gay or bisexual in surveys.

This complexity extends to lesbian content, which the study found was consumed by a higher percentage of male users (15.4%) than female users (9.4%), further challenging simple assumptions about consumption, gender, and sexual orientation.

Conclusion

The objective, behavioral data from this study makes one thing clear: the reality of pornography consumption is far more complex, habitual, and ideologically diverse than common stereotypes suggest.

It is a widespread digital behavior that cuts across demographics in ways we are only just beginning to understand.

As objective data continues to pull back the curtain on our private digital lives, what other deeply held assumptions about human behavior will be the next to fall?

---

Are you a Licensed Professional Counselor seeking engaging, unique Continuing Education courses? Dr. Weeks offers accredited courses on her practice website on the effects of Pornography Abstinence and other unique topics!

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Are you looking for more reputable, data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

The post Who REALLY Watches Porn? 4 Surprising Truths first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Diving into the Pornhub 2023 year in review and some other, related topics like Netflix’s documentary “on”Moneyshot” about Pornhub.

---

Are you a Licensed Professional Counselor in need of continuing education? Learn more about addiction, pornography, and more from Dr. Weeks and Sexual Addiction Treatment Services, an NBCC ACEP™ approved provider!

Sexual Addiction Treatment Services has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7250. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Sexual Addiction Treatment Services is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

---

We love the statistics and the data here and I dive deep into it, with a caveat, that it’s not necessarily 100% perfect.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Then take this free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

The post Pornhub 2023: Year in Review first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Who uses OnlyFans? Sex workers, like many others, were negatively impacted when the pandemic shutdowns occurred. Because OnlyFans allowed them to create a socially distant income stream, the site exploded in popularity.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

The subscription based site marketed for all types of content quickly became a hotbed for sexual and explicit content and bespoke pornography.

At present, the site has more than 100 million users and has paid over $3 billion to the content creators. OnlyFans had a 75% increase in new users between March and April of 2020. In other words, the pandemic shutdown directly corresponds to the rise of OnlyFans.

Are you a Licensed Professional Counselor in need of continuing education? Learn more about Sex Addiction, Erotic Conflict, and Moral Incongruence from Dr. Weeks and Sexual Addiction Treatment Services, an NBCC ACEP™ approved provider!

Sexual Addiction Treatment Services has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7250. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Sexual Addiction Treatment Services is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Who uses OnlyFans: A Hundred Million Users

Researchers saw OnlyFans as a new avenue to research human sexuality. And, specifically, to study the sexual attitudes of people who use OnlyFans vs those who do not.

Dr. Stacey Litman and colleagues did just that and recently published a study with their findings.

The study included 718 adults who completed an online survey. The average age of participants was 29 years old and about equal numbers of male and female. Some were college students and some were individuals who found the survey on the MTurk site.

Participants were predominantly white.

In addition to their demographics, the participants also completed the Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale. The scale looks at attitudes about sex related to permissiveness, birth control, communion (communication and connection) and instrumentality (the purpose or function of sex).

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Then take this free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

What did the study find?

OnlyFans users were mostly married (89.5%), white (68.9%) men (63.1%) who identified as either heterosexual (59%) or bisexual/pansexual (37.8%).

The researchers then compared the Brief Sexual Attitudes Survey results between OnlyFans users and non-users.

No significant differences between the two groups was found. Meaning, OnlyFans users shared sexual attitudes with non-users.

This is one of the first known studies about OnlyFans users, therefore the results are preliminary.

However, based on this sample, OnlyFans use versus non-use cannot be explained by sexual attitudes. In other words, people who use OnlyFans are not more permissive in their ideas about sex than people who don’t use the site.

Because of the traffic that the site receives, we know that something is driving people to go there. That motivating factor is yet to be determined.

Reference: Litam, S. D. A., Speciale, M. & Balkin, R.S. (2022). Sexual Attitudes and Characteristics of OnlyFans Users. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51, 3093-3103

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses? Then you should stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

The post Who Uses OnlyFans Anyway? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Welcome to the next installment of our series Blocking Porn: Browsers. This is just a small piece of advice for content blocking for the top 4 most popular¹ browsers and some privacy-oriented alternative browsers.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

As always, it’s important to have a conversation about WHY content is being blocked whether it’s for your friend, your partner, or your child. Installing this software without the user’s consent isn’t just malicious, it’s illegal in some jurisdictions.

Technology can’t replace healthy communication in a relationship, it’s merely a tool to help better our lives.

