The Risk That DSM 5 Will Exacerbate the SVP Mess in Forensic Psychiatry

The imprecise wording of DSM-IV led to an abusive use of the Paraphilia NOS diagnosis to hospitalize sexual predators for indefinite periods of time through Sexually Violent Predator statues. DSM-5 has threatened to compound the error of DSM-IV through the addition of three diagnosis that invite forensic abuse: ‘coercive paraphilia’, ‘hypersexuality’, and ‘hebephilia’. This article reviews that status of those three diagnoses, as well as the arguments for excluding them from the new manual.