Theories of Criminal Behavior Essay

Further exploration discovered that the choice of sexual expression correlates more to the child’s age then the offenders (Sanford, 87). Offenders do not form intimate relationships with other adults (Henderson, 39). Eight-five percent of sexual activity was nonorgasmic with one-fourth of activity ending before any stimulation occurred by the offender (Sanford, 83). Now that we know some offenders characteristics, it is paramount that we learn to identify traits that may be common to youthful victims.

(Ward and Siegert, 2002, pg.331) The model states that there are four pathways prevalent in sexual offenders that result in them committing an offense. These pathways are intimacy deficits, deviant sex scripts, emotional dysregulation, and cognitive distortions. The four pathways interact to cause the crime; however, they have their own primary causal mechanisms. (Ward and Siegert, 2002, pg.335) The first pathway, intimacy deficits, is formed by insecure attachment and an inability of the offenders to establish meaningful relationships with adults. The offenders who associate with this pathway offend at specific times and often substitute a child in place of an adult for their actions. Offenders make an inappropriate choice of a sexual partner because of their insecure attachment which prevents them from forming deeper relationships with adults. This inability enables the offenders to substitute an adult with a child and encourages them to develop adult like relationships with children. The second pathway that leads to a sexual offence is deviant sexual scripts. A sexual script is a “mental representation individuals acquire during the course of their development that facilitate the interpretation of intimate encounters and guide subsequent sexual behaviours.” (Ward and Siegert, 2002, pg.332) A

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is growing and becoming more prevalent around the world (Aspelmeier, Elliott, & Smith, 2007; Karakurt & Silver, 2014; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). As such, CSA acquired concern as being a serious problem in recent decades. CSA is any type of sexual relation with a child, who is unable to consent, through force, threat, or dishonesty to assure participation. Consequently, CSA associates with psychological difficulties, such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Characteristics of a pedophile’s typical victim consist of usually one sex, male or female; and typically under the age of puberty. “Females were [sic] the most commonly abused . . .” sexes (Hall, 2007, p. 461). There are more reports of female victims than male victims with the typical offenses. Males, however, are at a higher risk with “forced sodomy” (Hall, 2007, p. 461). At young, impressionable, and instable ages these youth are set with inappropriate views of what love is and what their bodies were made for. Younger victims are much easier to manipulate than adults. “The gender of the child also plays an integral part in the selection” female youth, in particular, are very impressionable and for an older male figure to take notice

Sexual behaviors and experimentation are very much a part of childhood development. Normative sexual behaviors of children consists of preschool children poking others bodies, and being interested in bathroom functions, while children ages 5 to 7 years are telling dirty jokes, kissing, and holding hands, and children ages 8 to 12 years, are mooning and exhibitionism, kissing, and touching others’ genitals (Caldwell, 2007). However when children are not supervised appropriately they are capable of sexually harming other children. Adolescents are accountable for perpetrating 20% of all sexual assaults, along with 50% of all child sexual abuse cases (Keelan & Fremouw, 2013). However in considering that statistic some sexual harming behaviors can be within the parameters of normal child behavior, and sometimes rarely signal predatory inclinations (Caldwell, 2007). The vast majority of youth harmful sexual acts are manifestations of non-sexual feelings. In fact, many mental health care professionals have found that much of the behavior classified as sex offenses should not necessarily be considered predatory. Therapists point out that many sexual offenses are carried out by naïve experimenters who are overly impulsive and/or immature adolescents that sometimes engage in sexual experimentation (Smith, Wampler, Jones, & Reifman, 2005). Examining the sexual behavior along with the age of the perpetrator and victim helps classify whether or not those behaviors fall

Researchers point out that child sexual abusers are driven by motives that are not the same as a pedophile. These motives can include stress, marital troubles, anti-social tendencies, or drug and alcohol abuse (Lanning, 2010). The sexual abuse of a child is not an indicator that the perpetrator is a pedophile. Sex offenders can be separated into two types: preferential and situational. The preferential is a true pedophile, only having a sexual attraction to prepubescent children. According to a study on over 2400 adult male sex offenders who had been categorized as pedophiles, only 7% of the men identified themselves as exclusively preferring children. This is an indication that most child sexual abusers fall into the non-exclusive or situational category (Hall, 2007).