Chrome

Google’s Chrome browser owns almost two-thirds of the market and has great customization options. It is available across all common desktop and mobile platforms.

There are also a few drawbacks, including Google’s constant spying on everything you’re doing, but that’s a whole different discussion.

Extensions

The easiest way to block porn in Chrome is by using extensions. Google Chrome Extension Store

These are the top two recommended blockers:

• BlockSite
• Smart Internet Porn Filter from vRate

If you sign into your browser, your extensions will sync across your desktop devices. Meaning on PC, Mac, and ChromeBook all of your extensions SHOULD work. Chrome on iOS (iPhone/iPad) doesn’t support extensions and on Android support can be spotty. We’ll cover other options for blocking pornography on mobile devices in later installments in the series.

Alternate Search Engines

You aren’t required to use Google for search, even if you use Google’s Chrome browser. If you’ve set up Bing to be your safe search engine of choice, changing the default search engine is fairly straightforward. Instructions from Google.

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Safari

Safari is the default browser on Apple devices, including Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It’s not available for PC, Linux, Android, or Chromebooks.

Just like with Chrome, and the next two browsers, Safari has the ability to add extensions to add functionality, including restricting access to certain types of sites. Safari DOES support syncing extensions, bookmarks, and other settings across all supported devices.

Extensions

The top recommended extension for Safari to block pornography is Porn Blocker Plus – for Safari, available in the App Store.

Alternatively, the top extension from Google’s Chrome has been ported to Safari’s extension eco system: BlockSite.

Edge

Microsoft’s Edge browser is available on all major desktop and mobile platforms and is built on the Chromium framework. This is the same framework that underpins Google’s own Chrome browser. As such, it has excellent support for extensions, because they don’t need to be completely re-written from Chrome.

Extensions

Edge’s extensions store, which is very similar to Chrome due to their sharing the same framework, is available here. Chrome’s top content blocking extension is available on Edge as well, BlockSite.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Firefox

Firefox is a unique browser, built by the Mozilla foundation. It’s a privacy-focused browser and the developers are very transparent in their operations. And it’s available for all major desktop and mobile platforms, and just like all the others has its own extension store.

Extensions

BlockSite is here again. Mozilla also recommends Impulse Blocker by raicem.

Special Note

In an effort to prevent browser extensions from peering over your shoulder, Firefox does not allow them access in Private browser windows by default.

To ensure your extensions are enabled in in-private windows:

1. Go to the Add-ons Manager
2. Click on the 3 dots of the extension you want to enable
3. Click manage
4. In details, select Allow for “Run in Private Windows”

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Alternative Browsers

Brave

Brave, developed by Brave Software, Inc., is a privacy oriented, chromium based browser. It will block ads and trackers by default. Brave uses the Chrome web store for extensions. They also offer their own search engine, as the default option.

Iron

Developed by German company SRWare, the Iron browser is built on the Chromium framework with privacy and security in mind. It’s available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android but is missing from iOS. While content filtering is not built into Iron, extensions are available.

Opera

Another Chromium-based browser solution with a unique user interface, Opera offers a wide variety of extensions, called addons in Opera, and themes to choose from. It’s available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and iOS.

Other Tips

• To avoid the temptation of circumventing controls, uninstall all other browsers from the device.
• Make sure to check the settings of any installed extensions and ensure they’re enabled for private/incognito windows.
• Be careful of extensions that don’t have a lot of reviews or downloads; the extension stores aren’t well moderated.
• To function properly, extensions MUST access all of your browsing data, be sure to check the privacy policies of all extensions to see what they do with your data.

Anecdote: While writing this article I installed a Chrome filtering extension and got hit with pop-ups that tried to redirect me to install additional, known-malicious extensions. It was blocked by my network’s filtering system so it didn’t affect me, but take heed of my warning to check reviews and download numbers before allowing extensions I didn’t mention here access to all of your browsing data.

Wrap Up

The most popular extension, by far, is BlockSite. The free version will block pornography, paid subscriptions will add additional features and may help to improve your productivity. It also offers additional installation options on desktop and mobile devices that can do more than just filter browser content. I’ll cover this more later in the series.

Whatever option you choose, it’s important to remember that this is only one piece of a much larger plan, and part of that plan is being honest and having frank discussions about the ramifications of pornography addiction in your life and the lives of those you love.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Blocking Porn: Browsers – How to Decide? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Content blockers can impact the digital lives that kids lead.

They live on their phones: Discord, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, BeReal, and TikTok; incidentally the latter has surpassed YouTube for total viewing hours per month. 

