The Atlanta shooting suspect blamed sex addiction for his attacks, but therapists say it's not a real diagnosis
Robert Aaron Long was arrested in connection to a string of deadly shootings that took place in the Atlanta area on Tuesday. He told officials he may have frequented some of the massage parlors targeted in the past, and saw his victims as a "temptation he wanted to eliminate," according to a representative of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department.
When he was questioned by the police about killing eight people — six of them Asian women — at three different massage parlors, he said his "sexual addiction" was the reason for his crimes.
However, sex addiction is not classified by experts as a mental health disorder. There are some treatments for managing compulsive sexual behavior, but they won't do anything to remedy criminal sexual acts, sex therapists told Insider.
Compulsive sexual behavior isn't the same as an addiction
Excessive sexual drive and compulsive sexual behavior disorder are recognized in the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD). However, neither of these disorders qualify as an addiction because they do not affect your brain chemistry.
With drug or alcohol addiction, the brain goes from simply wanting those substances to needing them, and people will even experience physical withdrawal symptoms from going without their vice. This isn't the case for sexual behavior.
When people say "sex addiction," they likely mean compulsive sexual behavior disorder. The disorder is characterized by thinking about sex nonstop, engaging in risky sexual behaviors, and paying excessive money for sex — not by sexual crimes or violent urges.
Dr. David Ley, clinical psychologist and certified sex therapist supervisor, told Insider that most sex addiction treatments are based around the 12-step model. That kind of program is more of a "social support system" and does nothing to address sexual abuse or sexually-driven violence, he wrote in an email.
"Sadly, such men, with high-priced attorneys, are rather successful at avoiding jail and getting ordered into sex addiction treatment, rather than facing criminal penalty," Ley wrote in an email to Insider. "The real problem there is that sex addiction treatment has no known effectiveness at treating pedophilia or criminal sexual behavior."
Criminals have used sex addiction as an 'excuse' before
People have blamed purported sex addictions for a variety of crimes in the past.
Serial killer Ted Bundy, as well as sex offenders Harvey Weinstein and Anthony Weiner, all gave the same excuse when they were put on trial, according to the Washington Post. Weinstein and Weiner both checked into rehab for sex addiction after allegations against them went public.
Golfer Tiger Woods and Jesse James, entrepreneur and ex-husband of actress Sandra Bullock, also got treatment for sex addiction following their cheating scandals.
"It seems that the label of sex addiction is used as a get-out-of-jail-free card, whether jail is the tension between fighting partners or literal sanctions from criminal behavior," sex and couples therapist Tom Murray told Insider.
He added that treating problematic sexual behavior should involve addressing the underlying causes, which could include relationship problems, social difficulties, or mental health disorders. In the case of the Atlanta shooter, the suspect's sexualized perceptions of Asian women may have played a role in his crime, Murray said.
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