NCJ Number
215299
Date Published
2006
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This chapter provides an overview of clinical evidence for links among child molesters' persistent and temporary dispositions (feelings, attitudes, and behavioral motivations) and situational factors in child-molestation events.
Abstract
One of the most thoroughly researched persistent characteristics that pose a risk for sexual offending is an individual's capacity for intimacy or his attachment style. Child molesters characteristically have a lack of intimacy, so they may experience chronic emotional loneliness. This can trigger deviant sexual fantasies in sexual offenders as well as stimulate aggression. The strength of this emotional deficit, although persistent, can vary in intensity according to situational factors. Other persistent risk factors are problems with emotional and sexual self-regulation. Temporary and transitory dispositions are those states that are triggered by certain situational factors that reduce controls over offending impulses, such as alcohol abuse, or that intensify deviant fantasies, such as child pornography. Thus, the intensity of deviant sexual fantasies and self-regulation can interact with environmental conditions, including access to potential victims, in leading to a child molestation offense. In drawing implications for treatment, this chapter suggests applying Ward's (2002) "good lives" model which involves guiding the child molester in developing a way of living that avoids the triggers for deviant sexual behavior and promotes the building of self-esteem and attachment through a positive lifestyle. 112 references