The Psychology of Sexual Offending - Article Example

The Psychology of Sexual Offending There has always been a debate as to why people commit crimes and there is literature as to why people use sex asa way to offend others. Often people give a reason for why they do these things but no one has really been able to get to the heart of why people prey on others in a sexual way. Many theories suggest biological factors while others say it is psychological. Still others will debate that sexual predators have a bit of both of these angles in order to do what they do. The debate has gone on for many years as to why this crime is actually committed. One of the challenges for law enforcement is that they have a tendency to treat all criminals the same. When they understand something different about the sexual offender they still have to treat them the same. As an example, there is a body of evidence that says that there are females who commit sexual crimes against others. Adolescent girls can be a part of this crime but many law enforcement agencies tend to ignore these crimes because they do not think that girls commit this type of crime. According to the National Center on Sexual Behaviour of Youth (2004), "about 1% of forcible rapes and 7% of juvenile arrests for sexual offences" are adolescent girls between the ages of 13 and 17 (p. 1). This has become an alarming statistic for law enforcement because there is also a body of literature that says that girls should be treated differently than boys in this crime. Currently all sexual offenders are treated the same way in the courts and in the jail system. Another difficulty for law enforcement with females is that their crimes are usually underreported more so then men. Some of the basic reasons why this occurs include: 1. People around the offending child fail to recognize that they are committing this crime because they are not looking for it in a girl. 2. They think that females are unable emotionally and physically to commit this type of crime. 3. Females are more tolerated in committing this crime if it is not a physical contact one (that is, exhibitionism, peeping, indecent phone calls). 4. Females are perceived to be a lower risk for this type of perpetrated crime. (National Center on Sexual Behaviour of Youth, p. 1). The fact is that sexual crimes are most of the time committed by men but they can also be committed by girls and women. This is something that the literature points out and this makes it difficult for many to enforce. BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES There are several psychological theories that seek to explain different aspects of crime that are necessary to discuss. Instinct theories suggest that an individual has an instinct that makes them become aggressive. Freud believed that most criminals had a struggle between death (Thanatos) and life (Eros) and that these two were active all the time. As an individual continues to struggle with these two they become aggressive in order to balance the struggle in some way. When the individual can use aggression to do acts of non-violence the individual becomes less aggressive. However, if the aggression is turned inward this may create in the individual, "violence, murder or suicide." (Hollin, 1989, p. 64). Lorenz said that aggression comes from a "fighting instinct" that is a natural function in human beings. It is something that is always building in an indivdiaul that eventually needs to vent itself. The venting will have to happen in small amounts and the tension will subside or it will build to an aggressive acting out (as quoted in Hollins, 1989, p. 64). This is similar to Freuds theory except that Lorenz believed that the instinct was something that was innate in every individual while Freud saw it as a smaller struggle that only some people had. Drive theorists suggest that an individual has a drive that motivates them to a particular behaviour. The drive is not seen as innate but rather acquired through experience. This theory suggests that: "The aggressive or violent behaviour may be directed at either the source of the frustration, or displaced to other targets which have some relationship with the primary source of the frustration" (Hollins, p. 65). Research later than 1961 suggested that there was a distinction between "hostile aggression" and "instrumental aggression" . In other words hostile aggression was seen as the type that was intended to injure someone while instrumental aggression was seen as a means to an end (Hollins, p. 65). The challenge with sexual crimes is that they can be done for a myriad of reasons and those people chosen to be acted against are varied. THEORIES OF SEXUAL OFFENDING Hollins gives several theories that are specific to sexual offending. The interesting theory is that sexual offenders should be put into two categories: Those who commit violent crimes like rape and those who commit sexual crimes that are considered to be less violent. Most theories try to fit sexual offending into one of these categories and compare it with other types of crime. Hollins and others say that this is not possible. Finkelhor has created a theory that states that there are four "complimentary processes" that act in different combinations in each case of sexual interest, especially in children. He sees these as having significance to the individual, physiological and sociocultural variables and concepts of the individual perpetrator. His concept is listed in this chart: 1. Emotional Congruence Children attractive because of their Low dominance and male socialization To dominance; offender immature, low self-esteem, aggressive. 