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

Despite generally low rates of sexual offenses among Minor attracted persons (MAPs) and their high desire not to engage in such acts, concerns about the possibility of offending remain significant for some individuals within this population. Consequently, how MAPs deal with this fear is an important question that needs to be addressed. In this study, 299 male MAPs were recruited online to examine how the reliance on different coping strategies impacts their fear of engaging in sexual behaviors with minors. In study 1, binary logistic regression analyses revealed that waiting for the fear to pass on its own, substance use, and masturbation to sexual fantasies involving children are associated with the fear of offending. Impulsivity also played a role in heightening the fear of offending. In study 2, latent class analysis of the intensity of sexual fantasies identified three groups. In each of these three groups, the association between hypersexuality and participants' fear of engaging in sexual behaviors with minors was analyzed. Results indicated that MAPs with the highest intensity and diversity of sexual fantasies were the most susceptible to not only fear of engaging in sexual behaviors with minors but also, to rely on inappropriate coping strategies. These findings highlight the necessity of understanding sexual attraction toward minors within a broader context of polymorphic sexual interests.

This study examined dynamics of childhood sexual image abuse episodes prior to age 18, based on victim self-reports. An online sample of individuals aged 18-28 filled out a survey, yielding 3,254 episodes of image abuse that occurred prior to age 18. The majority (86%) of abusive episodes involved images that were produced by youth, either as victims or perpetrators. Less than 8% of episodes involved adult-produced images. Youth were identified as perpetrators in 30% of the episodes, and adults were perpetrators in 29%, with the remainder unidentified. Notably, even among adult-perpetrated episodes, 75% of the images had been originally produced by the youth victim. In cases of adult perpetrators, 59% were offline acquaintances. To better understand the diversity of image abuse experiences, we proposed a five-category framework. Adult perpetrator cases were subdivided into (1) adult image producers, (2) adult coercers of youth made images and (3) adult groomers of youth made images. Youth perpetrator cases were subdivided into (4) juvenile coercers, who pressured victims, and (5) juvenile betrayers, who misused images originally taken or exchanged voluntarily. The prevalence of youth-produced and youth-involved image abuse highlights the importance of prevention strategies tailored to school-aged youth.

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) production poses a grave and evolving threat, causing revictimization through the circulation of material for years. The availability of online technology has enabled sophisticated methods of CSAM production and police evasion. The aims of this study were to explore the sociodemographic features of those with a history of CSAM production, explore criminal sub-types of those who produce CSAM, and explore the sociodemographic and criminal features of possible sub-types. Men who came to police attention for CSAM production offenses between 2004-2019 in Victoria, Australia (n = 741) were included. A hierarchical cluster analysis revealed two distinct criminal profiles: (1) a group with specialist offense histories, which were sexually focused (n = 455) and (2) a group with a generalist (n = 286) offending history, including sexual and non-sexual offenses. The frequency of CSAM production offenses across the sample period almost doubled with an increasing number of individuals with a generalist criminal history coming to the attention of police, whilst the number of those with a specialist criminal history remained largely stable. Uncovering these two distinct criminal profiles is a pivotal step toward understanding the nuanced characteristics of individuals responsible for producing CSAM.

This study examined the convergent, divergent, predictive, and incremental validity of the Revised Screening Scale for Pedophilic Interests (SSPI-2) in a sample of 264 men adjudicated for sexual offenses against at least one child under the age of 15. We found evidence of construct validity as the SSPI-2 had small to medium correlations with phallometric testing (r = .31), recorded pedohebephilic diagnoses (r = .52), and attitudes tolerant of sexual offending against children (r = .23), in addition to small and non-significant correlations with the PCL-R (r = -.07), VRAG-R (r = -.09), BARR-2002R (r = -.06), and conduct disorder (r = -.07). As indicated by DeLong tests, the SSPI-2 was a better predictor of 5-year sexual (Z = -2.44) and non-contact sexual recidivism (Z = -2.46) than the SSPI. The SSPI-2 also added incremental predictive accuracy to risk tools such as the BARR-2002R, PCL-R, VRAG-R, and Static-99R. Overall, our findings suggest that the SSPI-2 is a valid measure of sexual interest in children and may be useful as a screening tool to help inform prioritization and management.

This study developed and assessed the psychometric properties of a questionnaire assessing Implicit Theories (ITs) of sexual offense (Polaschek & Ward, 2002; Ward & Keenan, 1999), named the Implicit Theories of Sexual Offense Questionnaire (ITSOQ). We used existing cognition questionnaires to create a potential item pool, and selected items based on item properties (e.g., mean, SD, range) from three male general population samples (n = 427) and three (sub)clinical population samples (n = 69), i.e., pedophilia-supportive forum users (n = 20), and sexual (n = 28) and violent (n = 21) forensic mental health system clients. A principal component analysis for the general population sample supported a four-component solution for the ITSOQ, including two victim-specific ITs (Factor 1: Children 14-16 years, Factor 2: Women), a sexual social desirability index (SSDI; Factor 3), and a component reflecting the antisocial uncontrollability IT (Factor 4). Analyses indicated measurement invariance, and higher scores for the (sub)clinical population were found for the antisocial uncontrollability and SSDI factors, with low to moderate effect sizes. Additionally, (small) associations between self-reported sexual interest in children and adults and the victim-specific child and women factors were found. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Child sexual abuse often elicits strong negative reactions from the public and sensationalized portrayal in media. Prior research has examined how gender influences perceptions of teenage sexual victimization committed by adults in authority roles. However, only a few studies have examined public reactions to actual cases covered in the media. To address this gap, we coded and analyzed 532 public comments on 36 online news stories reporting cases of teenage sexual abuse published between January 1^st, 2009 and December 31^st, 2019. We identified four major themes that encompassed the comments examined in this study: negative reactions to the adult responsible, comments about the punishment, positive reactions to the adult responsible, and comments focused on the child who was harmed. Many comments encompassed the expected emotions of anger and disgust toward the adult who engaged in abuse and sympathy toward the person who experienced it. Several comments were positive in nature, however, deviating from the "typical" response toward such cases, particularly in cases regarding abuse committed by a woman. Further, commenters had strong reactions to the criminal justice response to the abuse, but these reactions were also patterned by gender. We close with a discussion of findings and implications for future research.

