Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment最新文献

Sextortion (a portmanteau of "sexual" and "extortion") is a relatively new phenomenon of sexual exploitation, which occurs when a person threatens another with the distribution of sexual content on the Internet, to obtain more pictures or videos, money, or have some other demand met. The current study examined how school counselors in Israel perceive the phenomenon of online sextortion. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study based on 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with school counselors working in middle schools and high schools in Israel, who treated adolescent girls blackmailed over the Internet on sexual grounds. Findings indicate that the school counselors had difficulty in identifying and defining the cases they treated as instances of sextortion, and that in their view the harm was slight. Findings also indicate that school counselors associated the causes of sextortion with the victims and their backgrounds. We found differences between the Arab and secular and national-religious state education in the way Jewish counselors treated the victims and involved additional actors such as the victim's parents and the police. This underscores the importance of providing educational staff with adequate knowledge and tools that are culturally suited to the victims.

In the present study we sought to shed light on the experience of adults who were sexually abused by females. Narratives in the current study were chosen from a large set of narratives (n = 505) that were submitted to the Israeli Independent Public Inquiry on CSA. Twenty-eight (n = 28) narratives of adults who experienced CSA committed by females were included in the study and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Two main themes were identified: (1) adults who as children experienced CSA committed by females, and (2) personal, interpersonal, and social constructions of the abuse. Most of the narratives included intrafamilial abuse, with half of the participants reporting that their mother was the one who committed the CSA, which often occurred during daily routine activities, with the main abuse scene being the shower/bathroom. Participants described various abuse experiences including the experience of powerlessness, "standing together," and captivity. Finally, participants discussed how social constructions of gender impacted how they understood and experienced the abuse. Child sexual abuse committed by females was described by the participants as having serious consequences for their lives. Participants shared how perceived gender roles and social scripts have an important role in casting doubt on the existence and reliability of CSA experiences committed by females. Findings from the current study help to identify key characteristics of sexual abuse that was conducted by females, and suggests social mechanisms that may help explain why perpetration by females is understood and treated differently than perpetration by males.

This study seeks to extend research evaluating tools to assess the disclosure of sexually abusive behavior. The subjects were 239 male youth (ages 10-20 years) who were court-ordered to participate in a community-based collaborative intervention for sexual offending that includes outpatient and probationary services. All youth participated in an interview to capture referral incident details about admission, responsibility, empathy, and remorse at intake, during intervention, and at discharge. Intake, treatment, discharge, and recidivism measures were also collected from multiple sources. Latent class analysis identified three classes based on the intake interview: Empathetic Admitters (22%), Unempathetic Admitters (38%), and Unempathetic Deniers (40%). Significant class differences were found on intake (e.g., use of physical force, caregiver denial of youth responsibility), treatment (e.g., any sanctions/violations), and discharge measures (e.g., successful treatment, probation officer ratings), but not in recidivism rates. The findings extend efforts to identify and target different disclosure patterns whose clinical monitoring may support a comprehensive intervention.

Treatment programs for people with histories of sexual violence form a critical part of criminal justice service rehabilitation. Completion of these programs is often a precondition of release. Meta-analytic reviews suggest moderate benefit is associated with treatment completion, although effect sizes vary. This study examined whether commencement of open versus closed group programs was associated with treatment completion and recidivism. Participants were 426 adult men who commenced treatment between April 1, 2014, and December 31, 2017. Participants were followed-up until June 30, 2018. Programs varied by type (open versus closed), location (in-custody versus in-community) and intensity (moderate versus high). No significant differences were observed between open and closed programs for treatment completion but men who were treated in-custody were more likely to complete treatment when compared to those men who commenced treatment in the community. No significant differences were observed between open and closed programs for sexual or for any recidivism.

The accuracy of risk assessment tools for Asian populations has received relatively little research attention. This study evaluated one of the most widely used static risk assessment tools - Static-99R - for assessing the likelihood of recidivism among men convicted of a sexual crime in South Korea. Overall, this South Korean sample (N = 8207) appeared to have a higher risk (more paraphilic interests, more sexual/general criminality) than the Static-99R normative samples (who were mostly White individuals from Western countries). Despite the differences, Static-99R was able to discriminate recidivists from nonrecidivists in South Korea, with AUC values similar to that observed in the normative samples (e.g., 0.72 for sexual recidivism). In terms of calibration, the observed sexual recidivism rates of the current sample were higher than the international routine/complete normative samples but lower than the high-risk/high-need normative samples (E/O = 0.75 and 1.26, respectively). Consequently, evaluators in South Korea can have reasonable confidence in the ability of Static-99R to rank individuals according to their relative likelihood of sexual recidivism.

The non-consensual sharing of private sexual images (so-called 'revenge pornography') has become an increasingly prominent topic in social and legislative discussions about sexual crime but has received relatively little attention within psychological research. Here, we leveraged existing theorizing in the area of sexual offending proclivity to systematically develop and validate a measure of beliefs about this type of offending. There is currently a lack of validated assessment tools in this area, and these are important to better understand the role of offense-supportive cognition in predicting both proclivity of these offenses and judgements of both victims and perpetrators. Using an international community sample (N = 511) we found our 'Beliefs about Revenge Pornography Questionnaire (BRPQ)' to be comprised of four underpinning domains: 'Victims as Promiscuous', 'Victim Harm', 'Avoiding Vulnerable Behaviors' and 'Offense Minimization'. Concurrent validity is demonstrated through relationships with trait empathy, belief in a just world, dark personality traits and rape myth acceptance. Randomly dividing the sample, we also show that the BRPQ was associated with both proclivity (n = 227) and social judgements of this type of offending (n = 232). Implications and future directions are discussed. An open-access preprint is available at https://psyarxiv.com/6qr7t/.

Criminological theories and widespread assumptions about crime suggest that the modus operandi involved in sexual crimes should have changed over time given various contextual changes, such as better criminological knowledge (e.g., forensic awareness) as well as improved investigative techniques (e.g., forensic evidence analysis). The aim of this study was to test whether the modus operandi patterns of individuals having committed a sexual assault against female strangers have changed over time during the period of 2003-2017. More specifically, the study has identified changes in the trends of monthly counts and (relative) participations for sexual assaults during the study period in France. The measure of participations - a concept borrowed from the field of criminal career - was used to overcome the inherent limitations associated with this type of data. Results show that despite some significant changes in the modus operandi involved in sexual crimes, overall the modus operandi patterns appear to be fairly stable over time. The findings are discussed in light of their theoretical and practical implications.

It is widely understood that stable housing is a key element in the transition from prison to the community. However, many persons under correctional supervision face substantial barriers in securing and maintaining housing, a fact that is heightened among individuals with a sexual offense conviction. Although frequent movement is commonplace among people on parole, it is unclear how housing changes affect recidivism outcomes and whether such mobility uniquely impacts individuals with a sexual offense conviction. In the present study, we use a quasi-experimental propensity score weighting design to compare a sample of individuals paroled from prison in Michigan for sexual and non-sexual crimes (N = 3930) to consider the role of housing mobility on the likelihood of rearrests and technical revocation, with attention to disaggregating sexual crimes against adults and children. Results suggest that increased movement was distinctly associated with a higher hazard of rearrest for individuals with a sexual offense conviction, and a strong predictor of technical return hazard for both individuals with sexual and non-sexual convictions.