The relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in mentally disordered sexual offenders

Abstract

The study of schemas in sexual offenders is a relatively new approach in attempts to understand the deviant beliefs and attitudes of sexual offenders. Emerging findings suggest that offence supportive attitudes may be the product of an offender's underlying schemas. This study aims to establish the relationship between offence supportive attitudes and schemas in a sample of mentally disordered sexual offenders (MDSOs). Thirty-one male sexual offenders held within low through high security forensic mental health units were assessed using the Young Schema Questionnaire -Short Version 3 and the Questionnaire on Attitudes Consistent with Sex Offending. Correlational analyses suggested a pattern of relationships in which Insufficient Self-control, Entitlement and Enmeshment arose as the schemas associated with most offence supportive attitudes. This supports a relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in MDSOs and is consistent with the literature to date. Implications for further research and treatment are considered.

A Qualitative Evaluation of Recovery Processes Experienced by Mentally Disordered Offenders Following a Group Treatment Program

“…The second superordinate theme, "Social Relationships", emphasised the significance of attachment in the process of psychological treatment for MDSOs (Craissati, 2009;Willmot & McMurran, 2014). It is therefore unsurprising that issues of mistrust emerge, a common maladaptive schema which can raise a barrier to recovery (Szlachcic et al, 2015;Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2003). Clarke et al's (2013) research highlighted the benefit of engaging in therapy alongside others who were in a similar position due to shared experiences, thus reducing feelings of isolation.…”

Stalking, narcissistic vulnerability and the application of schema therapy “I was punishing her for me not being good enough”

“…While schema profiles have been described in problem behaviours such as sexual offending (Chakkassi et al , 2013; Szlachcic et al , 2014) and in general aggression (Dunne et al , 2018), to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no research, as yet, describing schema profiles in stalking populations. Across studies, narcissistic personality disorder correlates most consistently with the EMS of entitlement (Carr and Francis, 2010; Kunst et al , 2020; Reeves and Taylor, 2007); however, other schemas akin to narcissistic vulnerability have also been reported.…”

Evaluative conditioning-induced implicit attitude change in violent juvenile offenders: A randomized controlled trial.

“…Possible reasons for the mixed results might be not only failures of the intervention itself but also a lack of attention to the underlying mechanisms of maladaptive cognition of violence and proper interventions. In light of a dual-process theory that posits two separate cognitive systems, called explicit and implicit cognition, underlying mental processes (Evans, 2003), violence-supportive cognition may also be distinguished as explicit and implicit cognitions that differentially influence violent behavior (Szlachcic, Fox, Conway, Lord, & Christie, 2015). Thus, this study investigated the explicit and implicit aspects of the violence-supportive cognition of violent juvenile offenders and suggested a novel approach to modify maladaptive cognition of violence.…”

“…Recent social-cognitive theories of aggression have emphasized explicit and implicit cognition in an attempt to explain the causes and maintenance of violent behavior (Polaschek, Calvert, & Gannon, 2009; Szlachcic et al, 2015). Explicit cognition is the deliberate mental process of active and effortful control; the output is usually articulated with ideas of conscious thought (Dienes & Perner, 1999).…”