Readings

Question 1

Gannon et al.m (2019)
conducted a meta-analysis assessing the effects of SPECIALIZED sexual offender treatment AND tests the effects of staff and program factors which MODERATE the effectiveness of treatment:

what were their hypothesis and their results?

Answer 1

Compares sexual offender, general violence, and domestic violence specialized treatments.

(A) specialized treatments are more effective than offense non-specific treatments.
(B) biggest reductions in recidivism will be in sexual offending treatments.
(C) predict that treatment being administered by qualified clinicians and supervised by clinicians will be more effective.

Results:
(A) Supported. Specialized treatments are more effective than offense non-specific treatments.
(B) Not Supported. Domestic and sexual offending specific treatments performed equally as well (i.e., quality of this study meant that the reductions in recidivism for domestic violence are higher than previous studies).
(C) specialized treatment administered by a qualified clinician and supervised by a qualified clinician had better treatment outcomes. Having a qualified and non-qualified clinician supervising the treatment reduced the effectiveness of treatment because they provided conflicting information.

Offense-Specific Recidivism
offense-specific recidivism is reduced more by specialized treatment.
i.e., relative reductions in offense specific recidivism:
sexual offender (i.e., 4.2 absolute and 32.6% relative), domestic violence (i.e.,absolite 8.7% and relative 36.0%) and general violence (i.e., absolute 9.3% relative 24.3%)

All treatments influenced non-offence-specific recidivism (violent and general)

general violence programs were associated with significant offense-specific and non-offense specific recidivism.

Question 2

Gannon et al.m (2019)

Previous literature on sexual offending, general violence, and domestic violence treatment effectiveness:

Answer 2

Sexual Offending:
community programs more effective than prison-based programs.
specialized treatments for sexual offending are more effective than general models.
mews et al. (2017) found that sexual offending treatment increased the risk of recidivism (due to poor treatment integrity, administered by non-clinicians).

Domestic Violence:
VERY small effect sizes.
Inconsistent effect sizes are found across studies (i.e., CBT and Duluth Models).

General Violence:
…

Question 3

Gannon et al. (2019)

Treatments more effective if?

Answer 3

Sexual Offender Specific:
higher treatment quality,
shorter treatment length (i.e., less than 100 hours),
longer treatment length (i.e., over 200 hours),
group-based treatment rather than a mixed group or individual treatment (where the psychologist is consistently present),
arousal conditioning (behavioral attempts to restructure arousal),
absence of polygraph (i.e., undermines treatment alliance).
*community and prison-based treatments were effective
*supports that adherence to RNR principles reduces sexual recidivism.

Domestic Violence:
treatment is lower quality (more education-based),
Duluth model rather than CBT based (not because feminist model but is a psychoeducational CBT model),
treatment is provided in a single situation (i.e., treatment integrity).

Non-offense Specific Violence:
(violent and general)
qualified psychologist administers treatment,
treatment is supervised,
the absence of conflicting psychologist/non-psychologist supervision associated with violent recidivism.
*program and staff variables NOT associated with greater recidivism reductions for general recidivism

• impacts all (3) treatment types
• All treatments influenced non-offense-specific recidivism.

Question 4

Olver (2020)
Long-term outcome assessment of the effects on subsequent re-offence rates of a PRISION-BASED (CBT-RP) sex offender treatment program with STRENGTH-BASED elements:

Summary of what they did and their hypothesis:

Answer 4

compared three treatment groups: rockwood (i.e.,CBT-RNR-strength-based), SOTP, untreated group of males.

Used Modified Brief Actuarial Risk Scale (BARS-M) to control for baseline risk among the three groups.

Controlled for demographic and confounding variables.

Two forms of recidivism were measured (sexual and violent) and survival analysis was conducted to assess the time after release to recidivsm.

*both are prison based treatments for male sexual offenders but SOTP (i.e., is a risk avoidance model, inflexible and adhered strictly to the treatment manual and supervised by a clinician) delivered at multiple sites but the rockwood program is a strength-based RNR CBT program delivered at one prison, more flexible, with weekly supervision sessions with an evolving treatment
manual.
*SOTP treatment targets were focused on developing relapse prevention plans. Rockwood developed strength-based post-prison plans of maintaining prosocial behaviour.

Question 5

Olver (2020) previous literature

Answer 5

mixed findings on the effectiveness of treatment some show that community-based treatments are more effective than prison based treatments but Gannon et al. (2019) and Olver (2020) found that prison based treatments are effective.

Question 6

Olver (2020) Prison-Based treatment:

Results:

Answer 6

(A) Group comparisons:
men in no treatment groups were higher risk and younger than rockwood group.
rockwood group had higher child-victims and SOTP had higher adult victims.
Men with adult victims had higher recidivism rates across all treatment types (SOTP, Rockwood and no treatment).

