Sex Offender Understandings of Guilt and Remorse - Research Paper Example

? Section/# The following analysis focuses upon the means by which the sex offender integrates with a baseline of understanding with relation to guilt/remorse. As such, the main determinants that drive this realization are elaborated upon, analyzed, and weighted in terms of overall psychological effects that they likely have in forming the opinion of the sex offender. Accordingly, the determinant factors of lack of sympathy, the existence of an altered form of reality, and lastly, a complete lack of sympathy will all be engaged in seeking to define the experience that is oftentimes indicative of the broad majority of sex offenders. By seeking to analyze each of these to a full and complete extent, it is the hope of this researcher that the issue will be fully manifest and plainly evident. As a result of this, a further level of understanding will be gleaned by the reader with regards to the understanding of guilt and remorse that the sex offender oftentimes exhibits. Although a great deal of scholarship has been performed on the level and extent to which individuals that engage in crime such as serial murder or especially brutal and horrific crimes can exhibit a degree of remorse, identification with, and sadness for the victims that their actions have impact upon, a relatively low amount of research has been performed on the extent to which the sex offender integrates with feelings of guilt and/or remorse with regards to their crimes. Accordingly, it will be the purpose of this brief analysis to seek to broadly understand the way the sex offender integrates with his/her victim and/or the victim’s family or loved ones after sex crime has been affected. It should be strongly noted that as a means of performing such an analysis, this author has needed to generalize sex crime and sex offenders, as well as behaviors, and order to seek to find and build something of a broad overarching stereotype. In this way, the following analysis will seek to discuss and analyze the low levels of self-esteem, lack of sympathy for victims, and distorted perceptions and thoughts relevant to both reality and the offenses themselves. With regards to these fundamental areas, the reader can and should realize, beyond the scope of this individual paper, that the core issues underlying sex offender guilt/remorse are oftentimes housed deeply within the psyche and life experiences that these individuals have had; rather than these being indicative of a life of heart in crime – oftentimes the net results of other criminals with regards to remorse and feelings of guilt/sadness. Psychologically speaking, the sex offender it statistically much more likely to suffer from any number of self-esteem related issues as compared to other violent criminals. This is particularly interesting within the context that sex crimes, and rate in general, are nearly always concentric upon power; not the unrestrained passion and desire for sexual relations (Brar et al, 2012). Such an understanding helps to integrate with the reader and appreciation for the fact that, unless the underlying self-esteem/ego issues are spoken to and for solved, the level to which recidivism is likely to occur is greatly increase. Within the context of being able feel guilt or remorse, the sex offender oftentimes integrates an understanding of their own inadequacy and utilizes this understanding as an excuse for the behavior they had engaged in. This of course serves as something of a copout; rather than choosing to engage with the reality of what they have perpetrated with regards to an innocent individual, the sex offender oftentimes seeks to provide an excuse that is based on prior inadequacy. The issue and determinacy of self esteem is a vitally important factor due to the ramifications that such an understanding has with relation to the likelihood of the individual to integrate with a degree of rehabilitation. Usually, the process of rehabilitation for sex offenders involves voluntary, even mandatory, admissions of guilt as a means of starting from the very beginning of what prompted the individual to perpetrate the sex offense. However, the fact of the matter is that even by admitting to the deed and seeking to gain a level of counseling, the individual still is not able to integrate with the root of the issue that prompted them initially to engage in such behavior. As a function of this understanding, the reader/researcher should come to the realization that seeking to understand and tackle the self-esteem issues related with sex offenses might necessarily be the most productive and effective means of reducing recidivism. Delving somewhat further into the psychological understanding of why a lack of guilt or remorse oftentimes this within the mind sex and are, this analysis will also put forward the understanding that a lack of sympathy oftentimes exists in the mind of the sex offender (Roseman et al, 2009). Though one might be tempted to understand sympathy and remorse as one in the same, the fact of the matter is that the lack of sympathy for the victim does not correlate to what takes place afterwards; rather, the sympathy for the victim, and an understanding of their overall