2. Sexual Arousal Children sexually arousing due to offenders socialization through personal experience, models, or child pornography: possibility of physiological explanation e.g. hormonal levels. 3. Blockage Problems in forming adult relationships with women; related to sexual anxiety, poor heterosocial skills, attitudes towards sex. 4. Disinhibition Offender able to overcome inhibitions through drugs, alcohol, cognitive distortion; or situational stress disrupts inhibitors. (Finkelhor as cited in Hollins, 2004, p. 95). Each of these areas seeks to understand why the individual perpetrator preys on children and to further the ability of law enforcement to understand this crime. Finkelhor also saw his theory as a way to look at how men are raised and how this influences their acting out. As an example, he suggests that men are raised to "sexualize their emotions" so they are looking to fulfil their emotional needs when they act out in this way. Single Factor Theories Some researchers suggest that there is a single factor that causes an individual to become a sexual offender. The examples that they use are presented here: 1. Biological -- these researchers suggest that the individual has a hormone or over active testosterone as the reason why they become sexual offenders. Other theorists believe that these individuals may have a predisposition to aggression because of "physiologically or biologically predetermined sexual appetites or sexual preferences". (U.S. Department of Justice, n.d.) 2. Behavioural -- these theories suggest that sexual offending happens because of conditioning or learning. In other words many people learn to be sexually aggressive because of situations in their homes. The other theory is that over time these individuals are exposed to certain things like pornography where they fantasy through masturbation and as their arousal or interest escalates they may commit a crime. 3. Sociocultural -- these theories suggest that our society has something to do with the choice of offending in this situation. They blame things like the desensitization of violence, the way women are sexualized or the fact that men are raised to be sexually aggressive where women are concerned. 4. Attachment/Intimacy -- these theories suggest that the individual that becomes a sexual offender do so because they have problems with attachment and/or intimacy with people of their own age or the opposite gender. Some of the challenges in this area are that the offender seeks a closeness with someone but they are afraid to do so. This means that a child may be the one they chose because children are easier to get close to than adults. (Source: US Department of Justice) Whatever the reason for sexual offending it is a crime and the psychological factors only add to the information that discovers the need for offenders to continue the crime. CHARACTERISTICS OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS It is relevant in this discussion to discuss the characteristics of sexual offenders as they fit within the framework of the various theories. Although many rapists and other sexual offenders have been tested using instruments like the MMPI and Goughs Socialisation and Responsibility scale there are discrepancies as to why an individual does rape and how they interact with women. The challenge is that when research is done in this area it is difficult to find the exact match to an individual theory because men are different in the reasons why they rape. This means that there is no conclusive evidence to say specifically why rape occurs at any given time (Blackburn, 1995, p. 299). What is clear is that different violence is reserved for different situations and in the case of sexual offending the differences can occur between the different types of offending. As seen here, with rape, men have different reasons for raping women. In terms of sexual offending and children the information tends to lean towards Finkelhors theory regarding emotional congruence and the issue that those committing the crime find children easier prey when they need to engage in sex. This also means that they are able to dominate and control children easier than they could with adults. There is the body of evidence that also says that these men are immature and lack self-esteem and these two issues prevent them from going after people their own age (Blackburn, p. 305). Treatment of Sexual Offenders Various literature suggests that there are different ways that sexual offenders should be treated in the criminal justice system. Grossman, Martis, Fichtner and Christopher (1999) studied different types of treatment for sexual offenders and how they worked toward recidivism. They found