(B) Treatment Outcomes:
violent and sexual recidivism with fixed 8 year follow up and unfixed follow up were conducted across all (3) treatment groups-

Medium & High risk Men in the Rockwood program showed the biggest reductions in recidivism.

There was no difference in men’s violent and sexual recidivism rates at low risk level across all (3) treatment groups (i.e., at low risk treatment is not really that effective-supports the RNR principles).

High risk men had significantly lower sexual recidivism rates at fixed 8 years in the SOTP condition compared to non-treatment groups.

Medium and High risk men had significantly lower rates of violent AND sexual recidivism at fixed 8 years in Rockwood relative to SOTP.

Significant reductions in violent recidivism in low risk males in Rockwood program relative to no-treatment.

(C) Survival Analysis
Rockwood treatment produced significantly lower recidivism (sexual and violent) than other groups.
2x increase in risk of sexual and violent recidivism for no treatment men relative to rockwood men.
SOTP had 2x increase of risk of recidivism (sexual and violent) relative to rockwood men and a three-fold increase relative to non-treatment.

Question 7

Olver (2020) Prison-Based treatment:

Summary of Main Results:

Answer 7

prison sexual offending programs (strength-based in one prison and risk avoidance in multiple prisons) are effective to reduce risk of recidivism (sexual and violent).

when different levels of risk are controlled for, overall males in the Rockwood program showed the biggest reductions in sexual and violent reoffences than no-treatment group over the fixed 8-year follow up period but the biggest difference between rockwood treatment and no treatment were in the medium and high risk bands.

there were no significant differences between recidivism rates across low risk male sexual offender in both sexual and violent offences.

Rockwood program males who were medium risk also showed lower recidivism rates than SOTP groups, sexual and violent.

SOTP males showed lower recidivism rates than no-treatment in medium and high risk bands.

Question 8

what is a specialised sexual offender treatment?

Answer 8

sexual offender programs with manuals, articulated treatment goals, delivered by trained licensed mental health professionals, in turn supervised by a psychologist or other licensed professionals.

SOTP only cotained treatment completers but Rockwood used an intention to treat model which coded all particpipants to success or fail.

SOTP group had more adult victims which is associated with higher risk of recidvism (so SOTP were originally more higher risk than Rockwood).

biggest strength of using a strength-based treatment is that it results in low refusal rates and high completion rates, maximises entry and commitment to treatment.

Question 9

Explaining Paraphilias & Lust Murder: Towards an Integrated Model
(Arrigo & Purcell, 2001)

Abstract
Paraphillia’s

Answer 9

Claims that sexual homicide (i.e., erotophonophillia) is motivated by sexually deviant fantasies (i.e., paraphillia).

Integrates Hickey’s Trauma-Control Model and Burgress et al.’s Motivational Model.

Pariphilla acts as a system of behaviours that motivate sexually sadistic acts of lust murder.

there are 100’s of paraphilias that exist on a contimumn wtih lust murder or sexual sadism murders being at the extreme end of the scale.

in lust murder the act of killing is done to complete orgasim.

Paraphila is a key component of lust murder.

More common in males than females (same with Sexual offending).

Paraphillia of sadism is extreme end of pariphilia and is associated with inability to sexually function without violent fantasies or behaviour.

Paraphillia intrests are tied to childhood trauma expereinced or witnessed as a kid (i.e., sexual aor physical abuse tied to sexually deviant fantasies).

Failure to punish sexually deviant behaviours in childhood means they escalate over the life course.

Question 10

what is erotophonophilia?

Answer 10

Sexual Murder/Homicide i.e., murder substitutes the act of sex.

Question 11

Three key features of paraphilia?

Answer 11

Three key features of paraphilia compulsive masturbation, fantasy and facilitators (porn, alcohol and drugs).

Fantasy motivates sexually violent behaviour.
Masturbation reinforces behaviour and increases its frequency.
Facilitator linked to sexual homicide but the causal mechanism is unknown.

Question 12

what are the (4) subgroup paraphilia’s in erotophonophilia?

Answer 12

1. Flagellationism:
   intense desire to beat, whip or club someone.
2. Anthrophagy:
   intense desire to eat the felsh or body parts of other
   people.
3. Picquerism:
   intense desire to stab, wound, or cut the flesh of
   others (especially genitals)
4. Necosadism:
   intense desire to have sexual contact with a dead
   body.

Question 13

Two common elements of lust murderers?

Answer 13

1) sadism
(sexual arousal gained from psychologically or physically torturing others pre or post mortem) is a common sub paraphilia of lust murderers but not common in all sexual homicide killers!
2) lust or erotism
that the killing or violence is enacted to gain sexual gratification. Murder can replace the act of sex in some cases and therefore identifying sexual elements may not be explicit in the crime scene but can be deduced from the use of strangulation or mutilation.

