Current issues in the assessment and treatment of sexual offenders

Abstract

The present paper reviews what is currently known about sexual abuse and the treatment of the offenders. Sexual offending is primarily committed by males and as many as 50% of females and 33% of males are sexually victimized in some way during their life. While some of these acts involve minimally intrusive behaviours (e.g. exhibitionists), many involve forced vaginal or anal intercourse and varying degrees of associated physical violence and deliberate humiliation of the victim. The effects on the victim can be severe and long-lasting. Current theories of the aetiology of these behaviours incorporate biological and developmental factors occurring within a socio-cultural context that fails to discourage sexual abuse. Experience is said to create a vulnerability that in some men finds expression in sexually abusive behaviour. Appropriate assessment targets the issues that are addressed in treatment, including: cognitive distortions, sexual behaviours and attitudes, social functioning and substance abuse. In addition, treatment also attempts to generate a set of relapse prevention plans for each offender. NATURE AND PREVALENCE OF THE OFFENCESSexual offences include a variety of behaviours, such as exhibitionism, frotteurism, voyeurism, child molestation, and sexual assault. This article will be restricted to child molestation (both extrafamilial and incest) and sexual assault of women. Although women (Matthews, 1998) and children (Johnson, 1998) also commit sexual offences, males constitute the majority of offenders and will be the focus of this article.

Interpersonal Factors and Personality Disorders as Discriminators Between Intra-Familial and Extra-Familial Child Molesters

“…Child molesters experienced less autonomous attachment than nonviolent offenders and rapists and report maternal and paternal rejection (McCormack et al, 2002). With regard to the relationship between intimacy, trust, and sexual delinquency, it appeared that child molesters are less capable of engaging in an intimate relationship than non-sexual offenders (Marshall, 1989(Marshall, , 1993(Marshall, , 1994Marshall, Champagne, Brown et al, 1997;Marshall & Mazzucco, 1995;Ward et al, 1997;Marshall & Serran, 2000). Our findings are in line with these results.…”

Exploring Client and Therapist Experiences of Sexual Offender Intervention

“…There is agreement that therapeutic process research in sexual offender treatment is under-utilized and that the number of studies is limited (Marshall et al, 2003; Marshall & Serran, 2000). Furthermore, Ward, Polashek and Beech (2006) identified that the issues around the process of change within sexual offender intervention are unspecified.…”

Narcissism, psychopathy and Five‐Factor Model in sexual assault perpetration

“…Individuals who score low on measures of the domain of Conscientiousness have a tendency to act without considering the consequences (Costa & McCrae, ). Despite the commonly held belief that sex offenders engage in extensive planning of their offenses, less than half of offenders admit to pre‐offense planning (Marshall & Serran, ), and both incarcerated and non‐incarcerated perpetrators have been found to be more impulsive than non‐perpetrators (Hanson, ; Petty & Dawson, ; Spence et al, ). Additionally, individuals who have low scores on Conscientiousness are less likely to adhere strongly to ethical and moral principles (Costa & McCrae, ).…”