And, as parents, you know the promise of good content on the internet, but there’s a lot of content out there that is not meant for children.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

The Accidental Problem

It is not uncommon for children to be exposed to online pornography as young as 8 years old. This early exposure is often accidental. 

If you put a content blocker on your child’s device, it is best to talk to them about it and why you are doing it.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Since most parents don’t talk to their kids about online pornography, kids don’t usually feel comfortable coming to mom or dad with what they saw online. 

Newer research suggests that this early online pornography exposure is correlated with future problematic sexual behavior.

What Content Blockers do parents use?

Many choose to enable parental controls on phones or in apps directly to try to limit the type of content their children can either accidentally or intentionally access. 

Many apps now have internal parental controls as do most phones and tablets. In addition, there are entire marketplaces full of services and apps that you can purchase to block content on your device. These apps range from locking things down nearly completely to simply alerting someone that a certain type of content has been accessed. 

---

If you’re unfamiliar with sextortion, check out Dr. Jen’s article How to Protect Your Child from Sextortion.

---

Beyond Technology

If you plan to put a content blocker on your child’s device, it is best to talk to them about it and why you are doing it. These conversations and limitations need to be had and reassessed as your child ages; some of the guards can be lowered in an age-appropriate manner. 

These conversations are more important than any technology, because you have no control over what your child is watching on their friend’s tablet or phone. Maybe they can’t access pornography on their phone but their friends might be able to, and kids frequently share what they see.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

The post Content Blockers on my Children’s Devices? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

The concept of pornography induced erectile dysfunction (PIED) has spurred movements such as NoFap, where men pledge to stop viewing pornography and masturbating to it. A quick Google or Ted Talk search will result in a number of sites or talks discussing pornography induced erectile dysfunction (PIED).

Despite there being quite a bit of support for these ideas and movements in some quarters, there is still a lack of scientific evidence that supports PIED.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Learn more about curbing your urges in our series on Blocking Porn.

The Study

A study published last year in the JMIR Public Health and Surveillance Journal by Jacob et al, was a collaboration between researchers and medical doctors that sought to study the issue.

The authors, in consultation with urologists, created a 118-item questionnaire that included demographic information, medical history, pornography consumption, masturbation frequency as well as the Cyber Pornography Addiction Test, International Index of Erectile Function and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification test (AUDIT) which are all validated tests. The study participants were all in Denmark and Belgium and over 3400 individuals (aged 18 to 35) survey responses were used in the study. 

For me, some of the best parts of this study are the descriptive analyses. When talking about sex addiction or problematic sexual behavior, there is this assumption that we know what “normal” pornography use or masturbation is and from there can quantify abnormal. However, we really don’t have a lot of recent statistics on how much pornography people are using and how often they masturbate.  

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Then take this free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Pornography, Masturbation, and Erectile Dysfunction

The study found that 84.9% of the men surveyed started to masturbate between the ages of 10 and 14 years old and more than 70% of these men masturbated multiple times a week. 98.98% of these men used pornography while they masturbated. The study found that the median age that the men started to masturbate to pornography was 13-14 years old. Most of these men (over 90%) skipped to the “best parts” of the pornography during masturbation and over 80% of them stated that an average pornography/masturbation session lasted between 5 and 30 minutes. For the men in this study, it is safe to say that masturbating to pornography would be considered normal. 

Erectile Dysfunction

The study found that over 21% of the men who were sexually active experienced some degree of erectile dysfunction. There was a statistically significant relationship between erectile dysfunction and how high the person scored on the cyber pornography addiction test, meaning individuals who had higher CYPAT scores also had higher levels of ED.

From a clinical perspective, there were several interesting findings. First, 61% of individuals who were sexually active and had some ED issues reported that they never had ED issues when they were masturbating to pornography. Second, 58% of individuals who started to masturbate to pornography before they were 10 years old had more ED issues.  

Summary of Results

1. How often someone viewed pornography did not have an impact on ED
2. How often someone masturbated did not affect ED
3. There was a significant relationship between ED and Pornography Addiction (as tested with the CYPAT)
4. Individuals who started to masturbate to pornography at a very young age, at or before 10 years old, had higher rates of ED.  
5. Other factors related to ED are experiencing performance pressure, relationship issues and identified sexual orientation. 

Struggling with excessive sexual thoughts, urges, or activities that are causing you distress? Take the free, online Sexual Symptom Assessment Scale (SSAS) and get a link to share with your therapist.