Question 14

FBI’s legal definition of serial sexual murderers?

Answer 14

3 or more victims with a cooling off period in between to indicate premeditation, fantasies and behaviour escalate in terms of violence after each kill.

Question 15

(6) common themes in sexual violence fantasies?

Answer 15

1. power
2. domination
3. molestation
4. revenge
5. degradation
6. humiliation

Question 16

Burgess et al. (1986) Motivational Model of sexual murder

Answer 16

five phase model focuses on identifying the psychological and cognitive factors which motivate sexual murder.

1. ineffective social environment:
   poor attachment to parents and family
   members than negatively impacts their
   social skills and cognitive
   distortions of the self and others.
2. formative events in early childhood and
   adolescence
   (A) trauma: normative (divorce, illness or
   death) or non-
   normative (abuse: sexual, physical or
   psychological).
   (B) developmental failure:
   unresolved trauma and ineffective
   social environments lead children to
   feel helpless or worthless which leads
   them to rely on fantasy as a
   form of escape.
   (C) Interpersonal failure:
   parental figure is not a (+) role model
   with lack of meaningful interactions
   with parental caregiver which causes
   child to develop inadequate
   interpersonal skills and become
   isolated.
3. Patterned Responses to Formative Events:
   (a) critical personality traits and (b)
   cognitive mapping contribute to
   patterned responses to formative
   events:
   (a) negative personality traits develop and
   child is unable to maintain prosocial
   bonds with their peers, increases
   social isolation and dependence
   on fantasy to meet social
   connectedness.
   Influences their development of self-
   identity and cynical worldview with a
   lack of empathy for others and gain
   sexual gratification from fantasy.
   (b) cognitive mapping:
   The cognitive mapping system which
   affects how they interpret
   information and give meaning to
   past life events.

*negative personality traits lead to sadistic sexual fantasies which impacts their cognitive mapping system and their reliance on fantasies for a source of control, emotional arousal, sexual gratification, or escape from reality were helplessness and worthlessness is felt.

4. Actions towards others
   the behaviour of children reflect their
   internal states (i.e., worthlessness,
   deviant fantasies and violent behaviour).
   child (negative play, cruelty towards
   animals, fire setting, property destruction)
   adolescent: conduct problems become
   more severe (arson, rape, assault, non-
   sexual murder escalates into sexual
   murder with sadism elements, rape,
   torture, mutilation and necrophillia).

*failure to intervene at early childhood leads
to reinforcing and escalation of violent
behaviour into sexually violent behaviour.

5. feedback filter
   how an individual reacts and evaluates
   their actions and justifies their behaviour
   as a means to maintain
   their fantasy.
   (a) fantasy escalates in terms of arousal,
   feelings of dominance, power and
   control.
   (b) knowledge of how to avoid detection
   increases.

*develops a self-society schema

Question 17

Hickey (1997) Trauma Control Model of serial murder

Answer 17

claims childhood trauma predisposes violent behaviour in childhood which escalates into adolescence and adulthood.

1. Predispositional Factors
   Biological (hormone or brain-structure),
   Psychological (mental illness), Sociological
   (dysfunctional home life) independently or
   in combination predispose people to
   violence.
2. Trauma
   trauma in early childhood stunts their
   emotional growth which is exacerbated
   by predispositional factors. Abuse by
   parental guardian creates fear,
   hopelessness and rejection.
3. Low self-esteem and fantasy
   rejection can lead to a sense of personal
   failure, helplessness, ostracism in school
   and social exclusion which fosters
   feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, low
   self-esteem and worthlessness.
4. Disassociation:
   trauma causes individuals to develop a
   distorted view of the world and can
   escalate into a distorted state of
   consciousness (i.e., illusionary sense of
   control that is sustained via fantasy or
   they disassociate from the trauma to the
   point where it’s completely suppressed;
   this dissociative state makes violence
   easier or not rememberable; a state
   elicited by anger or anxiety.
5. Trauma Reinforcers:
   serial murder is triggered by negative
   emotional states and is reinforced by its
   ability to cope with life stressors.
   Rejection (e.g., unrequited love, or
   criticism) triggers negative world views
   and self-concepts which cause them to
   retreat into their fantasies.
6. Facilitators:
   It’s common for offenders to turn to other
   coping mechanisms (alcohol, drugs, porn)
   which facilitate fantasies of erotic violence.
   Occurs in two stages (addiction and
   escalation) they become addicted and
   dependent on facilitators which
   exacerbate the frequency, duration and
   violence of the fantasy.
7. Increasingly Violent Fantasy:
   fantasy becomes their escape from trauma
   and when an dissociative state is triggered
   they become increasingly more violent.
8. Homicidal Behaviour:
   killing generates more fantasies of sadistic
   behaviour and offenders aim to fulfil or
   complete their fantasy. It makes them feel
   good about themselves, in control,
   increases their self-worth and ability to
   cope with negative life events.

