NCJ Number
186953
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 102-117
Date Published
February 2001
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study attempts to determine whether child molesters have unique criminal thinking patterns.
Abstract
The study examined the ability of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) to reliably differentiate between men with and without histories of child molestation crimes at a maximum-security State hospital forensic mental health unit. As hypothesized, molesters (n = 28) were less likely than non-sex offenders (n = 35) to exhibit thinking errors captured by the Cutoff, Entitlement, and to a lesser extent, the Cognitive Indolence, Discontinuity, and Power Orientation Scales of the PICTS. The findings support its use in targeting general criminal thinking errors for treatment in mixed-offender populations, as well as its use in sex offender populations to augment other sex offense cognitive distortion measures when designing treatment. Non-sex offenders appeared to have a distinctly different profile of cognitive errors and processing than did molesters. The article is hopeful that these findings will contribute to creating tailored cognitive-restructuring treatment programs for offenders as well as to risk assessment relevant to community notification and civil commitment. The article recommends further research on relationships between cognitive distortions and treatment amenability, relapse prevention and recidivism, and quantifying the sex offender assault cycle so offenders can be assessed at various points in the cycle. Tables, references