Sex offending Flashcards
What are the models of offence formulation?
3: SORC Model, MM (Multi-perspective model), Trauma-informed.
It helps to develop an insight into someone’s behaviour.
What is the SORC Model?
It is a behavioural model, used to understand behaviour in schoolchildren and applied to personality disorders and offending behaviour.
It consists 4 factors:
- Stimuli
- Organismic variables
- Responses
- Consequences
What is the Stimuli factor?
These factors motivate a person to act
- Stimuli → Triggers → Proximal/Distal
- triggers: actions or events that are observable
- proximal - occurs just before the behaviour/event
- tend to have a greater influence
- distal - occur historically
- e.g. childhood experiences
- Stimuli → Setting Events → External/Internal
- setting events: circumstances that increase the likelihood of a behaviour occurring
- external - things that occur in our environment
- e.g. loud environment, sensory issues, living with someone who takes drugs
- internal - linked to behaviour through conditioning
- e.g. mood states - stress or physical states - drunknessse
What are the Organismic variables?
- This is everything that an individual brings to a situation
- e.g. personality, beliefs, a cognitive impairment that arises from substance misuse
The individual → Physiology → Brain injury, Neurodevelopmental disorders/Substance misuse
The individual → Learning experiences → Personality disorder/Mental illness
The individual → Moral development/Prior conduct
- e.g. personality, beliefs, a cognitive impairment that arises from substance misuse
What is the Responses factor?
- viewed as a response of the individual to the environment
- observable
- measurable
- behaviour should be described as how often it occurs
Individual’s response to environment → Obserable→ Actions
Individual’s response to environment → Measureable → Frequencies /Intenisity/ Duration
- behaviour should be described as how often it occurs
What is the Consequences factor?
- What happens to an individual after performing a particular behaviour
- Both positive and negative reinforcement strengthen behaviour of being repeated
Operant conditioning → Positive reinforcement (gain) / Negative reinforcement (removal) → Reinforced behaviour is strengthened and likely to be repeated
What is the MM (Multi-perspective model)?
It is a Biopsychosocial model of the aetiology and maintenance of offending behaviour. It is - also known as the 4 Ps approach to offence formulation:
1. Predisposing
2. Precipitating
3. Perpetuating
4. Protective
What are the Predisposing factors?
- Biological
- Genetic vulnerability
- Toxic exposure in utero
- Birth complications
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Psychological
- Attachment style
- Personality traits
- Isolation/Insecurities
- Fear of abandonment
- Social
- Domestic violence
- Poverty and adversity
- Unstable home life
- Divorce
- Not everyone that has predisposing factors offend.
What are the Precipitating factors?
- Biological
- Latrogenic reaction
- relates to illness caused by medical treatment - Poor sleep
- Substance abuse/misuse
- Latrogenic reaction
- Psychological
- Recent loss
- Stress
- Re-experience abandonment/fears
- Social
- School stressors
- Loss of significant relationship
- Loss of home
What are the Perpetuating factors?
These are factors that would relate to offending behaviour continuing/re-offending. These tend to be used in treatment programs.
- Biological
- Poor response to medication
- Chronic illness
- Pain
- Psychological
- Personality traits
- Coping mechanisms
- Beliefs of self/others and the world
- Social
- Role of stigma to access treatment
- Poor finance
- Ongoing transition
What are the Protective factors?
These are “strength-based factors”, which can help to mitigate reoffending and be used in treatment to increase one’s resilience.
- Biological
- Good genes/diet/sleep
- Physical excercise
- Resilience/intellgience
- Psychological
- Insightful behaviour stragies
- Coping skills
- Psychologically minded
- Social
- Community and faith support
- Family and financial
- GP/ Disability support
What is the Trauma-informed model?
- Trauma – ‘an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster’. APA (2020)
- PTSD – re-experiencing a bad experience, avoidance of the trauma, current sense of threat
- Complex trauma – emotional dysregulation, negative self-concept, relationship difficulties (in addition to the above PTSD symptoms)
- Developmental Trauma Disorder – (complex trauma that occurs in childhood) panic, separation anxiety, disruptive behaviour disorders.
What is Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)?
These are traumatic events that have occurred in childhood. It consists of 7 categories:
- Abuse
- Psychological abuse
- Physical abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Household dysfunction
- Violence against mother
- Household members who are substance abusers
- Household members who are mentally ill or suicidal
- Household members who were ever imprisoned
What are the Psychological risk factors relating to sexual offending behaviour?
- Sexual Deviance
- Any deviant sexual interest
- Sexual preoccupation
- Offence supportive attitudes
- Unstable Lifestyle/Criminality
- Lifestyle
- Coping skills
- Psychologically minded
- Social Problems/Intimacy Deficits
- Conflict in intimate relationships
- Feeling closer to children than adults
- Negative social influences
What are the risk factors relating to sexual offending behaviour?
Risk factors with an emerging empirical basis:
- Hostility toward women
- Machiavellianism
- Callousness
- Dysfunctional coping
