Non-Sexual Delinquency in Juvenile Sexual Offenders: The Mediating and Moderating Influences of Emotional Empathy

The theoretical linkage of empathy to sexually aggressive and antisocial behavior is reviewed, and assessment conducted on the role of emotional empathy in the non-sexual delinquent behavior of juvenile sexual offenders. In examination of developmental antecedents of empathy, self-reported parental attachment and positive fathering experiences were found to be positively associated with emotional empathy, while reported exposure to violence against females was inversely related. As hypothesized, emotional empathy was found to have both mediating and moderating influences on risk of engagement in non-sexual delinquency. Emotional empathy was found to be negatively associated with non-sexual delinquency and to partially mediate the positive influences of exposure to violence against females and hostile masculinity. Emotional empathy was also found to function as a moderator of hostile masculinity, with high empathy levels associated with an attenuated positive effect of hostile masculinity on non-sexual delinquency, and low levels with an accentuated effect. Possible mechanisms for this moderating influence are discussed, along with clinical implications of the findings and directions for future research.     

Effect of Psychopathy, Abuse, and Ethnicity on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Decision-Making and Supervision Strategies

Probation officers exercise substantial discretion in their daily work with troubled and troubling juvenile offenders. In this experiment, we examine the effect of psychopathic features, child abuse, and ethnicity on 204 officers’ expectancies of, recommendations for, and approach to supervising, juvenile offenders. The results indicate that officers (a) have decision-making and supervision approaches that are affected by a youth’s psychopathic traits and history of child abuse—but not ethnicity; (b) view both abused youth and psychopathic youth as highly challenging cases on a path toward adult criminality; and (c) have greater hope and sympathy for abused youth than psychopathic youth. For abused youth, officers are likely to recommend psychological services and “go the extra mile” by providing greater support, referrals, and networking than is typical for their caseload. For psychopathic youth, officers expect poor treatment outcomes and are” extra strict,” enforcing rules that typically are not enforced for others on their caseload.     

Emotional Intelligence: Painting Different Paths for Low-Anxious and High-Anxious Psychopathic Variants

Psychopathic individuals may be disaggregated into low-anxious (emotionally stable “primary psychopaths”) and high-anxious (emotionally disturbed “secondary psychopaths”) variants that may differ in their capacity for adaptive behavior. In turn, the skills encompassed by emotional intelligence (EI) predict social and business success. Based on a sample of 188 male undergraduates, we evaluate the performance of low-anxious psychopathic, high-anxious psychopathic, and low psychopathic comparison groups on a measure of EI. High-anxious psychopaths manifested significantly lower EI than the other two groups, particularly with respect to managing emotions and facilitating thoughts. In contrast, low-anxious psychopaths manifested intact EI, with skill in facilitating thoughts. High-anxious (but not low anxious) psychopaths were more likely than low psychopathic comparisons to manifest violence. These results are consistent with the notion that primary psychopaths have greater capacity to attain success in traditional society than secondary psychopaths, and invite a direct test of this hypothesis in future research.     

The Role of Beliefs,Attitudes and Adverse Childhood Experiences in Predicting Men’s Reactions Towards Their Spouses’ Violence

The purpose of the present article was to determine the ability of cognitive factors (beliefs and attitudes) and adverse childhood experiences to predict men’s reactions towards their spouses’ violence. To do so, 120 males who had referred to family court to seek divorce due to spouses’ violence were randomly selected and an author’s -made questionnaire containing 27 subscales was administered to them. Four of the 27 subscales comprised of 22 questions regarding “types of reactions towards spouses’ violence”, “attitudes towards spouse”, and “experiencing family violence during childhood”. Our results showed that witnessing violence during childhood could positively predict reactions such as “cessation of relationship” and “reprisal”. Men’s beliefs regarding “permission to use violence” could positively predict reaction such as “cessation of relationship”. Furthermore, factors such as “Believing his wife is more knowledgeable” and “Wife’s Physical Appearance” negatively predicted reactions such as “Cessation of relationship” and “Tolerance”. Also “Man’s perceived career success” positively predicted the reaction of “Attempts to Resume Relationship”. These results are discussed in the context of the existing literature.     

The Impact of Child Abuse History, PTSD Symptoms, and Anger Arousal on Dating Violence Perpetration Among College Women

Preliminary research suggests that child abuse is indirectly associated with female-perpetrated intimate partner violence via posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and anger. To date, however, no known studies have investigated these relationships for physical and psychological dating violence within a female college sample. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of child abuse history, PTSD symptoms, and anger arousal on female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence. Female undergraduates (N = 496) completed measures of child abuse, PTSD symptoms, anger arousal, and dating violence perpetration as part of a larger trauma and violence study. Results indicated that child abuse directly predicted female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence and indirectly impacted female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence via PTSD symptoms and anger arousal. The direct relationships between PTSD symptoms and female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence were nonsignificant after controlling for the effect of anger arousal.     

