Publication Date

2011

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department

School for Social Work

Keywords

Sex offenders-Psychology, Antisocial personality disorders, Child sexual abuse-Psychological aspects, Sexual excitement, Paraphilias, Recidivists-Psychology, Adult child sexual abuse victims-Psychology, Adult sex offenders, Deviant arousal, Child molestation

Abstract

In this study I examined potential predictive factors of deviant arousal. Variables were chosen based on the relationship shown in previous literature between variables and sex offending and recidivism. The sample for this analysis consisted of 100 incarcerated sex offenders who completed the Life History Survey (Burton, 2003). This is a subset of the sample surveyed by Burton (2003). The hypotheses of this study were that antisociality, childhood sexual trauma, and cognitive distortions would each be predictive of deviant arousal and the interaction between the variables would be the strongest predictor of deviant arousal. No predictive relationships were found and variables were found to be unrelated to each other or deviant arousal. The one exception was a significant relationship (p<.05) between cognitive distortions and deviant arousal; however this was not a predictive relationship. The literature is explored and alternative explanations of results, as well as implications for research and practice are discussed.

Language

English

Comments

iii, 35 p. Thesis (M.S.W.)-Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2011. Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-35)

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