For me, there are two big takeaways from this study.

The first is that viewing and masturbating to pornography is a normal behavior for men in this age category. 

The second is that starting to view and masturbate to pornography at a young age has more detrimental effects than doing so at an older age.

This study provides more support for the need to talk to children about pornography and limit their access to pornography until they are older, and it is more developmentally appropriate. 

Since this post dealt more with validating the scientific concepts behind PIED I want to leave you with an informational resource if you’re struggling: Your Brain on Porn.  

Reference:  Jacobs T, Geysemans B, Van Hal G, Glazemakers I, Fog-Poulsen K, Vermandel A, De Wachter S, De Win G Associations Between Online Pornography Consumption and Sexual Dysfunction in Young Men: Multivariate Analysis Based on an International Web-Based Survey JMIR Public Health Surveillance Journal 2021;7(10):e32542 doi: 10.2196/32542

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

The post Pornography Use and Erectile Dysfunction first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Does Pornography Influence Divorce?

As someone who works with individuals who struggle with problematic pornography use, I see firsthand how this can cause disruption in relationships. Therapists have much anecdotal evidence but does pornography influence divorce? There is not a lot of scientific research that backs up the exact influence of use of pornography use on relationships. 

The Study

There are some studies, mostly looking at marital satisfaction, associated with pornography use or religiosity and pornography use. This study, published by Perry and Schleifer in 2017 specifically looked at the relationship between pornography use and divorce. Their data comes from a national survey called the General Social Survey (GSS) that is a face-to-face survey of English and Spanish speaking American adults that follows people through “waves” every two years from 2006 to 2014. The survey collects data related to, among other things, marital status, marital happiness, pornography use, and religiosity. Since the survey asks the same people over time, the authors can see both changes in marital status and whether the participant has started or stopped viewing pornography. 

Based on previous research, the authors hypothesized that starting to look at pornography would be associated with an increase in the probability of divorce. They thought this association would be more prevalent for men than for women. They also thought that it would be more prevalent for younger people than for older Americans. The final hypothesis was that the association between pornography use, and divorce would be stronger for religious people than for those who do not actively practice a religion. 

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Then take this free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

The Results

The survey results indicated that if a person started to watch pornography between survey waves, they were nearly twice as likely to be divorced by the next wave of the survey. This increase in likelihood of divorce was not different for men versus women. 

As for age, the association with pornography use and divorce decreases with increases in age, with younger people being more likely to divorce than older individuals. Contrary to the prediction, being more religious did not increase the probability of divorce and the positive association between divorce and pornography use was only for those individuals who did not attend weekly church services. 

Ultimately, it was found that the strongest positive association between starting pornography use, and divorce was in younger Americans who were initially very happy in their marriages and who were not very religious.

The Realities of Pornography’s Influence on Divorce

While this study does show that there is an association between pornography use, divorce and these factors, it should be noted that this data is looking at associations. It is not causal. There is no way to actually know if the pornography use was instrumental in the decision of the couple to get a divorce. It is also possible that starting to look at pornography was influenced by unhappiness in the marriage.

Reference:  Perry, S.L. & Schleifer, C. (2017).  Til Porn Do Us Part?  A longitudinal examination of pornography use and divorce.  The Journal of Sex Research, doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1317709

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

Are you looking for more reputable, data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

The post Til Porn Do Us Part – Does Pornography Influence Divorce? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

If you have been following our blog series, you know that we are trying to use our years of experience to help you find the best counsel and treatment possible for the issues that brought you into the legal system.  This post may be the only controversial one of the series.

Should you take a polygraph test?

When most people think of a polygraph, they think about something they saw on TV or a lie detector.  The polygraph is not a lie detector but a device that measures physiological responses.  It is often not admissible in criminal court (though it is in some places and can be used for probation violations).  So why am I even talking about it?

Despite it’s issues, the polygraph is routinely used in the treatment of sexual offenders and is considered a standard of practice.  So even if you don’t do a polygraph pre-trial, you will while you are on probation.  While on probation it is used as a therapeutic “tool” to assess whether the person on probation is following rules and regulations of probation and/or keeping any secrets from treatment and probation.  It is a measure used to gather information.

