Dissociation and Memory for Perpetration Among Convicted Sex Offenders

Abstract

SUMMARY.Sex abusers' denial of their offenses poses serious problems for their victims, treatment providers, and researchers. Abusers deny their offenses for many reasons, including avoiding responsibility. It is possible that some abusers do not recall their offenses because of intoxication, head injury, or dissociative symptoms that affect their ability to encode or retrieve information. Self-reports of dissociation during childhood victimization, during the perpetration of victimizing acts, and in everyday life were examined in a sample of 17 convicted sex offenders.

Childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence in dissociative disorder patients

“…Self-reported data on IPV, obtained through IPV measures such as the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1996), Dissociative Violence Questionnaire (Simoneti et al, 2000), or through clinician and researcher interviews, has been successfully obtained in samples of highly dissociative violent offenders (Becker-Blease & Freyd, 2007; Dutton, 1995; Leibowitz, 2007; Lewis et al, 1997; Simoneti et al, 2000; Swica et al, 1996). A well-validated and short IPV measure, such as the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale-Short Form (CTS2S; Straus & Douglas, 2004) could be given as an optional measure.…”

“…CM has been proposed as a causal factor in IPV perpetration due to the high rates of CM reported by interpersonally violent offenders. This includes domestic violence (DV) offenders in a battering intervention program (Dutton, 1995; Simoneti, Scott, & Murphy, 2000); sex offenders in prison (Hulnick, 1997) and treatment (Becker-Blease & Freyd, 2007; Ellason & Ross, 1999); male undergraduates (Lisak, Hopper, & Song, 1996); incarcerated violent offenders (Swica, Lewis, & Lewis, 1996); and incarcerated homicide defendants (Lewis, Yeager, Swica, Pincus, & Lewis, 1997). While most CM survivors do not become IPV perpetrators (Lisak et al, 1996), it is feasible that much IPV is perpetrated by CM survivors.…”

“…It may allow a perpetrator to emotionally distance from the offense and maintain minimal empathy for their victim, especially for survivors of violence who perpetrate acts similar to abuse they experienced (Egeland & Susman-Stillman, 1996; Moskowitz, 2004; Ross, 2008). Research on interpersonally violent offenders has demonstrated elevated trait dissociation, increased rates of DD, and higher retrospectively reported peritraumatic dissociation (i.e., acute dissociative responses as traumatic events unfold; Marmar, Metzler, & Otte, 2004) for their own CM experiences and while perpetrating abuse toward others (Becker-Blease & Freyd, 2007; Ellason & Ross, 1999; Hulnick, 1997; Leibowitz, 2007; Lewis et al, 1997; Ross, 2008; Simoneti et al, 2000; Swica et al, 1996). …”

Pornography Viewing among Fraternity Men: Effects on Bystander Intervention, Rape Myth Acceptance and Behavioral Intent to Commit Sexual Assault

“…Scholars who content analyze pornography note its impersonal, objectifying nature (Jensen, 2007a). Similarly, when men commit sexual violence against women, they often objectify the women and don't consider them as people who feel pain (Becker-Blease & Freyd, 2007). Thus, it stands to reason that as men gain increased exposure to pornography, they become attached to the impersonal and instant gratification aspect of the medium and less focused on the aspects of intercourse that involve intimacy.…”

When Mothers Kill: Interviews from Prison, by M. Oberman and C. Meyer

“…Furthermore, dissociation during the perpetration of abuse has been linked to dissociation during childhood victimization as well as to a general tendency to dissociate (e.g., Becker-Blease & Freyd, 2007). Although many of the women interviewed in When Mothers Kill volunteered information suggestive of some form of dissociation, the authors' ambivalence regarding their desire to know the most horrifying parts of the stories may have limited the book's success in this domain.…”