Community concern about sexual offending places continued pressure on correctional services to refine treatment and reduce re-offending. While cognitive processes have been identified as a key element in the development and maintenance of sexual offending, more research on the precise nature of these processes is required. The current study, based on Ward and Siegert’s Pathways Model, involved 100 male offenders of various types: 25 intra – familial sex offenders against children, 25 extra-familial sex offenders against children, 25 sex offenders who chose adult victims, and 25 convicted of non-sexual offences. There was also a control group of 25 non-offenders. The quantitative data, derived from a series of questionnaires concerning childhood and sexual experiences, provided evidence that the two types of child sex offender differed from the other groups with respect to their expectations of sexual behaviour among children, their experience of sexual abuse and neglect as children themselves, and, paradoxically, their current high self-esteem. In addition, scripts relating to hypothetical consenting adult sexual relations and sexual contact with a child were collected from the 50 sex offenders against children. The script content suggested that, compared with intra - familial offenders, extra-familial offenders had notably unrealistic, naïve and romanticised scripts for adult relationships and more sophisticated scripts for offences against children. The latter suggested that scripts might serve as a mediating function in offending behaviour and that offenders acquired a degree of task domain expertise. Despite some inherent problems undertaking research with the sex-offender population, the findings confirmed that sex-offenders do not constitute a homogenous group and that the pathways model offers a unique perspective on how males become and develop their capacity as sex-offenders, how they sustain a positive view of themselves, and how they continue to commit offences. Finally, the model was considered in terms of its capacity to suggest ways to better target treatment efforts to specific groups of sexual offenders to further reduce their rate of recidivism / Doctor of Psychology (Clinical)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/257053 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Owen, Karen |
| Publisher | University of Ballarat |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Karen Owen |
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