Again, why on earth am I talking about you possibly taking a polygraph examination before you go to court?  Just like it is used as a tool after adjudication, we can use it as a tool prior to sentencing.  In our geographic area, the FBI likes to ask people they are investigating (often within hours of knocking on your door in the wee hours of the morning) to voluntarily consent to a polygraph test.  What are they looking for by doing this?  They are seeking any evidence that you may be a mixed offender.  A mixed offender is someone who is being investigated or arrested for a cybersex crime that ALSO has committed a hands-on sexual offense in their lifetime.  It will come as no surprise that many people to take this polygraph test right away don’t do very well.  There are many reasons for that, anxiety, fear and absolutely no preparation.

As someone being investigated for a sex crime, why might it be helpful to you to do a polygraph?  Honestly, for the same reasons that the FBI does them.  Research now tells us that the assumption that people who look at child pornography must also be contact offenders is false.  However, it is hard for a court or an evaluator to just take someone’s word for it.  Though it is not admissible in court, if you take and pass a sexual history polygraph and have no history of contact offending, this has a favorable effect on your risk of recidivism.

Guidelines for taking a polygraph before sentencing

1. Make sure your attorney is on board with this decision.  As with an evaluation, you can do this through your attorney so if you don’t have a favorable result from a polygraph it will be protected under attorney client privilege.
2. Find a polygrapher who is trained, accredited and familiar with working with sexual offenders and giving sexual history polygraphs. You want to take a Sexual History Polygraph.
3. Do your homework. This means that you and your therapist need to spend a great deal of time going through your sexual history with a fine-tooth comb.  This takes time.  People often have trouble on polygraph tests because they don’t really go through their history.  Work through your sexual history from the first time you kissed someone through the moment you are ready to take the polygraph.
4. BE HONEST. It is best to be honest and pass than to keep and hold your secrets and have a deception indicated.  Also remember, that though this may be a tool to help you in sentence mitigation, it is ultimately about you getting honest with yourself to help your treatment and growth into a better human!

Shame lives in secrecy.  If there are no more secrets you can start to work on shame reduction.  This means that the value of the polygraph can be something more than just another measure your attorney or psychosexual evaluator can use in sentence mitigation.

Dr. Jennifer Weeks is the owner of Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.  She specializes in the treatment of sexual offenders and cybersex offenders.  Through her program she provides psychosexual evaluations, treatment and expert witness testimony.  SATS also offers coaching services for those people who are being investigated but are not in Pennsylvania.

The post You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: Do You Take a Polygraph? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

So far in our series of articles we have talked about finding a good attorney and a good therapist.  The next step in the process is to talk to your attorney about a psychosexual evaluation.  In most states and in Federal cases, the prosecution will have you undergo an evaluation with a therapist who works either for or on behalf of the state, county or Federal government. It is normally always a good idea to have one done by a psychologist who is not working for the organization that is prosecuting you.

First, what is a psychosexual evaluation?  The evaluation is comprised of an interview with a psychologist, a lot of psychological testing and a review of all forensic documents related to your case.  What tests you take often depends on the clinician who is doing the evaluation.  These objective measures will test for factors that may have both influenced your committing the crime you are accused of and may influence you to commit the crime again.  For example, you will likely do some type of personality test to see if you have any mental health diagnoses that influenced your crime such as depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, etc.  You will also likely be asked to take some test that will assess your likelihood of having a substance abuse problem, as this is sometimes correlated with certain types of crimes.

How do you find the right person to conduct the psychosexual evaluation?  If you have an attorney, he or she may have a psychologist that they work with closely and will refer you to that person.  If you are looking for this person on your own, there are a few things you should be on the lookout for.  First, you need someone who has a Ph.D. and has been trained to give the types of tests that you need.  Not all therapists have the training to be qualified to administer certain psychological tests.  Second, the psychologist who performs your evaluation needs to be experienced in performing psychological evaluations for sex crimes.  Not all forensic psychologists work with sex crimes.  Some, for example, perform evaluations for competency to stand trial.  Third, your evaluator should be a member of ATSA and familiar with the latest research related to offenders of your type of crime.

A question I often am asked is “what happens if the evaluation says something bad?”  My first response to this question is that there is nothing about an evaluation that is “bad.”  An evaluation is a combination of facts, testing results and opinion based on all those elements.  However, if you are concerned about the outcome of the evaluation, there is a solution.  If the evaluator is retained by your attorney and paid for by your attorney, the report then falls under attorney-client privilege as client work product.  This way, if your attorney does not feel that the evaluation will help you, he or she will not use it during your sentencing.