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN SAME‐GENDER RELATIONSHIPS

Physical violence occurs in 11–12% of same‐gender couples, which suggests that domestic violence is an abuse of power that can happen in any type of intimate relationship, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Although incidents of violence occur at the same rate in same‐gender couples and cross‐gender couples, the violence appears to be milder in same‐gender couples and it is unclear what percentage of same‐gender violence should be characterized as abuse or intimate terrorism. Same‐gender victims also suffer from the additional stress of severe isolation and the abuser's threats to expose the victim's sexual orientation in a hostile manner.     

Assessing the Relative Importance of the Child Sexual Abuse Interview Protocol Items to Assist Child Victims in Abuse Disclosure

This study identifies (1) the importance of using the Child Sexual Abuse Interview Protocol for multiple disciplines to obtain detailed information of what the alleged child victims say and claim, and (2) the concurrence of multiple professionals about the relevance of items in the protocol in their practice. A survey with 100 items based on the Child Sexual Abuse Interview Protocol was self administered by 36 professionals working at a child advocacy center including administrators, attorneys, child advocates, support persons, physicians, police, psychologists, and social workers. These respondents unanimously felt it was very important for interviewers to complete two specific items during the course of an investigative interview: “showing the interviewer is listening to the child” and “showing patience with the child.” As indicated by the average rating scores, 89 items were perceived between very important and important, and nine items as somewhat important. No item on this scale was rated as doesn’t matter or unimportant. Social workers and police officers did not differ significantly in their ratings of the importance of these items. Both quantitative and qualitative results support four major considerations when using an interview guide: 1) flexibility in opening and closing the interview, 2) professional and appropriate use of the anatomical dolls, 3) assessment of the age and mental state of the child, and 4) determination of the order of questions based on severity of incidents. This study provides data to identify the importance of using a comprehensive interview protocol for multidisciplinary professionals who work with alleged victims of child sexual abuse. The use of these 100 items will enhance the effectiveness of conducting a one-time interview to avoid repeated interviews. This study that was originally aimed at comparing differences among professionals has, in fact, demonstrated the similarities across disciplines, as agreement among various professional groups was substantial. This finding dissolves the myth that multiple disciplines brought forth diverse opinions and instead encourages the “working together” concept of a team.     

Asian Male Domestic Violence Victims: Services Exclusive for Men

The main reasons abused men do not seek social services include their strong endorsement of social/cultural values and avoidance of gender role conflict. Through internet-based service connections, we did not find sources in Asia, Australia, or New Zealand that advertised programs exclusively for male victims of domestic violence (DV). Nine social services in Hong Kong and Singapore describe their work with men in DV situations, but the main focus is “men as perpetrators.” Targeting men as victims, 32 sources in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom describe services designed especially for male DV victims. Findings demonstrate that services for male victims must address such factors as secretiveness, cultural values, masculine identity, tolerance, shame, and loss of face.     

Treatment of Concurrent Substance Dependence,Child Neglect and Domestic Violence: A Single Case Examination Involving Family Behavior Therapy

Although child neglect and substance abuse co-occur in greater than 60% of child protective service cases, intervention outcome studies are deplorably lacking. Therefore, a home-based Family Behavior Therapy is described in the treatment of a woman evidencing child neglect, substance dependence, domestic violence and other co-occurring problems. Treatment included contingency management, self control, stimulus control, communication and child management skills training exercises, and financial management components. Results indicated improvements in child abuse potential, home hazards, domestic violence, and drug use, which were substantiated by objective urinalysis testing, and tours of her home. Validity checks indicated the participant was being truthful in her responses to standardized questionnaires, and assessors were “blind” to study intent. Limitations (i.e., lack of experimental control and follow-up data collection) of this case example are discussed in light of these results.     

The ‘Butner Study’ Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-on Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders

This study compared two groups of child pornography offenders participating in a voluntary treatment program: men whose known sexual offense history at the time of judicial sentencing involved the possession, receipt, or distribution of child abuse images, but did not include any “hands-on” sexual abuse; and men convicted of similar offenses who had documented histories of hands-on sexual offending against at least one child victim. The goal was to determine whether the former group of offenders were “merely” collectors of child pornography at little risk for engaging in hands-on sexual offenses, or if they were contact sex offenders whose criminal sexual behavior involving children, with the exception of Internet crimes, went undetected. Our findings show that the Internet offenders in our sample were significantly more likely than not to have sexually abused a child via a hands-on act. They also indicate that the offenders who abused children were likely to have offended against multiple victims, and that the incidence of “crossover” by gender and age is high.

