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New Measures of Defensiveness, Empathy, and Cognitive Distortions for Sexual Offenders Against Children

86 citations0/0 files storedSexual Abuse

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Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending Psychological Testing and Assessment Deception detection and forensic psychology

Abstract

Treatment of child molesters emphasizes three interrelated constructs: denial, empathy, and cognitive distortions. Thirty child molesters, 30 nonsexual offenders, and 30 controls answered three new tests of denial, empathy, and cognitive distortions anonymously; 30 other child molesters were instructed to "fake good, " and 44 child molesters who were seeking parole were also tested. The Sexual Social Desirability Scale (SSDS) measures attitudes about sex, sexual activities, and intimate sexual relationships. All offender groups attributed significantly more (p ≤ .05) positive characteristics to themselves than did controls. All sexual offender groups denied significantly more (p ≤ .05) negative characteristics than did the control and nonsexual offender groups. Even sexual offenders asked to fake good did not significantly differ in denial from those sexual offenders who answered anonymously or those in assessment for parole. For sexual offenders, denial was not significantly affected by demand characteristics. The Empathy (Empat) scale tested for lack of empathy specific to sexual abuse victims and general lack of empathy. Sexual offenders, even those faking good, showed less sexual abuse empathy than controls (p ≤ .05). In contrast, sexual offender scores of general empathy equaled controls'. The Child Molester Scale (CMS) was developed in an attempt to reduce the effects of socially desirable responding. Sexual offenders assessed for parole reported significantly more (p = .0026) cognitive distortions regarding adult-child sexual activity than did the control group but not less than nonsexual offenders. The SSDS, Empat, and CMS were significantly correlated.

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References

1983Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach.1960A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology.1972A measure of emotional empathy1 1955Processes affecting scores on "understanding of others" and "assumed similarity."1989The Measurment of the Cognitive Distortions of Child Molesters 1972Emotional role playing, attitude change, and attraction toward a disabled person.1990Treating the Sexual Offender 1994Process evaluation of a group therapy component designed to enhance sex offenders' empathy for sexual abuse survivors

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2003An Evaluation of the Bumby RAPE and MOLEST Scales as Measures of Cognitive Distortions With Civilly Committed Sexual Offenders 2006Cognitive distortions in child molesters: Theoretical and research developments over the past two decades 2004Understanding Denial in Sexual Offenders 2006Increasing Honest Responding on Cognitive Distortions in Child Molesters

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