Sexual Offending Flashcards by Abbi Wood

What is Burt’s Rape-myth Acceptance scale?

Women deserved to be raped if she dresses more provocatively
This could encourage men to rape or provide them with an excuse for their sexually aggressive acts against women
Also women who are drunk and engage with men, only has herself to blame if things get out of hand

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What is Malamuth’s Self reported Likelihood to rape scale?

Single item measure: How likely do you think you would be to commit rape if you can be assured of not being caught?
Men who score higher on this scale tend to see rape as an enjoyable seduction for the victim and put the blame on the victim
Men who score lower on the scale see rape as a serious crime and don’t believe in the stereotype for their sex roles.

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What are women’s attitudes towards the rape myth?

Women who don’t report their rape, tend to have higher levels of myth rape acceptance
and higher internal locus of control, meaning they saw themselves to blame for the rape.

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What is the general deviancy model?

Sex offenders offend sexually as a part of their general tendency to engage in all sorts of deviancy behaviour

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What is the specialist model?

Assumes sex offenders aren’t likely to commit other types of crimes
Exclusive to sex crimes

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What is a variant of the specialist model?

Sex offending is a broad category and involves a variety of offending behaviour
Offenders limit their range e.g. some sex offenders may offend against children and never adults

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What is the feminist theory on rape?

Motivation comes from the power to dominant rather than the desire for sex
Controlling women encourages male power
Focus on pro-rape attitudes towards women than focusing on equality

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What is the social learning theory on rape?

Learn to be rapists through pro rape beliefs
Exposure to violent pornography increases rapists to behave violently towards women

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What is the evolutionary theory on rape?

Function of rape is to pass on genetic material for the next generation
Tendency to rape is due to genetic influence
Rapists are less likely than other men to attract voluntary sex partners
Victims are primarily of reproductive age
Aim is to impregnate victims

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What is the preconditions model for paedophilia?

Preconditions: emotional congruence with children, blockages with adult relationships, sexual arousal with children.
Oldest theory
Establishes that there are many causes
Not all preconditions are involved in all cases

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What is the psychotherapeutic model for paedophilia?

Cognitive distortions captured by the Abel Rape Index scale
Includes the beliefs of a sexual nature towards children
Grooming: methods of how offenders contact children to gain their trust, violent threats, may be bribes of sweets
Offenders plans in fantasy the likely scenarios with the victim e.g. when finally seducing the child, the offender plans out what they will say or do.
Denial: blame someone else for their actions, deny the consequences

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What is the sexualisation model of paedophilia?

Sexual abuse in childhood
Particuarly penetrative sex, abuse by women and unusual abusive acts.
Also acts where the perpetrator is an older child as well
Sex offenders may view adult-child sexual contact as normal because of their person expeirences

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What is the Sexual Offences Act 2003?

Penetration without consent of the vagina/mouth/anus by a penis
Consent is a person agreeing to sexual activity and has the freedom/capacity to make that choice

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What is the age of consent in the UK?

in the UK is 16
If the victim is under 13, it’s illegal to incite children to engage in sexual activity, penetration and sexual contact. This is again illegal if the victim is 16 and the perpetrator is 18.

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What are some sexual offences towards children?

Sexual contact with someone who is 16/17 and it may be illegal if there is an abuse of trust
Familial child offences
Grooming
Indecent images of children
Victim who has a mental disorder which impedes their choice

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What is the age of consent in Europe?

14: Germany, Portugal, Italy
18: Malta, Turkey

What is the age of consent in America?

Varies across states, between 16 and 18

What is an implication of research into paedophiles?

studies may treat people as criminals when in their jurisdictions it is acting lawfully

What are the global rates of sexual violence?

Lifetime prevalence of sexual partner violence reported by women ages between 15 to 49 years ranged from 5%-59%
0.3% to 12% of women reported sexual violence by non partner since age 15
More difficult to look into the global rates of victimization for men but a meta analysis study shows global rates of sexual abuse, 4-19% for boys, 11-22% for girls

What are some common misconceptions about sex offending?

