The study proposed to investigate the use of the ecological model to identify possible characteristics of child sexual abuse perpetrators. The ecological model conceptualizes child maltreatment as a social-psychological phenomenon that is determined by forces at work in the individual (ontogenic development), and the family (the microsystem), as well as the community (the exosystem) and the culture (the macrosystem) in which both the individual and the family are embedded. / Three criterion groups participated; sexual abusers of adults (N = 25), violent criminals (N = 26), and child sexual abusers (N = 27). Participants identified as adult sexual abusers had not committed crimes of child sexual abuse or violence. Subjects in the violent group had not committed crimes of a sexual nature against adults or children. Individuals in the child sexual abuser group had not committed sexual crimes against adults or violent crimes. The offenses and criteria used to identify group membership are included in the study. All subjects were under the authority of the Ohio Department of Corrections and were incarcerated at the Marion Correctional Facility, Marion, Ohio. / Four measurements, The Taylor Johnson Temperament Analysis, the Family Cohesion and Adaptability Evaluation Scale, the Attitudes Towards Women Scale, and the Gladding, Lewis, and Adkins Scale of Religiosity were administered to the participants. Each instrument was selected to reflect the four systems present in the ecological model. It was hypothesized that child sexual abuse perpetrators would exhibit extreme scores in personal dominance, family cohesiveness, conventional attitudes towards women, and religiosity. / The Multivariate Analysis of Variance omnibus test did not indicate significant multivariate effect. Although the predictor variables were unable to isolate group differences, they did reveal differences between the prison population and a norm population. An analysis of the effect sizes between the groups and the norms of the respective instruments indicated that incarcerated individuals are more dominant and that their family members are more likely to be disengaged from one another. The use of the ecological model for identifying individual characteristics unique to perpetrators of child sexual abuse as compared to other inmate populations was not supported by the results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-04, Section: A, page: 1291. / Major Professor: Gary Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76902 |
| Contributors | Levengood, Nancy J., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 150 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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