Citation

Hunter JA, Figueredo A, Malamuth NM, Becker J. J. Fam. Violence 2004; 19(4): 233-242.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1023/B:JOFV.0000032633.37269.1d

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Childhood exposure to violence against females and male-modeled antisocial behavior were examined as risk factors for sexual aggression, and nonsexual aggression and delinquency, in a sample of 182 adolescent male sex offenders using structural equation modeling. Both risk factors produced direct and indirect effects on nonsexual aggression and delinquency with Psychosocial Deficits and Egotistical?Antagonistic Masculinity playing important mediating roles. Exposure to violence against females helped explain sexual aggression through the mediating role of Psychosocial Deficits. As hypothesized, youth who sexually offended against prepubescent children manifested greater deficits in psychosocial functioning, committed fewer offenses against strangers, and demonstrated less violence in their sexual offending than offenders against pubescent females. Findings are discussed within the context of two major evolutionary psychological concepts for explaining human sexual behavior: intrasexual selection and intersexual selection.