Usually such nonconsensual sexual contact is viewed as criminal offense: a form of sexual assault albeit often classified as a misdemeanor with minor legal penalties. Conviction may result in a sentence including compulsory psychiatric treatment. A person who practices frotteurism is known as a frotteur.

Etymology

The term frotteurism derives from the French verb frotter meaning 'to rub'. The term frotteur is the French noun literally meaning 'rubber' or 'one who rubs'.

The psychiatric handbook, the DSM (see below), used to call this sexual disorder by the name frottage until the second edition (DSM II). However, this term is no longer used in the USA to refer to the sexual disorder, which is now called frotteurism, as it is in the current fourth edition (DSM IV). Nevertheless, the term frottage still remains in some law codes and is synonymous with the term frotteurism. "Frottage" is now used for consensual rubbing as part of normal sexual activity.

Symptoms

The professional handbook of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM IV), lists the following diagnostic criteria for frotteurism.

• Recurrent, intense, or arousing sexual urges or fantasies, that involve touching and rubbing against a nonconsenting person.

• The person has acted on these sexual urges or fantasies, or they cause the person significant distress, to a degree they are disruptive to everyday functioning.

DSM IV classification

According to DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, IV edition), where all psychiatric illnesses are represented as numerals to avoid confusion, frotteurism is classified as 302.89.

Groping in Japan

One high-profile instance is that of economist and former professor at the graduate school of Waseda University Kazuhide Uekusa who has a string of arrests for sex-related offences, the most recent of which came when he was arrested for molesting a schoolgirl on a train on September 13, 2006.

Concern and controversy

The issue of groping in Japan does not just affect females but males also. Such is the concern of groping that a film has been made about it. The film I Just Didn't Do It by Japanese film director Masayuki Suo, based on a true story, focuses on a male office worker acquitted of groping after a five year legal battle. The film aims to highlight the issue of groping and challenge the fairness of Japan's secretive legal system, which has a 99.9% conviction rate in the criminal courts. However, an independent legal study has suggested that the reason for the high conviction rate is not a pro-conviction bias but is instead attributable to understaffed and under-financed prosecutors' offices pursuing only the most solid cases. Even so, the criminal courts have traditionally been lenient in cases of groping and have only recently made efforts to combat the social problem with tougher sentences.