Intrafamilial and extrafamilial sex offenders receive differential treatment from criminal justice, mental health, and social service agencies. This differential treatment is based on assumptions that intrafamilial offenders are better candidates for successful treatment and that they are less dangerous than extrafamilial offenders. These assumptions are based upon clinical experience and anecdotal reports, but they lack empirical research evidence. The present study attempts to address the need for objective information regarding sex offenders and their offenses. Specifically, it compares a group of intrafamilial offenders with a group of extrafamilial offenders in terms of variables related to treatment prognosis, dangerousness, and psychological characteristics. The results suggest that there is a sound basis for the decisions being made by criminal justice, mental health, and social service agencies. Intrafamilial sex offenders are predominantly regressed offenders who do not have fixed sexual preferences for children and who are thought to be treatable in community-based treatment programs. In contrast, extrafamilial offenders are predominantly fixated offenders who do have fixed sexual preferences for children and who are thought to be particularly difficult, if not impossible, to treat. In addition, intrafamilial offenders appear less dangerous than extrafamilial offenders in that they used less forceful and violent means of coercion in order to gain compliance of their victims. No significant differences were found between groups regarding their psychological characteristics as measured by the MMPI. While the literature has characterized regressed offenders as men who sexually abuse children in the context of situational stress and family dysfunction, no evidence of this was found in the present study. This finding raises a question regarding the definition, understanding, and validity of the concept of the regressed offender. This may be of some importance to evaluators and treatment teams who believe that the treament of choice for the regressed offender involves family therapy and the alleviation of stress-related factors, while they tend to neglect or minimize the possible contribution of the individual psychopathology of the offender.

Researchers emphasize the role of cognitions in sex offenders' molesting behaviors. Although cognitions are important, little research has examined child molesters' thoughts about themselves in relation to their engagement in treatment. In this study, the NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) was administered to 67 child molesters. Child sexual offenders rated themselves and their view of a typical child molester using two NEO-PI-R versions. The degree to which child sex offenders identify themselves with their view of a typical child molester, and this agreement's relation with engagement in treatment, were investigated. The view that child sex offenders hold about themselves in relation to a typical child molester showed no relation to treatment engagement or length of time in treatment. However, this self-perception was related to the number of children abused.

Path models assessed different models of influential order for parental bonding; adult romantic attachment; views of self, world/others, and the future; the fear of intimacy; and cognitive distortions among child molesters and non-offending controls. Child molesters receiving sex offender treatment reported more problematic parental bonding; insecure adult romantic attachment; negative views of self, world/others, and the future; a greater fear of intimacy, and more cognitive distortions regarding adult-child sex. The predicted path models were not established as the models did not adequately fit the data. However, post hoc logistic regressions indicated that Maternal Optimal Bonding, Preoccupied attachment, and cognitive distortions regarding adult-child sex significantly predicted child molester status. Overall, the findings provide support for a multi-factorial model of child molestation derived from attachment theory. Limitations of the study and areas for future research are also discussed.

D.Litt. et Phil. / Forgiveness is generally a controversial phenomenon within the psychological literature. While it is regarded by feminist scholars like Lamb (2005) as part of an oppressive societal discourse that is harmful to victims of sexual violation, researchers on forgiveness provide empirical data that links seeking forgiveness and forgiving to psychological well-being. The psychological benefits of seeking forgiveness are documented in the two studies undertaken by Meek, Albright and McMinn (1995) and Witvliet, Ludwig and Bauer (2002). Studies conducted by Freedman and Enright (1996), Coyle and Enright (1997), Gisi & D'amato (2000), Worthington Jr, Kurusu, Collins, Ripley and Baler (2000) provide evidence of the existence of a positive correlation between forgiving and psychological well-being. In the midst of the forgiveness controversy, offending individuals continue to make pleas for forgiveness. Forgiveness-seeking models presented by Schmidt (1995) and Ashby (2003a, 2003b) show that an offender can engage in a genuine forgiveness-seeking effort. A perpetrator's experience of seeking forgiveness is documented in a forgivenessseeking model developed by Schmidt (1995) and the two presented by Ashby (2003a, 2003b). These three forgiveness-seeking models are problematic because they are not based on any empirical foundations. This exploratory phenomenological study was undertaken to empirically identify the essential features of a child molester's experience of seeking forgiveness. The three pilot study respondents (PC, PI, PW1) and the three respondents (P1 ,P2,P3) who were part of the study's sample were recruited from Childline Durban in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. While the three forgiveness models presented by Schmidt (1995) and Ashby (2003a, 2003b) suggest that offenders can engage in genuine forgiveness-seeking endeavours, perpetrators of child sexual abuse are, however, not generally perceived as the type of offenders that could seek forgiveness authentically. Child molesters are generally mistakenly perceived as psychopathic and sadistic beings, incapable of seeking forgiveness (lvey & Simpson, 1998). This common perception of child molesters necessitated an in-depth exploration of the literature on child sexual abuse and a pilot study. The literature review on child sexual abuse assisted the researcher to identify the psychological constellation of a male child molester for the purpose of determining whether a male child molester's psychological make-up will enable him to consider seeking or seeking forgiveness. The literature review on child sexual abuse indicated that some male child molesters may be able to engage in authentic forgiveness-seeking endeavours. Child molesters who do not have antisocial, psychopathic, narcissistic tendencies and those who are not alexithymic can make genuine attempts to seek forgiveness.

