Voyeurism
Voyeurism is a paraphilia that involves a person's deriving sexual pleasure from watching people who are naked. Voyeurs are usually male and are commonly known as "Peeping Toms." Voyeurs typically get heightened sexual excitement from the fact that the person they are watching is unaware he or she is being watched. Some voyeuristic activities include spying on people who are taking showers in locker rooms, looking through binoculars for people undressing in front of their windows, or watching people from hidden cameras. Voyeurs often masturbate during or after watching someone, as a way of increasing their sexual pleasure. In order for the voyeuristic behaviors to be considered atypical, a person would have to prefer the sexual pleasure associated with watching someone over normal sexual activity, such as sexual contact with a partner.
Many people derive some sexual arousal from accidentally seeing an attractive person naked. Most people even fantasize what other people may look like naked. This type of behavior is normal and quite common. However, peeping and voyeuristic watching become atypical when a person repeatedly seeks or resorts to peeping for sexual pleasure and eroticizes voyeuristic experiences by masturbating. Voyeurism is considered a coercive paraphilia, because the unsuspecting victim has not consented to being viewed by others. Voyeurs are usually committing an illegal act by invading another person's privacy, trespassing, or breaking and entering to observe someone in the nude.
A slight variation of voyeurism is scoptophilia. A scoptophile derives sexual pleasure from viewing other people engaged in sexual acts and/or other people's genitals. Again, this type of behavior tends to be common for many people who would not be considered scoptophiles. For example, people may watch pornographic movies or go to strip clubs to watch naked people for sexual excitement. The purpose of pornography and strip clubs is for the pleasure and excitement of viewers who can watch sexual content in ways that are non-coercive. Scoptophilia is different from this type of behavior in that the person prefers to receive pleasure from the forbidden and risky nature of viewing others without their knowledge. As with other types of voyeurs, scoptophiles often masturbate while watching, or after the fact, to enhance their sexual pleasure.
Other types of voyeuristic acts include a sexual interest in looking up a woman's skirt (referred to as upskirt) or down a woman's blouse without her knowledge. While it is fairly common for men to make occasional, curious, or accidental glances at a woman's cleavage or up her skirt at some point in their lives, repeated and obsessive sexual interest in viewing women's bodies in this way is cause for concern. Most people have experienced voyeuristic acts that would not be considered as acts of a paraphilia. However, the people who do engage in repeated, non-consensual voyeurism for the purpose of sexual arousal are considered to be coercive paraphiliacs and should seek professional treatment. There are therapies for dealing with various paraphilias that can help people gradually wean themselves from their deviant behavior and learn to become sexually aroused in healthy ways.