Compelling evidence supports a small but significant association between mental illness and violence. More specifically, schizophrenics are approximately four times more likely to have been convicted for a serious sexual offense than their non-mentally ill counterparts. The relationship between schizophrenia and sexual offending is complex and poorly defined. As such, the current article presents a review of the research literature pertaining to the etiology of sexual deviance in individuals suffering from schizophrenia. The goal was to work toward a typology of sexual offending in schizophrenics in order to inform the assessment and treatment of sexual deviance within this population. The research review focused on how certain factors contribute to sexual deviance, including early childhood experiences, deviant sexual preferences, antisocial personality traits, psychiatric symptomatology and its associated treatment effects, and the role of mental illness. The authors offer a typology that categorizes schizophrenic patients who engage in sexually offensive activities into four groups: (1) those who have a pre-existing paraphilia; (2) those whose sexual deviance arose in the context of mental illness or its treatment; (3) those whose sexual deviance is a manifestation of generalized antisocial behavior; and (4) those whose sexual deviance arises from other factors. The typology is based on the limited available research, as well as the authors own clinical experiences. Future research should work toward empirically validating the categories presented here. References