Question 18

An Integrated Model of Sexual Homicide (Lust Murder i.e., sadism and erotic)

Answer 18

This model is a conceptual schema which helps us explain how paraphilia and sexual sadism act as motivations for sexual homicide. It outlines how paraphiliac behaviours are developed and contribute to the paraphiliac system. There is a feedback loop within this system through which paraphilia develops, reinforces sexual fantasies and feedbacks into a paraphiliac process.

1. Formative Development
   The offenders formative development
   provides a foundation for paraphiliac
   behaviours to develop. (A) Predispositional
   Factors such as biology, psychology and
   sociological factors and (B) Trauma
   (physical, psychological or sexual
   independently or in combination)
   influences child’s development and their
   ability to build prosocial bonds with their
   peers which fosters feelings of
   worthlessness and hopelessness which
   provide a foundation for paraphilia’s
   (deviant sexual interests to develop).
2. Low Self-Esteem
   unresolved trauma leads children to
   develop paraphiliac interests which
   impacts the child development of the self-
   concept . Furthermore, the sense of
   worthlessness, helplessness and lack of
   regard for others inhibits their ability to
   develop prosocial bonds or positive
   attachments with pairs.
   Daydreaming or fantasies become a
   substitute for social connection and the
   child begins to self-isolate.
   Negative personality traits and cynical
   world-views develop and fantasies
   become a patterned response to cope
   with self-doubt, anger, and anxiety which
   their self-isolation only exacerbates and
   leads to more violent fantasies.
3. Early Fantasy & Paraphiliac Development
   is a cyclical process where their social
   isolation and paraphiliac interests start the
   paraphiliac system.
   The three paraphiliac behaviours/system
   develop (i.e., compulsive masturbation or
   orgasm conditioning,
   fantasies and facilitators; drugs, porn and
   alcohol) interact with paraphiliac
   stimuli/interests (i.e., fetishes, unusual
   objects, sadistic or erotic rituals) that
   sustain the paraphiliac process.
   The paraphiliac stimuli/interests are linked
   to experiences of sexual abuse and social
   isolation experienced during childhood.
4. Paraphiliac Process:
   (3) mutually interactive elements:
   paraphiliac stimuli and fantasy, orgasm
   conditioning, facilitators.
   (A) Paraphiliac Stimuli or fantasy:
   inadequate social relationships at a young
   age, (-) emotions and perceptions of the
   self lead to social isolation and retreating
   into fantasy which over time become more
   violent and erotophonopillia subgroup
   paraphillias are introduced. Fantasy
   provides relief from trauma, social
   connection and sexual gratification which
   reinforces it via classical conditioning
   which leads to the increase in their
   duration, frequency and violent nature and
   due to the repetitive daydreaming
   habituates them to their violent (i.e.,
   humiliation, degradation, molestation,
   power and domination).
   (B) Orgasmic Conditioning
   compulsive masturbation to violent
   fantasies to gain orgasm which
   conditions sexual deviancy to the point
   of losing contact with reality and their
   sexual gratification becomes dependent
   on deviant sexual fantasies or paraphiliac
   behaviour.
5. Facilitators
   drugs, alcohol and porn are common
   behaviours facilitate the paraphiliac
   system.
   Addictions to facilitators and their use
   becomes entrenched with sexually deviant
   fantasies which mutually constitute each
   other and increase their risk of enacting
   the fantasies.
6. Stressors
   the distorted cognition influence how they
   perceive themselves and the world around
   them and how they cope with life
   stressors.
   stressors include rejection, social isolation,
   or ridicule.
   negative emotions add to the feedback
   loop of the paraphiliac system and
   paraphiliac behaviours (fantasy, facilitators
   and compulsive masturbation) is used as a
   form of escape and can escalate into
   violent behaviour that is sexually
   motivated.
7. Behavioural Manifestations
   the feedback loop between paraphiliac
   behaviour and negative emotions
   escalates deviant sexual fantasy into
   violent sexual behaviour.
   individuals are sexually motivated to enact
   aspects of their fantasy to achieve orgasm
   or gain sexual gratification (criminal and
   non-criminal behaviour i.e., porn vs.
   assault).
8. Increasingly Violent Behaviours
   their fantasies get more intense and
   violent.
   fantasies trigger intense desire to enact
   them.
   feedback loop where fantasies trigger the
   need for engaging in violent sexual
   behaviour to fulfil them and fulfilling them
   just generates new fantasies to complete.
   the more they engage in violent sexually
   motivated behaviour makes them more
   complex, sense of control, dominance and
   arousal feeds back in the desire to fulfil
   their fantasies which become increasingly
   more violent.