In most cases, the psychosexual evaluation is used for sentence mitigation.  Your attorney may use a favorable evaluation in the plea negotiation process beforehand.  Your psychosexual evaluation will be part of the pre-sentence memorandum that your attorney files with the court prior to your sentencing.  This report will give the judge information as to some of the reasons why you committed your crime as well as provide the judge with some information about your risk of recidivism (commit another crime).  The judge will take all this information into account when they are determining your sentence.

If your attorney does not suggest an evaluation, ask them about it.  Whether or not you need an evaluation or if it may be helpful will depend on your case and your jurisdiction.  We provide these suggestions as they are helpful in our geographic area of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Jennifer Weeks is the owner of Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.  She specializes in the treatment of sexual offenders and cybersex offenders.  Through her program she provides psychosexual evaluations, treatment and expert witness testimony.  SATS also offers coaching services for those people who are being investigated but are not in Pennsylvania.

The post You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: The Psychosexual Evaluation first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

In my first blog in this series, I wrote about the fact that getting a therapist is one of the first things you need to do when you are under investigation for a cybersex crime.  I briefly mentioned that you will need a specific type of therapist in that post and I am going to expand on what you need to look for in a therapist here.

Given how expensive this entire process is, one’s inclination is to just find a therapist who takes their insurance, can help with the anxiety and depression they are experiencing, though not necessarily specializing in treating people engaging in cybersex crimes.  I understand that thought process.  However, there are some things you need to know.

1. Many therapists will not work with sex offenders. You would think or hope that someone who works as a mental health counselor would be able to work with anyone without prejudice.  Unfortunately, that is not true.  Research studies have shown that a high percentage of therapists will not work with someone who is attracted to children or has engaged in sexual behavior with a child (even if it is online).  This means that if you go to see just any therapist, you do not know if you are meeting with someone who is personally comfortable working with you.  If they are not, ethically they are to refer you to someone else.  However, not all therapists will do this.   This means that you may get advice biased by their own opinions about sexual offenders and often this is not accurate or helpful.

2. Many therapists are not comfortable talking in depth about sex and sexuality. If you are going to really get to the root of the behavior that led to you engaging in a cybersex crime, you are going to be talking in depth about sexual behaviors.  This means that the therapist you choose to work with needs to be completely comfortable in their own sexuality and able to nonjudgmentally sit with the sexual behaviors of others.  Again, just as not all therapists can work with sex offenders, not all therapists are very comfortable talking about sex and sexuality.  That might sound odd, but it is true.

3. Most therapists are not trained in treating sexual behavior that crosses into offending. In the process of graduate training to become a therapist, unless a person knows they want to specialize in treating sexual behavior problems from the get go, they are likely to receive limited training in the topic.  Normally all counseling programs make students take one course on human sexuality.  That’s it. This means that a general therapist will not have the training or knowledge to help you with the specific issues that brought you to being investigated for a cybersex crime.

What do you need to look for in a therapist?

1. A therapist who has experience working with sexual behaviors. Most therapists will have listed somewhere on their website or Psychology Today profile what types of issues they work with.  If a therapist states that they work with sexual issues such as pornography addiction, sexual dysfunction, or other sexual health problems, they are going to be comfortable talking to you about details of sexual issues.

2. A therapist who has experience working with sexual offending behaviors such as child pornography, sexting minors, online solicitation, etc. This will require a phone call or an email to the therapist and direct questioning.  Have they worked with people in your exact situation before?  If they have not, you might want to continue searching for a therapist who as at least seen a few people who are in your situation.

3. A therapist who has specific training, certification or professional membership to organizations that work with sexual behavior problems. The best thing is to find a therapist who is a member of ATSA. This stands for the Association for Treatment of Sex Abusers.  This is an international organization that is entirely dedicated to research and treatment of people who engage in sexual offending behavior.  The website atsa.com has a referral page where you can find a therapist.  A second tier choice would be to find someone who is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist through IITAP (www.iitap.com) or trained through SASH (www.sash.net).  If you find a clinician who is experienced in treating your issue and they are not certified or a member of ATSA please make sure they stay informed of the latest treatment research and trends.

Again, if you are reading this you are in a very particular situation and need a very particular therapist to help you.  You need a therapist who is comfortable discussing sexuality in all forms, is willing to work with people who are attracted to children, has experience in treating people with sexual offending behavior and is up to date on the latest research in the field.

Dr. Jennifer Weeks is the owner of Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.  She specializes in the treatment of sexual offenders and cybersex offenders.  Through her program she provides psychosexual evaluations, treatment and expert witness testimony.  SATS also offers coaching services for those people who are being investigated but are not in Pennsylvania.

The post You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: What to look for in a therapist first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.