NCJ Number
108366
Journal
Psychology Today Dated: (February 1987) Pages: 60-63
Date Published
1987
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Three recent California studies that compared the sexual attitudes of male child molesters in court-ordered outpatient psychotherapy with nonmolesters, mostly college students, revealed distinct differences between the two groups.
Abstract
The three studies collectively suggest that, unlike other men, child molesters associate their sexual feelings with frustration, tension, and a sense of maladjustment and deviance. They also attribute their arousal to internal needs and desires rather than an external stimulus and view their deviant sexual arousability as highly consistent over time and as permeating all facets of their lives. These findings closely related to the clinical observation that many child molesters are narcissistic or egocentric and emotionally immature people. Molesters tend to view women as big, powerful, and frightening. The child molester's apparent fear of women and his emotional immaturity, gender-identity confusions, and preoccupation with sex suggest why he is drawn to children for sexual gratification. Samples of molesters' and nonmolesters' drawings of males and females show differences in the two groups' perspectives of the sexes.