that the most effective treatment seemed to be antiandrogen medications. These are synthetic progesterone that "reduce the serum levels of circulating testosterone" (p. 350). Other types of treatment has included medical castration, oral and implanted estrogens, and other hormonal therapies (p. 351). Many studies have shown that although there are ways of working with offenders they do not necessarily stop sexual offending. This is one of the reasons why many offenders are undergoing psychiatric treatment for mental conditions. Aldhous (2007) presents a different aspect to sexual offenders when he presents the controversy over their continued incarceration. It seems that many offenders are kept in mental institutions beyond their sentencing because when they have been let out they have committed crimes again. This is both costly and is against the civil rights of the individuals being held. This practice of "civil commitment" for those people who are considered "dangerous" happens not only in the United States but in other countries. This "civil commitment" status only applies to those offenders who are already incarcerated and who have some type of mental condition that makes them "dangerous" under the law (Aldous, par. 5). Part of this controversy stems from the fact that the DSM IV is used to "categorize" the offenders and many of them do not fit within the framework of the diagnoses listed. This means that many of the offenders are being held with for the crime under false diagnosis so that they can be retained in the mental facility. Many law school personnel are getting involved with this controversy to try an overturn the verdicts in many cases. Scheff and Retzinger (1997) studied research to find an effective way to treat sexual offenders and found that the studies they reviewed found no effective way to treat these offenders. Their conclusion was that the reason there was no way to treat them is because the researchers did not look at the relationship between emotion and the individual relationships that these individuals work within. By only focusing on belief, behaviour and thoughts of the offenders they were unable to find a reliable treatment (par. 1). Their studies resulted in findings that instead of these men seeking to control and dominate as a way of aggression, they themselves are feeling less than adequate and in return they have to dominate and control the situation (par. 2). Scheff and Retzinger propose that the best way to treat sexual offenders is through "uncovering of repressed shame, and learning of communication techniques which decrease the arousal of shame." (end paragraph). Nordqvist (2006) reported on a study that showed that regular therapy does not cure sexual offending. Researchers at University of London and the University of Leicester found that psychological therapy techniques have been able to reduce the level of offending by 40% but it does not totally stop the individual from offending; they studied "paedophilia, exhibitionism or sexual assault" (par. 2). The study suggests that there needs to be more study within the framework of the outcomes of treatment in order for more opportunity to help offenders to happen. Although sexual offenders continue to offend there still remains the difficulty in deciding the types of treatment that is needed. In this researchers opinion this may be due to the fact that there are such discrepancies between offenders and their characteristics. It seems that it is difficult for researchers to understand exactly where they need to start in learning more about sexual offenders and there habits. In order to understand them from a psychological viewpoint it seems that there needs to be less emphasis on what happens to them once inside the criminal justice system. References Aldhous, P. (21 February 2007). Sex offenders: Throwing away the key. New Science. Retrieved March 29, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/ article/mg19325924.200. Blackburn, R. (1995). The psychology of criminal conduct: theory, research and practice. Chichester: Wiley. Grossman, Linda S., Martis, Brian, Fichtner, Christopher G. (1999). Are sex offenders treatable? A Research Overview Psychiatr Serv 50: 349-361 Hollin, C.R.(1989). Psychology and crime. London: Routledge. National Center on Sexual Behaviour of Youth. (2004). What research shows about female adolescent sex offenders. Retrieved March 24, 2009 from http://www.ncsby.org/pages/publications/Female%20ASO.pdf. Nordqvist, C. (30 Jun 2006). Therapy Does Not Cure Sex Offenders, Study Medical News Today. Retrieved March 31, 2009 from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/46368.php. Scheff, T. M. and Retzinger, S.M. (1997). Shame, Anger and the Social Bond: A Theory of Sexual Offenders and Treatment. Electronic Journal of Sociology. No pagination given. Retrieved March 29, 2009 from http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.001/sheff.html. U.S. Department of Justice. (n.d). Etiological and explanatory theories. Center for Sex Offender Management. Training Curriculum. 40 minute presentation. Retrieved March 26, 2009 from http://www.csom.org/train/etiology/5/5_1.htm Read More