Voyeurism can sometimes designate a behavior sometimes a sexuality disorder. Le Petit Robert gives the following definition: the voyeur is ” a person who seeks to attend, for their satisfaction and without being seen, an intimate or erotic scene ».

According to this definition, such behavior aims at the same time:

• The hidden nature of the observations;
• The private and intimate nature of the acts observed;
• The sexual satisfaction obtained.

Among those who indulge in voyeurism, some suffer from a sexuality disorder according to the definition adopted by the American Psychiatric Association:

« To be considered a sexual disorder or paraphilia, voyeurism must include observing unsuspecting people, usually strangers, while they are naked or engaged in some sexual activity, and d ‘to experience an excitement erotic¹.

Some characteristic elements of the pathological voyeur:

• He does not seek contact with the victim (s).
• He masturbates while observing his target or afterwards by remembering the scene2.
• It is won by recurring fantasies causing intense sexual arousal and sexual urges involving acts of voyeurism.
• His fantasies or sexual urges lead to social, professional or functional suffering.

According to several research studies, voyeurs generally display other deviant behaviors such as exhibitionism or non-consensual touching.3. In some cases, voyeurism gradually evolves and becomes more and more coercive.

Many people have fantasies directly or indirectly linked to voyeurism without this being able to be considered pathological. If these fantasies do not cause an alteration in the life of the person concerned or if voyeurism is not the exclusive or obsessive condition of sexual pleasure, it cannot be qualified as paraphilia.

Voyeuristic behaviors are said to be very common⁴. 8-12% of men said they had been sexually aroused by at least one episode of spying on sex, study found, compared to 4% of women⁵. Other studies report that the rate of the population having secretly observed other people in equivocal situations would be much higher, of the order of 40%.⁶.

If you had the opportunity to secretly and accidentally witness the lovemaking or undressing of someone you find attractive, would you?

This is the question that was asked of students by two researchers Rye and Meaney in 2007.

When the risk of being surprised was estimated at 0 to 25%, 60 to 80% of men and 36 to 74% of women would gladly consent. 

Researchers have shown some possible associations between voyeuristic behavior and certain factors, such as male sex, psychological problems, low life satisfaction, heavy drug or alcohol consumption as well as intense sexual activity marked in particular by a number of sexual partners ( the) s high, a high frequency of masturbation episodes, a more marked openness, a tendency to pornography as well as a higher probability of having had a sexual partner of the same sex. 

« The voyeur is someone who has made the elective libidinal choice of this gaze object and if the object is the condition of desire, for the voyeur the gaze is its absolute condition. ». Jean-Luc Cacciali, “A perversion of the gaze: voyeurism”, Journal français de psychiatrie 2002/2 (no16), p. 33-34.