Attachment,anger and anxiety of male sexual offenders

Abstract

Common factors underlie sexual and non-sexual aggression, and they co-occur at high rates. This study reports on whether Dutton et al.'s model of partner abuse (1994) also predicts sexual offender status. Incarcerated sexual offenders (n?=?144) and non-sexual offenders (n?=?34) completed a voluntary, anonymous survey of attachment, anger and anxiety measures. Sexual offenders produced significantly higher insecure attachment (p?=?0.001), anger (p?<?0.05) and generalized anxiety (p?<?0.01) scores than non-sexual offenders. Intended multivariate analyses were prohibited by multicollinearity between predictors. Although insecure attachment, anxiety and anger distinguish sexual from non-sexual offenders, their predictive power in a multivariate model is yet to be determined. Awareness of the co-occurrence of sexual and non-sexual violence would improve assessment and treatment approaches for professionals in both arenas.     

Predictability of Physical and Psychological Violence by Early Adverse Childhood Experiences

Early Adverse Childhood experiences (ACEs) in families of origin can take the form of witnessing it and/or being its victim, both of which can lead to the occurrence of domestic violence. Given such close linkage, the purpose of the present study was to determine the predictive abilities of ACEs regarding specific types of physical and psychological violence. To do so, 50 couples from those referred to five different family courts in Tehran to seek divorce due to domestic violence, were randomly selected and administered an author’s-made questionnaire assessing different types of physical and psychological violence and the participant’s history of abuse by their parents. Our findings showed that witnessing domestic violence in childhood can predict different types of physical and psychological violence, but mostly could account for “hitting” of the physical type and “cursing” of the psychological type. Similarly, being the victim of domestic violence mostly accounted for predict “strangling” of the physical type and “cursing” of the psychological type. Such results are discussed in the context of the existing literature and underscore ACEs importance in terms of their predictive ability of various types of physical and psychological violence.     

Personality Disorder Symptoms in Women as a Result of Chronic Intimate Male Partner Violence

This study explores the personality disorder symptoms of women victims of intimate male partner violence (IPV), after controlling for the contribution of experiences of childhood abuse. Victims of both physical and psychological violence (n = 73) or psychological violence alone (n = 53) were compared with non-abused control women (n = 52). Information about sociodemographic characteristics, childhood abuse, and personality characteristics (MCMI-II) was obtained through face-to-face structured interviews. Women victims of IPV had higher scores than controls in schizoid, avoidant, self-defeating personality scales, as well as in the three pathological personality scales (schizotypal, borderline and paranoid). Both physical and psychological IPV were strongly associated with personality disorder symptomatology, regardless of the effects of childhood abuse. These findings underscore the need to screen for personality disorder symptoms in women victims of IPV when dealing with therapeutic interventions.     

Sexual Trauma and Psychological Injuries: What Experts Need to Know

This article was written to introduce readers to the bodies of work that inform experts who conduct evaluations of plaintiffs or offer generic testimony in cases involving claims of psychological injuries in the aftermath of sexual trauma, including childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, and sexual harassment. In addition to summarizing the research literatures on those three areas of maltreatment, it reviews what mental health experts should know about our laws, about professional standards for evaluations, and about other relevant areas of research, such as assessment of posttraumatic stress symptoms, disclosures by young children, “normal” childhood sexual behaviors, “repressed” or “recovered” memories, memory and trauma, memory distortions, and resilience.     

Why Victims of Intimate Partner Violence Withdraw Protection Orders

While reasons for returning to abusive partners have received considerable attention in research on intimate partner violence, few studies have examined the reasons why victims fail to follow through with the protection order process, regardless of whether or not they return to their abusive partners. Fifty-five women who were in the process of withdrawing a protection order against a male intimate partner were surveyed in the present analysis. Recognizing that reasons given for withdrawing a protection order often follow common themes, individual responses were organized into several “domains,” or groupings of such reasons. The most commonly cited domain involved a “concrete change” on behalf of the victim or defendant, which made the protection order less necessary in the victim’s view. This was closely followed by the domain addressing emotional attachment to the abuser. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.     

Spouse Abuse and Child Abuse by Army Soldiers

This study analyzed data collected by the U.S. Army’s Family Advocacy Program, the group primarily responsible for family violence prevention, identification, evaluation, treatment, and follow-up on Army installations. Patterns of spouse abuse and child abuse perpetrated within a five year period (2000–2004) were examined in a sample of 10,864 Army Soldiers who were substantiated for family violence offenses. Three groups of family violence offenders were compared: (1) those who perpetrated spouse offenses only; (2) those who perpetrated child offenses only; and (3) those who perpetrated both spouse and child offenses. Results showed that the majority of substantiated family violence offenders were spouse offenders who had not committed child abuse (61%), followed by child offenders who had not committed spouse abuse (27%), and finally those who committed both spouse and child offenses (12%). The three groups of family violence offenders differed in terms of the types of abuse they perpetrated (neglect of children, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse), their experiences of being a spouse abuse victim, and sociodemographic characteristics. Twelve percent of all spouse abusers committed multiple spouse abuse incidents, and 10% of all child abusers committed multiple child abuse incidents.