Behavioral Patterns and Personality Characteristics of 56 Sex Offenders

Relapse prevention and risk reduction: Results of client identification of high risk situations

“…The painful or "negative" feelings associated with sexual offending included anger (Erickson, Walbeck, & Seely, 1987;Pithers, 1987), anxiety (Pithers, 1987(Pithers, , 1990, depression (Grossman & Cavanaugh, 1990; Kafka & Prentky, 1994;Pithers, 1987), boredom (Pithers, 1987), frustration (Pithers, 1987), rejection (Carnes, 1992), unrealistic fears (Pithers, 1987(Pithers, , 1990, guilt (Coleman, 1986), loneliness (Ward, McCormack, & Hudson, 1997;Seidman, Marshall, Hudson, & Robertson, 1994), self-pity (Marshall & Mazzucco, 1995;Pithers, Beal, Armstrong, & Petty, 1989;Pithers, 1987), shame (Carnes, 1992), resentments (Pithers, 1987), unresolved grief or loss (Finkelhor, 1986;Pithers, 1987), inadequacy or insecurity (Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Ganzarian & Buchele, 1990;Pithers, 1987;, and sexual abuse trauma (Abel, Becker, Mittelman, Cunningham-Raher, Rouleau, & Murphy, 1987;Baker, 1985;Blanchard, 1989;Laws, 1980;Madel, 1986;Mayer, 1985;Nakken, 1989;Parker & Parker, 1986;Schaef, 1987).…”

“…These pleasurable emotional states included feelings wanted by the victim, overconfidence a bout recovery, feeling understood by the victim, affection and warmth (Seidman, Marshall, Hudson, & Robertson, 1994), sense of intimacy (Ward, McCormack, & Hudson, 1997;Seidman et al 1994), manliness or masculinity (Allen, 1980), grandiosity or power over others (Allen, 1980), sense of control (Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Mayer, 1983), relief from physical or emotional tension (Carnes, 1992;Stermac et al, 1989), sexual release or fantasy Pithers, 1987;Schwartz & Brasted, 1985), excitement or thrill (Pithers, 1987), possibility of getting caught, and pleasure from being humiliated or harmed.…”

“…The cognitive distortions which were reported in the literature which preceded sexual offending included rationalizations (Abel et al, 1984;Briere & Malamuth, 1983;Check & Malamuth, 1983;Hunter, Becker, Kaplan, & Goodwin, 1991;Pithers, 1987), justifications or excuses (Mayer, 1983;Muehlenhard & Linton, 1987;Pithers, 1987;Rapaport & Burkhart, 1984), loss of a sense of control (Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Pithers, 1987), inability to cope with stress (Pithers, 1987(Pithers, , 1990, lack of sexual knowledge (Abel, Rouleau, & Cunningham-Rathner, 1986;Marshall & Eccles, 1991), impatience with recovery, lack of meaning in life (Grossman & Cavanaugh, 1990; Kafka & Prentky, 1994;Pithers, 1987), boredom (Pithers, 1987), preoccupation with sexual fantasies or sexually acting out (Carnes, 1992;Earle & Crow, 1989;Pithers, 1987), fantasies or urges to act out sexually (Finkelhor, 1986;Ganzarian & Buchele, 1990;Marshall, 1988;Murrin & Laws, 1990;Pithers, 1987), dreams of sexually acting out, thinking the sexual offense will help to feel better Schwartz & Brasted, 1985), denial of sexual problems (Koss, 1988;Marolla & Scully, 1986), cravings to use alcohol or substances (Ganzarian & Buchele, 1990;Christie, Marshall, & Lanthier, 1979;Langevin & Lang, 1990;Lightfoot & Barbaree, 1993;…”

The link between incest abuse and sexual addiction

“…Additional literature on incest offenders has tended to focus on personal qualities of those who offend. Personality charr acteristics of incest offenders have been found to include poor impulse control (Finkelhor, 1986; Ganzarain & Buchele, 1990); sexual and emotional immaturity (Mayer, 1983;Stermac, Hall, & Henskens, 1989); a need for immediate gratification (Ganzarain & Buchele, 1990;Mayer, 1983); feelings of powerlessness and passivity outside the home (Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Mayer, 1983); inability to be intimate with others (Caffaro, 1991;Plummer, 1991); parental physical, emotional, or sexual abuse or mistreatment (Baker, 1985;Madel, 1986;Mayer, 1985;Parker & Parker, 1986); life traumas such as loss of a job or bereavement (Finkelhor, 1986); manipulative behavior (Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Mayer, 1983); repressed anger (Erickson, Walbek, & Seely, 1987;; frustrated dependency needs, fear of inadequacy, and low self-esteem (Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Ganzarain & Buchele, 1990;Mayer, 1983); drug or alcohol abuse (Ganzarain & Buchele, 1990); projection of blame onto others (Mayer, 1983); poor social skills, particularly with adults (Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Hall, Maiuro, Vitaliano, & Proctor, 1986;Parker & Parker, 1986); emotional instability (Caffaro, 1991;Parker & Parker, 1986); a low level of socialization with their daughters (Parker & Parker, 1986); and unresolved conflicts (Butler, 1985).…”

“…Although a number of studies have focused on the offender's need to have power or control over the victim as a major motivator (e.g., Dwyer & Amberson, 1989;Mayer, 1983), relatively few studies have explored the idea that the offender may be excessively involved in obsessive, sexually oriented ideation, fantasies, or behaviors. Carnes (1992, p. 4) called such persons sexual addicts and defined them as "men who compulsively use sexual activity as a mood altering experience to relieve psychological pain.''…”