Biastophilia (from Greek biastes, "rapist" + -philia) and its Latin-derived synonym raptophilia (from Latin rapere, "to seize"), also paraphilic rape,[1] is a paraphilia in which sexual arousal is dependent on, or is responsive to, the act of assaulting an unconsenting person, especially a stranger.[2][3] Some dictionaries consider the terms synonymous,[4] while others distinguish raptophilia as the paraphilia in which sexual arousal is responsive to actually raping the victim.[5]
The source of the arousal in these paraphilias is the victim's terrified resistance to the assault,[6] and in this respect it is considered to be a form of sexual sadism.[1]
Under the name paraphilic coercive disorder, this diagnosis was proposed for inclusion in DSM-5.[7] This diagnosis, under the name paraphilic rapism, was proposed and rejected in the DSM-III-R.[8] It has been criticized because of the impossibility of reliably distinguishing between paraphilic rapists and non-paraphilic rapists, and because of this diagnosis, under the term Paraphilia NOS (not otherwise specified), non-consent had been used in Sexually Violent Person/Predator commitment.[9]
A standard concept in Czechoslovakian sexology is pathologic sexual aggressivity instead. This term is strongly distinguished from sadism.[10][11] This disorder is understood as a coordination anomaly of the sexual motivation system (SMS), a "courtship disorder" according to Kurt Freund or displacement paraphilia by John Money, or a missing segment of SMS.[12]