The Influence of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Adult Sexual Offense Victim Selection.
详细信息
文摘
The etiology of sexually deviant behaviors is unclear, but it is possible that events experienced as a child may have a relationship with adult offense behaviors. Sexual offending is associated with cognitive distortions, denial of offense, and minimization of harm inflicted, all of which may have been learned as a child, especially for those who, at one time, were sexual abuse victims Connolly & Woollons, 2008). Children learn from those in their immediate environment Bandura, 1971), so it is possible that offending behaviors were learned through direct experience. Prevalence rates of sexual offenders who were sexually abused as children have been inconsistent, but it has been hypothesized that aspects of the offenders abuse might mimic characteristics of victims selected Lindsay, Steptoe, & Haut, 2012). Archival data from one outpatient sex offender treatment facility in Orange, California was analyzed to determine whether variables such as offender age and gender, victim age and gender, and relationship of offender to victim, were significantly different for offenders who had a history of sexual abuse, compared to offenders who did not. T-test analysis did not show a significant difference in age at the time of the offense for both offenders who endorsed a history of childhood sexual abuse, and those who did not: t ＝ -.788, df ＝ 84, p ＞ .005, one-tailed. Additionally, Chi-square analyses did not uncover a relationship between the two groups of offenders those with a history of sexual abuse, and those without) and variables of victim age: chi2 3, N＝86) ＝ 1.865, p ＝ .601, Cramers V ＝ .147； offender and victim gender: chi2 1, N＝80) ＝ 1.705, p ＝ .192, Cramers V ＝ .146； and relationship of offender to victim: chi2 1, N＝86) ＝ .285, p ＝ .664, Cramers V ＝ .058. Post hoc analysis was completed to determine the possibility of significance with all variables analyzed together, but the logistical regression did not detect significance omnibus chi-square ＝ 2.86, df ＝3, p ＞ .0005). It is possible that a relationship does exist between childhood sexual abuse and later adult victim selection, but the variables used in this research did not represent that link. Additionally, it could be that no link exists at all. Future research should be directed by the elimination of variables used in this study, with greater focus directed on alternate hypotheses.