I Like to Watch (C4): Last week a documentary about flashers. This week, one about people who like to watch other people in sexual situations. Do I detect a pattern here? Coming through, a programme about people who like to watch flashers while having sex.

There was a serious points to be made here, whether voyeurism is harmless and part of our nature or an indication of a serious psychological condition.

It's never been easier to take sexual images of people without their consent. Peeping Toms have the world's porn at their fingertips thanks to the Internet.

The programme asserted - and it's rather alarming - that a British woman has a one in a thousand chance of being snapped unawares in the loo at work, a leisure centre or a shop changing room. Only recently has a new law been issued that makes some forms of voyeurism a crime.

The unpromising opening ventured into the world of those late night TV favourites, swingers. Dean and Matty run a website that enables them to fulfill their desire to be watched while coupling. This is fine by subscriber and voyeur Marcus and regular visitor to the virtual world, who cruises sites for willing exhibitionists.

Divorcee Michael, 57, indulges in what he calls "opportunity observation" and what I'd call being a dirty old man. He thrives on accidental glimpses of women's bodies. I didn't take to him. He recalled seeing a neighbour getting undressed. "I'm not looking at her, she showing me," he said - which sounds too close to "she was asking for it" sentiments for my liking.

He didn't sound far removed from the boyfriend of Sheena's flatmate who planted a hidden camera in the bathroom so he could watch her bathing and going to the toilet. What kind of man wants to see a woman peeing?, she asked, and you had to wonder.

Doreen's lodger was from the same mould. He installed secret video cameras all over the house and watched the result on a TV set in the privacy of his room. Three years later, Doreen is still being treated for depression and panic attacks.

A note of caution came from the FBI's professor Janet Warren, advisor to its Behavioural Sciences Unit. While most voyeurs go no further than looking, figures show that 95 per cent of rapists and serial murderers have been or were voyeurs at the time of their offences.

And why, you might wonder, are men more prone to voyeurism than women? Dr Meredith Chivers has researched this area by showing porn movies to both sexes and measuring their arousal. She held up a small noose on a stick used on men. It looked lethal, although I dare say the sight of it turned some voyeurs on.

Published: 07/05/2004