Citation

Craissati J, McClurg G, Browne K. Sex. Abuse 2002; 14(3): 225-239.

Affiliation

Department of Forensic Psychology, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12087684

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of all convicted child sexual abusers in S.E. London. Almost half the offenders reported experiences of sexual victimization in childhood, and the authors aimed to explore the differences between the abused and nonabused child sexual abusers. A range of background and offending variables were examined. It was found that sexually victimized child abusers were significantly more likely to have experienced a range of childhood abuse and associated difficulties; they were more likely to have a range of psychosexual difficulties, to report greater levels of deviant offence-related attitudes on psychometric measure, to be recidivists, and to offend against boys. Both emotional abuse/physical neglect in childhood and having homosexual contacts in adulthood significantly contributed to a predictive model, reliably distinguishing between sexually victimized and nonsexually victimized child sexual abusers. The implication of these findings for treatment approaches for sex offenders is discussed.

Language: en