humanity, is something that the sex offender is oftentimes incapable of engaging in – even before the crime is committed. Conversely, guilt and remorse the physically relate feelings and understandings that take place after the crime itself has been perpetrated. Although related, both of these psychological understandings strike at the same root core; selfishness and possible narcissism on behalf of the sex offender. Of course one can hardly integrate with a complete understanding of sex offenders without at least tangentially relating these offenders to those sociopathic tendencies exhibited and other more violent offenses. Even a cursory review of individuals that have been convicted of serial killing, or other such horrific crimes, reveals the fact that guilt and/or sympathy for the victim is also hardly evidenced whatsoever within the inner workings of their conscience. Such an understanding naturally provides policy makers and researchers with a great deal of information with regards to what extent these individuals can ultimately be rehabilitated. The final impediment which will herein be discussed, with regards to how the sex offender has difficulty integrating with feelings of remorse or guilt, has to do with the way in which the sex offender view reality. Although many criminologists stated that this particular view is merely a means I which an attorneys seek to have their clients acquitted, the fact of the matter is that psychological research has been able to prove that the same guiding constructs and mores of appropriate human behavior are oftentimes not represented within the mind of the sex offender (Smith, 2012). This is not meant to infer origin note that the sex offender is somehow not responsible for crimes they commit; rather, it merely denotes the fact that the psychological construction that is oftentimes exhibited within the sex offender is ultimately much different than that which is represented within offenders of other crimes. It is equally important that that within all three of the determinants that has thus far been measured, this author has taken liberties to generalize and otherwise stereotype the perpetrators of sex crimes. Although this, in and of itself, is something of a dangerous practice, it is one of the only forms of analysis that can be performed on such a wide subject matter in the span of but a few pages of analysis. If a thesis length response were required, many more of the determinants and nuances that sex offender’s exhibit could of course be analyzed. The ultimate integration and understanding of guilt is an inescapable determinate that must be weighed as it is the most important factors in seeking to realize the way in which the individual can be retrained seek to understand their level of responsibility within the given situation. Ultimately, the level to which sex offenders are able to display real levels of guilt and empathy for the actions that they have perpetrated on their victims is of fundamental importance in seeking to understand the inner workings of sex offender’s technology as well as seeking to realize the level to which recidivism will be realized. Without an appreciation for the gravity of the crimes that it been formed, it is unlikely that any major life changes will be affected within the criminal. Without by changes being effected, the rate of recidivism is likely to be extraordinarily high. Although it is not the purpose of this analysis to state that sex offenders are in revocable he psychologically damaged, what can be inferred from the information that is been researched is that by and large, this group of offenders demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding with regards to guilt and realize ancient of the gravity of the crimes that they had committed. References Brar, L. G., Wortzel, H. S., & Martinez, R. (2012). Mandatory Admission of Guilt in Sex Offender Programs. Journal Of The American Academy Of Psychiatry & The Law, 40(3), 433-435. Roseman, C. P., Ritchie, M., & Laux, J. M. (2009). A Restorative Justice Approach to Empathy Development in Sex Offenders: An Exploratory Study. Journal Of Addictions & Offender Counseling, 29(2), 96-109. Smith, D. R. (2012). Guilt and shame in regards to sex offender empathy. Dissertation Abstracts International, 72, Outline: Introduction and terms that will be used to analyze sex offenders within the current study I. Self Esteem a. The underlying root cause of the majority of sex crimes b. Emphasis of the fact that sex crimes are not perpetrated out of a desire for sex but out of low self esteem c. Discussion of the fact that this low self esteem is often cited by convicted sex offenders as being one of the main driving forces II. Lack of sympathy leading to lack of guilt a. Discussion of the differential between sympathy and guilt b. Discussion of how lack of sympathy causes the crime to be perpetrated in the first place c. Discussion and analysis of how this concept ties into the lack of sympathy with regards to other crimes and other criminals III. Reality and the sex offender a. Discussion of how research indicates that the sex offender views reality through a different lens b. Discussion of the means by which this is used as an excuse for behavior Read More