Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 63 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-49). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Standard psychological assessment instruments have not produced consistent results by which decisions can be made regarding the appropriate placement and legal disposition of an individual who has committed a sexual offense. The purpose of the present study was to systematically investigate deception and dissimulation as measured by three assessment instruments commonly utilized with sex offenders. A denial classification system was utilized in order to classify offenders into categories based on their level of admission to the legal system. The four group classification system did not produce significant differences on all measures of deception and dissimulation. Contrary to previous research, admitters were found to respond more defensively than deniers on one of the assessment instruments. In addition, partial deniers were identified as responding significantly differently from both admitters and deniers on a separate instrument. The differences found suggest that sex offenders' level of deception is multifaceted. Difficulties in identifying classificatory strategies and implications for theoretical conceptions of denial within this population are discussed.

This discursive study, investigates the role of discourse in the creation of denial and the unconscious in adolescent sexual offenders. It also attempts to illustrate that the denial expressed by the adolescent sexual offenders towards their abuse event, in fact reflects a collective societal dialogic unconscious, as evidenced in legal, social and psychological discourses, towards sexual abuse. The scarcity of local literature in this field and the increasing number of young offenders, provides the motivation for the research. A conversational analysis, as extended by Michael Billig, revealed that the seven adolescent sexual offenders interviewed for this study all oscillated between discourses of denial and acknowledgement. The ideological consequences of an acknowledgement position bear the potential for shame and ostracism from family, peers and the community. The adolescents therefore drew on different and often inconsistent and varying rhetorical resources, in order that they could construct their accounts of the abuse event as morally appropriate, in order to remain on the moral high-ground within the conversational setting of the study. A complex code of absences were also noted in the discourses. These silences frequently contained the abusive event, and created a context in which the discourses of contradiction and disclaiming accounts could function and enabled the adolescents to constructs themselves as morally polite. Finally, I illustrated that the ambiguity and ambivalence expressed by the adolescents, is reflected in a collective denial within society. The accounts presented by the adolescents were a construct of our culture's ambiguous and ambivalent attitude towards violence and sexually abusive events against children and women. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Thesis (M.A. in sociology)--Washington State University, December 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 10, 2009). "Department of Sociology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-101).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-96). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-94). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [182]-190).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves : [46]-62).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Janet Kistner, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 14, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 119 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 88 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-59).