A sample of 320 sex offenders and 31 violent non-sex offenders, seen for psychiatric assessment between 1966 and 1974, were compared retrospectively on lifetime recidivism rates to 1999 over a minimum of 25 years. A number of criteria and data sources were used; RCMP records and hospital records were the best sources, albeit the RCMP had records for only 54.1% of the cases. Approximately three in five offenders reoffended, using sex reoffence charges or convictions or court appearances as criteria, but this proportion increased to more than four in five when all offences and undetected sex crimes were included in the analysis. Group differences in recidivism were noteworthy, with child sexual abusers and exhibitionists most likely to reoffend and incest offenders least likely. Time at large and time incarcerated played a relatively minor role overall in results, except in the case of offenders who were sexually aggressive against adult females, courtship disordered, or violent. The typical known criminal career spanned almost two decades, indicating that sex offence recidivism remained a problem over a significant part of the offenders' adult lives.

No abstract

A sample of 228 sex offenders and nonsex offender controls were divided into two groups, based on the presence or absence of deviant sexual fantasies, as determined by their replies to the Clarke Sex History Questionnaire Fantasy Scales. The sex offenders were divided into six groups based on sexual preferences and criminal history. There were 14 heterosexual pedophiles, 23 homosexual pedophiles, 51 exhibitionists, 17 incest offenders, 24 sexual aggressives, and 57 multiple/miscellaneous offenders as well as 42 nonviolent nonsex offender controls. A 2 (fantasy group) x 7 (sex offender group) multivariate analysis with age and education as covariates was used to compare the MMPI validity scales (L, F, and K) and the 10 clinical scales as dependent variables. Deviant fantasizers had more clinically significantly scores on the F, Psychopathic Deviate, Masculinity-Femininity, Paranoia, and Schizophrenia Scales compared to nondeviant fantasizers, regardless of group membership. Results suggest that deviant fantasizers may be more socially alienated and less emotionally stable than nondeviant fantasizers, although few were diagnosed as psychotic. The sex offender and control groups showed considerable overlap on mean MMPI Scales. The groups tended to differ in level of depression and extent of persecutory ideas, but the multivariate sex offender group effect was not statistically significant when problems of inhomogeneity of variance were corrected. There was no interaction of fantasy groups and sex offender groups, indicating that the two factors can be considered independently.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, and contemporary psychological theory have assigned a central role to deviant sexual fantasy in the genesis, maintenance, and treatment of sex offenders, but empirical studies to support that role are few in number. In this article, 201 male admitting sex offenders and controls were compared on the Clarke Sex History Questionnaire Fantasy Scales. Almost all respondents reported having fantasies of adult females, but only one third of the sex offenders reported having deviant fantasies. The frequencies of deviant fantasies for all groups tended to be low, and controls had more fantasies in general than sex offenders. Results were not influenced by response set, naive lying, age, education, or intelligence. The results suggest that the number of sex offenders reporting deviant fantasies is too low for fantasy to have etiological significance, and it only has limited utility in diagnosis and treatment in general.

This study examines the best predictor of lifetime recidivism among Hare's psychopathy scores (PCL-R), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis, and brain dysfunction measures in a sample of 1,695 adult male sexual, violent, and nonviolent offenders. Results indicated that most variables were associated with significantly more frequent recidivism. The best predictor of overall recidivism was the PCL-R, but more specifically, it was its items on criminal history that were associated with recidivism. Sexual offense recidivism was predicted by the presence of learning disorders; however, all measures were poor predictors. General recidivism was primarily associated with past criminal history and secondarily with learning disorders and ADHD. Results suggest that ADHD and brain dysfunction with criminal history measures are the best predictors for addressing the problem of criminal recidivism.

No abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the use of pornographic materials by sex offenders during the commission of their crimes. A sample of 561 sex offenders was examined. There were 181 offenders against children, 144 offenders against adults, 223 incest offenders, 8 exhibitionists, and 5 miscellaneous cases. All but four cases were men. A total of 96 (17%) offenders had used pornography at the time of their offenses. More offenders against children than against adults used pornography in the offenses. Of the users, 55% showed pornographic materials to their victims and 36% took pictures, mostly of child victims. Nine cases were involved in the distribution of pornography. Results showed that pornography plays only a minor role in the commission of sexual offenses, however the current findings raise a major concern that pornography use in the commission of sexual crimes primarily involved child victims.

A sample of 2,286 male sex offenders and paraphilics and 241 nonsex offenders was evaluated for the prevalence of mental retardation and learning disorders, using the full Wechsler IQ scales. The sex offenders were generally of average intelligence, and the mentally retarded were not overrepresented among them, but the learning disordered were. There were no differences among sex offenders and controls in overall IQ or in the percentage of mentally retarded or learning-disordered cases, suggesting that the learning difficulties are not peculiar to sex offenders. There was a bias in referral source, with more mentally retarded, borderline-retarded, and/or learning-disordered cases being referred by the Children's Aid Society, prisons, and the Crown, suggesting that referral source may play a significant role in evaluating intelligence and mental retardation among sex offenders; but the overrepresentation of learning disorders among criminals appears to be a significant phenomenon, regardless of referral source.