Ten Levels of Sexualizing Behaviors

The purpose of this discussion is three-fold, 1) to educate and develop public awareness regarding the escalating levels of sexualizing behaviors, 2) to prevent sexualizing escalation, and 3) to pierce the heart of offenders to seek help for their sexual deviance.

The aftermath of sex crimes are devastating to everyone, victim, community and yes the offender. Too often, offenders claim ignorance to their increasing sexual involvement. Offenders need to take active responsibility for their sexualizing behaviors. Sexualizing behaviors fall on a continuum form passive to intrusive. It is the every person's responsibility to become aware of his or her sexualizing behaviors.

Mature individuals have the discipline and wisdom to understand that they must avoid or moderate some pleasures in order to maintain self-control and possibly healthy. Too often, our culture promotes pleasure-seeking behaviors at the detriment of self-regulation. When it comes to sex, most offenders loose insight and self-discipline. Often the pursuit of sexual pleasure overpowers and entices them into committing a sex offense or a crime.

Individuals primarily become sexually addicted because of the pleasure principle and the laws of diminishing returns. We tend to seek out pleasure while avoiding discomfort. The laws of diminishing returns dictate that over time, output is less than the input. We no longer receive the same amount of pleaser that we used too; therefore, we up the stakes by putting more into it. In other words, the pleasure that individuals once received from a sexual act is no longer there. So now, individuals must increase the intensity, frequency, or variation in order to receive the same previously felt pleasure or high.

Sexualizing behaviors fall into 10 levels. Each level is progressively more intrusive than the previous.

Level one is pornography. Individuals may masturbation to or fantasies about the images they see. The encounter may be passive, non-invasive, or only involve the individual.