Usually conjure a mental image of a typical sex offender
for example, parents are concerned at the risk of assault/abduction by a stranger e.g. stranger danger

Public are concerned with paedophile rings or grooming gangs being responsible for a large amount of sexual offences: 4% of members who sexually offended were a part of these rings

LQBTQ+ members ‘pose’ are greater threat to children: belief has declined overtime, usually men are the perpetrators and women are the victims

What does Wortley’s 2009 study show about CSA?

Misconceptions of sexual child abuse
56.5% of CSA perpetrators lived with victim
36.9% knew the child
6.5% were strangers
69% of cases happened in the home

What is paedophilia?

It’s not the same as child molestation
A sexual preference for children, boys or girls or both, usually of prepubertal or early pubertal age.

What is hebophilia?

Around the age of puberty

What is ephebophilia?

Around the age of adolescence

What is child molestation?

Anyone who commits a contact sexual offences against a child, whether they have paedophilic interest or not Divided into 2 types: - Incest/Intrafamilial: lower reoffending rates, less evidence of paedophilia - Unrelated/Extra familial: greater risk

What factors motivates perpetrators to commit sexual aggression towards adults?

Anger is common Driven by sadistic fantasies Hostile masculinity Endorsement of rape myths Alcohol abuse Antisociality

How can we measure sexual interest in children?

Not everyone that commits contact offences are paedophilic, sexual interest is only one reason for sexual offending Measure arousal Look at reaction times to stimuli

Do offenders who look at indecent images of children have paedophilic arousal and have contact offences with their victims? Would they reoffend?

These offenders show greater paedophilic arousal than contact offenders Those who are non-contact offenders are less likely to reoffend than contact offenders 1 in 8 have an officially reported contact offence, but 50% self report contact offence

What about sexual offending perpetrated by women?

Many co-offend with male co-perpetrators Victims overwhelmingly male Lower rates of paedophilia Under reporting: due to social and cultural constructs that perceive women abusers as less harmful

What are the different types of rape?

Marital rape Prison rape In war Date rape Multiple perpetrators Acquaintance rape

What is the integrated theory of sexual offending? (Ward and Beech)

Early brain development (genetic or happens in womb) Ecological Niche (socio-cultural environment, personal experiences, physical environment e.g. 35% of male abusers have been victims themselves, rape myth acceptance, group processes like rape in war or multiple perpetrators) Both of these causes their neuropsychological functioning to be damaged which affects their desire, belief and actions Next clinical symptoms surface e.g. deviant arousal, social difficulties- need for intimacy, emotional problems- struggle to regulate behaviour. these symptoms lead to sexual offending

What happens in a rapists childhood that could cause them to act sexually aggressive towards adults?

Experiencing sexual abuse in their own childhood Family were negative or hostile towards them

What is some neuropsychological evidence for paedophilia?

Dr Cantor Paedophiles have larger amounts of white matter Cross wiring Sexual arousal is triggered rather than a nurturing trigger

What are offence supportive cognitions?

Beliefs about themselves Beliefs about their victims Beliefs about their world However, these beliefs may just be excuses that sexual offenders use

What does the term 'throwing away the keys' mean?

Public believe sexual offenders are going to reoffend But reoffending is low, especially when they're treated

What are the theories of desistance?

desistance: slowing reoffending behaviour Natural desistance: crime is a young man's game Cognitive transformation: recreating new identities for themselves through gradual or sudden change Informal social control: stability, marriage, employment

Does treatment work?

Treatment reduces sexual reoffending by about 27% to 43% Particularly effective when: - we prioritise high risk individuals - target criminogenetic needs - responsive e.g. can't use the same treatments for offenders that have learning difficulties - strengths based e.g. some offenders seek intimacy, so we figure out how this person can meet this goal without engaging in offending behaviour