Sexual Abuse

The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between implicit and explicit evaluations of sexual aggression and indicators of sexually aggressive behavior in samples of students and community men recruited online. Participants were male undergraduate students recruited online from a Canadian University (N = 150) and men recruited from the community via an online panel (N = 378). Participants completed measures of implicit and explicit evaluations of sexual aggression, cognitive distortions regarding rape, self-reported past sexually aggressive behavior, and self-reported proclivity to commit sexually aggressive behavior. We found that more positive explicit evaluations and more cognitive distortions were moderately to strongly associated with sexual aggression; however, this was not the case for implicit evaluations of rape. Our results suggest that explicit evaluations of sexual aggression and cognitive distortions may be relevant for understanding sexual aggression against adults, and that more research is needed exploring whether or not implicit evaluations are associated with sexually aggressive behavior.

The current longitudinal study explored the extent to which implicit and explicit evaluations of sexual aggression predict subsequent sexually aggressive behavior. Participants (248 community men recruited online) completed measures of implicit and explicit evaluations and self-reported sexually aggressive behavior at two time points, approximately 4 months apart. Implicit and explicit evaluations of sexual aggression at Wave 1 had small significant and independent predictive relationships with sexually aggressive behavior at Wave 2, while controlling for sexually aggressive behavior at Wave 1. This is the first study to test whether implicit and explicit evaluations predict subsequent sexually aggressive behavior. Our findings are consistent with the possibility that both implicit and explicit evaluations may be relevant for understanding and preventing subsequent sexually aggressive behavior. If these findings can be replicated, evaluations of sexual aggression should be studied with more rigorous methodology (e.g., experimental design) and correctional/forensic populations, and possibly addressed in risk assessment and interventions.

Stigmatization and societal punitiveness about pedophilia have a range of potential consequences, such as the social isolation of people with sexual interest in children, and the formation of policies that are not consistent with empirical research findings. Previous research has shown that people with pedophilic sexual interests use societal thinking to self-stigmatize, which in turn may actually serve to increase their risk of committing a sexual offense. In this study, we compared two attitudinal interventions (first-person narrative vs. expert opinion) using a student sample (N = 100). It was hypothesized that both interventions would lead to reductions in stigmatization and punitive attitudes about pedophiles on an explicit (self-report) level but that only the narrative intervention would lead to reductions of these constructs at the implicit level. Our findings supported both hypotheses. We further discuss the role of narrative humanization in this area and offer suggestions for further research based upon the theoretical and methodological implications of the findings.

Given that sex offenders have been found to serve longer prison terms compared with other types of violent criminals, it has been suggested that the influence of imprisonment may impact subsequent reoffending. However, institutional factors are often overlooked in risk assessment studies and very few risk assessment instruments include institutional items within their models. The current study explores prison experience explanations for recidivism among convicted sex offenders and indicates that, with respect to time served, both institutional treatment and institutional infractions demonstrate a significant impact. Findings indicate that misconduct in custody was positively associated with revocation and sexual recidivism. Moreover, longer periods of incarceration significantly increase postrelease reoffending for high-risk sex offenders. Policy implications are made regarding further modifications to risk assessment instruments that will take into account institutional risk factors.

Adoption of evidence-based approaches by police services offers a practical and scientific solution to ensure public safety and proper allocation of resources. Advances in the field of sexual violence risk prediction have the potential to inform policing practices. The present study examines the validity of existing actuarial measures to predict the future sexual violence behavior of 290 identified male perpetrators of sexual assault against adult victims (ages 16 and older). The Static-99R and Static-2002R were coded from police documentation, and the sample was followed up for at least 1 year with an average of 3.6 years. Both measures showed large effects for predicting any offending, violent offending, and sexual offending in the form of charges and convictions. The findings suggest that existing sex offender research can extend to police practice, and criminogenic factors used to predict recidivism among convicted offenders may apply to assessing the risk posed by perpetrators of police-reported sexual assaults.

The present study investigated whether a latency-based Go/No-Go Association Task (GNAT) could be used as an indirect measure of sexual interest in children. A sample of 29 individuals with a history of exclusive extrafamilial offenses against a child and 15 individuals with either a history of exclusive intrafamilial or mixed offenses (i.e., against both adults and children) were recruited from a treatment center in the United States. Also, a sample of 26 nonoffenders was recruited from a university in the United Kingdom. All participants completed the Sexual Fantasy-GNAT, a Control-GNAT, and two self-report measures of sexual fantasy. It was hypothesized that, relative to the two comparison groups, the extrafamilial group would respond faster on the block that paired “sexual fantasy” and “children.” Also, GNAT scores were expected to correlate with child-related sexual fantasies. Support was found for both hypotheses. Response-latency indices were also found to effectively distinguish the extrafamilial group, as well as those who self-reported using child-related sexual fantasies. The implications of these findings, along with the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research, are discussed.