According to Van Voorhis in chapter 12, “Treating Sex Offenders,” of Correctional Counseling and Rehabilitation, a meta-analysis of 43 research studies on sex offender treatment concluded that, “in total, the researchers compared 5078 treated offenders to 4376 untreated ones and found that the treated offenders had a recidivism rate of 12%, versus 17% for the untreated offenders” (281). Though this does not account for all sex offenders, these statistics presents evidence that rehabilitation is possible. However, it is important to establish separations between types of sex offenders in order to effectively treat the individuals that are capable of recovery. To illustrate Groth, Hobson, and Gary thoroughly explore two distinct typologies in “The Child Molesters: Clinical Observations,” including fixated child molesters, his or her essential sexual orientation revolves around children, and regressed child molesters, occurs when stress regarding the primary sexual attraction to age appropriate peers causes him or her to be intimately involved with children (Groth, Hobson, Gary 3). As reported by the authors, the individual needs to be defined by one of these typologies in order to determine course of treatment considering the uniqueness of each

Allsopp, R. (2014). Moral Panics, The Media and Male and Female Offenders of Child Sexual Abuse. Internet Journal of Crime. Retrieved from http://www.penelopeironstone.com/Critcher.pdf

There is a continuous debate regarding the etiology of pedophilia. Today many think of pedophilia as a mental issue of deviance, but many studies are showing a combination of factors. For example, early sexual conduct, history of sexual misuse and pre-birth or early adolescence neurodevelopmental issues are attributed to the etiology of pedophilia (Goode, 2011). Researchers and therapists feel that sexual attraction to children is more of a biological cause that is beyond the pedophiles ability to control the sexual desire (Kaplan, 2015). Studies have revealed a strong indication of a neuro biological problem in the structure and function of frontal, temporal, and limbic areas of the brain (Tenbergen, 2015). How abnormality is socially developed is integral to any comprehension of sexual conduct

A major point of social dominance theory is that all humans belong to various groups. There are powerful groups that provide status and authority and there are powerless groups as children that are easy targets of violence. Some adults sexually abuse a child to feel the power and control they don’t feel in their relationships with other adults. Sometimes, adults who have intimate sexual relationships with other adults may sexually abuse children in moments of unusual stress. Other adults are primarily sexually attracted to children and act impulsively when presented with an unexpected opportunity to sexually abuse a child. Each person who sexually abuses a child is motivated by issues unique to that individual. Some adults who sexually abuse children recognize that it is wrong and are deeply repentant. Other adults believe their behavior is okay and that what they do shows their love for children.

When thinking of sexual predators preying on children the first impression that comes to mind is how a person could commit an act so despicable. This is the question that lingers in the back of every logical person mind. In theory there will always be an explanation that could better help people comprehend the reasons on why tragedies such as pedophilia occur. One could consider the breakdown of a person’s societal bond which is considered the social control theory and or the result of an individual having a totally different thinking process known as the psychological theory. Although both of these prove worthy theories, the psychological theory for pedophilia analysis is more sound in comparison to the social control theory.

However, except physical signs and behavioural indicators of child sexual maltreatment there exists another indicative factor, that of the perpetrator’s profile (Beckett, 2003). Seeing that in most cases the perpetrator was a person that the child trusted; a family member, a friend, a priest, a teacher or a coach (Barker & Hodes, 2007; Kinnear, 2007; Munro, 2007; Sun et al., 2008; Hood, 1998), it is useful for any childhood professional to recognise some risk factors (DuPre & Stiles, 2015). Summit and Kryso (1978) found two common characteristics in abusers; inability to control their sudden desires and the confusion of roles. However, other researchers argued that there are no universal characteristics of abusers, just some risk factors (DuPre

The idea of child sexual abuse is one that not many people like to think about or even really talk about. It is a subject that most people believe is clear cut. According to the law, it is wrong to have child-adult sex no matter the circumstances. However, when reading Rind et. al. (1998), the idea of unwanted verses a willing encounter of child-adult sex is discussed. While, this idea may be controversial, I do agree that it is a very important factor when considering the effects that child sexual abuse (CSA) has on an individual. Although, children and adolescents are not fully developed, there is a level of understanding that comes with ‘right and wrong’ according to laws as well as social norms. Whether someone is willing or unwilling changes their perception of the event happening. While this most likely depends on age (the older you are, the more understanding you have about a sexual encounter), it is also important to distinguish that each individual may react differently to any given situation. For example, even something as simple as a surprise birthday party can garner two separate reactions from two different people.

Ever since psychology and psychologists have existed, a lot of work has been done to devise the theoretical model of the sexual offenders. The main reason why psychologists have worked on these models is that it can help them understand how the minds of these people work. As a result, it can help these people predict the behavior of such offenders and work out ways to treat them. In this part of the paper, we shall briefly discuss some of the commonly known theories of sexual deviancy that causes these people to commit offence.

“If someone wants to sexually abuse a child, they usually have to build up a relationship of