by Hui Ngar Kwan, Candy. / Thesis submitted in: October 1998. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-52). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Self-Esteem --- p.2 / Fear of Negative Evaluation --- p.7 / Intimacy and Loneliness --- p.9 / Purpose of Present Research --- p.14 / METHODS --- p.16 / Subjects --- p.16 / Measures --- p.17 / Procedures --- p.21 / RESULTS --- p.23 / Background Information of the Subjects --- p.23 / Self-Esteem as Men --- p.26 / Fear of Negative Evaluation from Women --- p.26 / Intimacy --- p.26 / Loneliness --- p.27 / Correlational Analyses --- p.27 / Qualitative Differences between Sex Offenders and Non-Sex Offenders in Relating to Women --- p.31 / DISCUSSION --- p.37 / Self-Concept of Child Molesters --- p.37 / Heterosexual Relationships of Child Molesters --- p.40 / Implication for Treatment --- p.43 / Limitation of Present Research and Future Directions --- p.44 / REFERENCES --- p.46

Thesis (doctoral)--Universiẗat Hannover, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-330).

This thesis is an attempt to theorise the therapeutic subjectivity of the 'young sexual abuser'. It falls into two parts. In the first, I make the case for an 'analytic bridging' between Foucauldian and other more broadly sociological perspectives in theorising sexual and therapeutic subjectivities. Specifically, I extend the Foucauldian idea of governmental practices into the therapeutic hour - that is, into the space and tie of therapeutic interaction. At the same tie, I also draw on more sociological readings about the self in interaction, sexuality and gendered embodient - themes which are revisited throughout the thesis when looking at chidhood, therapeutic practices and sexual risk. The second part of the thesis presents an empirical analysis of popular, practice and research accounts of 'problematic' young people and young sexual abusers; interview data with both 'young sexual abusers' and practitioners; and video-recordigs of a therapeutic programme for sexually abusive boys. Through ths analysis, I argue that the therapeutic subjectivity of the young sexual abuser is actually made up of three emergent subjectivities: the risky self, the victi-victiser and the controlled self. The thesis as a whole contributes to debates withn the sociology of chidhood, includig the relationship between gender, generation and sexual risk; to debates about the relationship between social theory and analysis of practice; and to debates about subjectification practices in late modernity, particularly with the gendered therapeutic project of sexual control.

The purpose of this theoretical study was to examine factors associated with the development of attachment relationships for children in long term foster care who Overt demonstrating problematic sexual behaviour. Due to the dearth in available research on this topic, it was necessary to draw from studies in three distinct areas (1) Attachment, (2) Childhood Sexuality, and (3) Placement Stability. In total, the present study examines 13 studies drawn from these three areas, and includes 11 quantitative and 2 mixed method studies. / These studies were chosen for their attention to the middle age child in foster care who was demonstrating problematic sexual behaviour. Due to the lack of attachment studies on fostered middle age children, two infant studies were included with the rationale that middle age children and foster parents engage in a similar attachment process and infant studies would provide direction and context for future studies with older children. In the area of childhood sexuality, clinical samples were also included as they contained large numbers of children who had experienced sexual abuse or who had contact with child protection agencies even if they did not reside in foster care. / Studies were examined along dimensions of sample, methods and findings. The results of this inquiry are then discussed, weaving together the three areas of study to answer two research questions: Is there a relationship between problematic childhood sexual behaviour and the development of a successful attachment relationship with a foster parent? And secondly, is there a particular foster parent attachment profile that promotes attachment security with children who are in care? / Studies reviewed support the hypothesis that problematic childhood sexual behaviour presents challenges to foster parents significant enough to seriously impair the development of a secure attachment and that the foster parent's attachment state of mind will be an important factor in success. Results of the analysis of these questions contribute to an emerging hypothesis that the human sexual system may be intricately woven together with the attachment system, making an attachment analysis of problematic sexual behaviour in children particular relevant. A concluding discussion examines clinical issues which may be targets of intervention and the necessity of future research in this area is proposed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-126). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Also available via the World Wide Web.