The present study investigates the onset, persistence and diversity in sexual offending by exploring Norwegian registry data on the social and criminal trajectories of juveniles charged with a sexual crime before the age of criminal responsibility, compared to juveniles charged with other types of offenses. The sample consisted of all persons aged 15 during the period 1997-2005 (N = 388,814). Of those, 19,559 juveniles (5%) were charged with a crime, mostly (83%) of a non-violent nature. For the remaining 16.9% (n = 3,309), the charge involved violence, either non-sexual (n = 2,991, 15.3% of those charged) or sexual (n = 318, 1.6% of those charged). Proportional hazard models were used to investigate background characteristics and risk of recidivism. Early onset of offending was related to a more disadvantaged background. Juveniles charged with violent and sexual offenses were generally younger and had more charges against them than juveniles charged with any other crimes. Early sexual crime carried higher hazard rate (HR) of future sexual crime (HR = 3.6) than early violent (HR = 1.9) and other crimes (HR = 1.4). The risk of later violent crime was similar among those with early onset violent (HR = 2.8) and sexual (HR = 2.5) crime, and higher than for early onset general crime (HR = 1.7). Since violent crime has a higher base rate than sexual crime, violence is more dominant in the criminal careers of people with early onset sexual offending. However, the majority of adult sexual criminal charges are raised against persons without a juvenile criminal record.

Motives for online sexual offending have mostly been studied in forensic populations. To gain insights into risks and prevention options, community samples are also relevant. In this exploratory study, an online convenience sample of 2,764 participants (n_men = 1,263; n_women = 1,420) was recruited via social media platforms. Approximately 2%-4% of men and less than 1% of women from this online sample reported some propensity for online or contact sexual behaviors with a child, provided there were no negative personal consequences. Latent class analyses, conducted separately for men and women, identified three different classes based on scores on motivational risk factors, which we labeled "multiple motivations," "social needs," and "mating prowess." In distal outcome analyses, individuals in the "multiple motivations" class (i.e., those with relatively high scores on most of the motivational factors) were most likely to engage in sexual offending against children and adults as well as other atypical or problematic behaviors. The exploratory findings suggest that not only paraphilia, but also social needs (e.g., loneliness, social anxiety) and other sexual domains (e.g., high sex drive) should be included in prevention efforts for sexual offending targeted to the general population.

The provision of effective mental health services to individuals attracted to children is rapidly expanding. However, these services have not yet been integrated into general mental healthcare systems and are mainly offered by organizations that predominantly provide services to child sexual abuse perpetrators. Little is known about the perspective, treatment goals, and approaches employed by prevention-specialist mental health professionals when working with clients attracted to children. To address this gap, we used purposive sampling to recruit 10 practitioners who had experience of working in prevention settings with clients attracted to children. After conducting semi-structured interviews and analyzing data through interpretative phenomenological analysis, we identified three main themes and four subthemes within the data. While most participants believed that attraction to minors is unmodifiable or doubted the possibility of modifiability, this belief did not necessarily manifest in their practice. Participants stressed the importance of finding safe alternatives for clients and highlighted the significance of accessing evidence-based information on alternative sexual outlets, such as sex dolls. One overarching theme that emerged across all themes and within participants' accounts was the concern of escalation, indicating a fear that pedophilic fantasies or alternative sexual outlets such as sex dolls could potentially lead to sexual offenses. The findings shed light on the approach of prevention-specialist mental health professionals in working with clients attracted to children and may be used to inform future intervention plans to facilitate service provision to this population.

Sexual harassment and assault against women are global and public issues that must be addressed. Previous studies indicate that men's misunderstanding regarding women's sexual consent may be a key factor in sexual harassment and sexual assault cases. The underlying mechanism for the association between men's sexual interest perception and sexual harassment/assault behavior, however, remains unclear. In this study, we explored whether cognition bias (i.e., sexual refusal cognition bias, which include interpretation bias and behavioral intentions) mediated the association between men's sexual interest perception and sexual harassment/assault against women. A sample of 280 heterosexual Chinese men were recruited. A measure of sexual refusal cognition bias was developed, encompassing two factors: interpretation bias and behavioral intentions. Sexual refusal cognition bias was significantly associated with sexual harassment and sexual assault. Sexual interest perception had a significant indirect effect (β = 0.130/0.071) on sexual harassment and sexual assault through serial mediations of interpretation bias and behavioral intentions. These findings may be valuable in enhancing an understanding of sexual violence against women and contribute to sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention and education efforts.