Social Phobia as a Comorbid Condition in Sex Offenders with Paraphilia or Impulse Control Disorder

Abstract

Studies on the prevalence of social anxiety in sex offenders show mixed results. This may be due to social anxiety being heightened only in diagnostic subgroups of sex offenders, namely in paraphiliacs. In study 1, 72 mentally disordered sexual delinquents and 30 controls were screened for social anxiety with the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale by Mattick and Clarke (German versions). In study 2, 55 mentally disordered sexual delinquents were diagnosed with a structured clinical interview. In both studies, sex offenders were categorized as either paraphilic or impulse control disordered (without paraphilia) according to research criteria. Study 1 showed markedly heightened scores for social anxiety in paraphiliacs, particularly for social interaction anxiety. Study 2 found a high lifetime and point prevalence of social phobia in paraphiliacs for which corroborating evidence was again found in questionnaire results. Implications for further research, diagnostic procedures, and therapy are discussed.

Stigma-Related Stress and Its Correlates Among Men with Pedophilic Sexual Interests

“…Facing a hostile, uncomprehending world, many people with pedophilia may see no other choice than to keep their sexual interests a secret. Considering the strategic planning and high level of control over one's verbal and nonverbal expressions required to keep a secret (Lane & Wegner, 1995), elevated rates of social phobia (e.g., Hoyer, Kunst, & Schmidt, 2001, Table 1), shyness, and deficient social skills (Wilson & Cox, 1983) among people with pedophilia are perhaps not a surprising finding. Although loneliness has in general not been shown to be predictive of sexual recidivism (d = 0.09), the evidence from a larger study needs also to be taken into account (d = 0.35; n = 799 as reviewed in Mann et al, 2010).…”

Sex offending and social anxiety: A systematic review

“…Firstly, studies which defined samples by diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV sexual disorders. These included paraphilia versus impulse control disorders (Hoyer, Kunst, & Schmidt, 2001;Leue, Borchard, & Hoyer, 2004) or CCSO with paraphilia compared to CCSO without paraphilia (Dunsieth, et al, 2004). Kafka and Hennen (2002) compared a 'mixed' group of sex offenders (N=60) and non-sex offenders with paraphilia (N=28) versus non-sex offenders with paraphilia related disorders (N= 32).…”

“…Therefore, this may influence the generalizability of the studies. All studies reported descriptive statistics and those comparing subgroups used statistical analysis including chi-squared test (Hoyer et al, 2001;Kafka & Hennen, 2002;Leue et al, 2004;) or 2-tailed Fisher exact test and Wilcoxon rank sum test (Dunsieth et al, 2004;McElroy, 1999). Only Leue et al (2004) carried out interviews by two investigators and reported inter-rater reliability and Hoyer et al (2001) reviewed the investigators' assessments by experienced supervisors.…”

Aggression and Social Anxiety Are Associated with Sexual Offending Against Children

“…For this purpose, we examined differences between child sexual abusers, rapists, and non-sexual violent offenders on various selfreport questionnaires measuring aggression, hostility, and anger (Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2004Ward, Hudson, & Marshall, 1996), interpersonal anxiety, and social skills deficits (Hoyer, Kunst, & Schmidt, 2001;Segal & Marshall, 1985). Previous studies have consistently demonstrated that sexual offending against children is associated with lower levels of aggression (e.g., Yates & Kingston, 2006) and higher levels of social anxiety (e.g., Eher, Neuwirth, Fruehwald, & Frottier, 2003).…”