I am a sex "addiction" researcher.

It's literally my speciality.

Sex "addiction" does not lead you to commit murder.

Sex "addiction" does not lead you to commit hate crimes.

Do not excuse racist crimes as being the result of sex addiction.

If you're a journalist or writer looking at the topic, as an expert in the topic, I'm available for comment, but let me just note that, my ultimate comment is going to be that racist actions need to be described as such, not as byproducts of sex addiction. Racism is the story.

It seems like some context and explanation might be helpful. As a psychology professor, I have been researching this topic over a decade and have published at least 30 papers on it. So, I feel relatively comfortable positioning myself as an expert on this topic

The idea of “sexual addiction“ is very controversial in research, largely because, at this point, no official diagnosis of “sexual addiction“ exists.

This doesn’t stop people from saying they have a sex addiction, but right now, the mental health community doesn’t recognize it

As of next year, the international classification of diseases, 11th edition, by the world health organization, will have a new diagnosis of compulsive sexual behavior disorder, which probably captures what most people would call “sex addiction“

Technically, it is an impulse control disorder, not an addiction, but to most people, that is just splitting hairs.

Having said that, this diagnosis was the most controversial one in the ICD 11, being the most publicly commented on of any new diagnoses

Importantly, this new diagnosis explicitly states that being distressed over your sexual behaviors for moral or religious reasons is not alone sufficient to get the diagnosis. Doing sexual behaviors that you find distressing does not mean you have an addiction

Why is this caveat included in the diagnosis? Well, it’s because dozens and dozens of studies now show that religious beliefs and conservative sexual values are likely to predict whether or not you think your sexual behaviors are an addiction

In short, people with conservative religious and sexual values are more likely to interpret their normal sexual behaviors as a sign that they have an out-of-control addiction

I won’t speculate about whether or not the perpetrator in question had a bona fide “addiction.”

I feel pretty comfortable saying that his conservative beliefs certainly didn’t help things.

I’m even more comfortable saying that none of that is an explanation for a hate crime

If you've stumbled upon this thread, here's an interview I did in response to it that really sums up some of my thoughts about this whole situation https://twitter.com/HeidiStevens13/status/1372732177255964674?s=20