An Empirical Taxonomy of Incarcerated Male Sexual Offenders - Literature review Example

Adult Sexual Offenders: An Empirical Study Name: Institution: Adult Sexual Offenders This paper reviews the article “An Empirical Taxonomy of Incarcerated Male Sexual Offenders” by Fargo (2008). This article describes adult sexual offence as an endemic public health, criminal and social problem. Fargo maintains that, in order to come up with satisfactory`and more effective policies, research has been perpetually conducted to establish protective and risk factors; in relation to sexual opression of humans by adult offeneders. These efforts have in particular intended to pave way for better and informed inetrvention strategies. He adds that modern studies related to criminology have categorised criminal behavors in accordance with varied characteristics, such as offence, etiology, offender and several other victim-related characteristics. Contraly to reliance on aggregate satistics from crime investigations, such an investigative analysis yields welthier information in relation to the character of the crime (Hazelwood & Burgess, 2001). The categorization system has been drawn from theory and has been done in accordance with criminological and etiological variables. The categorization has father been discriminated into valid and reliable categories. This has been achieved through utilization of obtainable and concrete offence, offender, and victim based descriptive indices. Definition of key words: 1. Etiology: the study of causes of sexual offences 2. Criminology: the study of crime, the way the society responds to it, and how it can be prevented. Methods Participants This study involves secondary analysis of data. The data is gathered from the “Bureau of the Census in their study entitled Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 1997 ” (Groth, Burgess, & Holstrom, 1977, p. 66). Personal interviews were conducted among federal prison inmates who represented the national population. The study was conducted in two clusters; namely, the prison and then the inmates. 280 prisons were selected, among which only 275 participated. The total number of inmates who accepted the interview totaled to 14,285, of which 79% were male inmates. Among those who were excluded from the study sample were those inmates who were implicated with multiple cases, because their information in regard to victim characteristics could have been ambiguous. Lack of sufficient data had led to reduction of the final sample from 235 to 207. Measures Those who participated in the interview were required to give information that could have led to more understanding about their offence characteristics. In addition, the interview was positioned to derive data about the participants’ childhood experiences and family dynamics, socio-demographic and economic characteristics as well as substance use/abuse and criminal behaviors. Statistical analysis Finite mixture modeling (FMM) was used to determine the suitability of unitary or heterogeneous consideration of the sample (Vermunt & Magidson, 2005). FMM is a clustering method which uses probability to establish the variable that distinguishes latent classes or subtypes, as well as the number of dormant classes that best represents the population heterogeneity. A depiction for each label was developed, based on the characteristics of each class. It was hypothesized that there would be an identification of more than one subtype of sexual offenders. Those indicator variables which were not significant were removed iteratively. Results In a view of confirming the hypotheses, the following results were arrived at. In relation to the data, a four class FMM based on AIC3 recorded the biggest similarity with entropy of .95 and an error on classification of 2%. According to the proposal made by Pretty and Knight (1991) a huge similarity was established between the two subtypes to the taxonomy. The Opportunistic subtype possessed the greatest similarity to Class 1, which incorporated 39% of the sample consisting of people who were arrested at 27 years of age, and 60% of them singled to be addicts of juvenile antisocial behavior. It was determined during the examination that 98% of them were low on SES, as most of them received welfare during their early childhood. 80 % of them had previous criminal histories of conducts deemed to be violent, 20% being abused physically and 42 % being victims of sexual abuse. It was further established that 80% of the group was into alcohol treating 42% of them having records of physical treatment. 50% had guardians who were drug abusers, 60% of them susceptible to violent crimes. 99% of Class 1 offenders abused drugs and 40- 90% had drug realty problem. In their attacks, 19% used knives and 40% of their crimes were committed at the victim’s residence. The victims included strangers (34%), people they associated with casually (35%) and individual they had known for long (31%). From this data, it is drawn that the attacks of class 1 group is a result of previous sexual and physical abuse and therefore do not choose their victims indiscriminately. 28 % of the reference groups were Class 2 who was deemed to be persistently angry in sexual offence. Most of them were 33 years of age on arrest 50% being divorced individuals with 80% fathering at least a child. Their participation in drinking was 25% and 60% used drugs moderately, 40% had records of antisocial behavior as juveniles. They regularly used guns in attacking their victims, strangers being fewer, friends making 80% (Groth, Burgess, & Holstrom, 1977). The angry nature of class 2 group is underscored by their high involvement in use of alcohol and drugs and through exhibition of violence and force while attacking. 18% of the reference group was categorized in Class 3 and they possessed competent social qualities and suffered from no anger problems. 50% of these offenders targeted people they know casually or very well, 105 attacking using guns. It is therefore inferred that their involvement is likely due to victimization on sexual grounds.15% of the reference group was made of Class 4 offenders whose social competence was lower compared to other offenders. They are the youngest group arrested at 23 years of age 95% being single. Other characteristics included lack of children, with half participating in drugs use and having with previous violent criminal records. A distinct feature shows that 10% of them planned their violence, 20% attacking using knives mostly strangers (70%) in their residences (45%) or in any unfamiliar environment (45%). In conclusion, these offenders committed crimes majorly for sexual reasons (Rosenberg & Knight, 1988). Discussion The results of the above discussion clearly show that adult sexual offenses can be categorized into distinct and meaningful subtypes by use of empirical analysis. The categories that have been identified have a strong correlation to the previous research proposition and findings; which specifically adds credence to the MTC: R3 system. Considering that most of the research that is conducted on sexual offender subtypes fail to get corroboration beyond the concerned authors’, the consistency of these findings is very critical. In addition, this article exhibits particular strength because it has an enhanced generalizability which has been enabled by use of samples from national representatives as well as enhanced validity since the data is gathered in a consistent way. Incidentally, internal validity has also enhanced by collection of data at individual level on victims, offenders as well as on offence. This article has only relied upon the descriptive offender, offence and victim—related attributes, which is advantageous because the prevailing categorization does contain psychological constructs which characterize many classification systems. Indeed, such criminal background and crime scene are mostly handled by law enforcement individuals who hardly get the opportunity to procure psychological assessment information when handling a crime-scene. Nonetheless, more psychodynamically defined subtypes which are observed in other systems are absent in this article. These include vindictive subtype among others (Prentky & Knight, 1991). Adult sexual offence classes, when understood well can help establish sexual victimization risk factors. For example, it has been found that the offenders who were most intimate with their victims were the ones who belonged to angry, social competence and sexual high categories. As such, vulnerability to sexual victimization can easily be identified when such information is available. Corresponding threat to internal validity and self-report were the studies limitations. This resulted to recall biases, faking of good or bad by the offenders and comprehension errors. In addition, FMM may be excessively specified to the sample since the sample size versus the parameters approximated is not strongly related. That means that the planned categorization cannot be considered confirmable, and hence requires further modification and testing. It also means that the categories should be narrowly interpreted, considering their rationality together with the variables developed in their construction (McCabe & Wauchope, 2005). Davis and Leitenberg (1987), during their review of literature established that health professionals have identified factors such as fear of rejection, poor social skills, anger towards women, felling of personal inadequacy, low-esteem, exposure to violence, having been sexually abused and typical sexual interests may fundamentally contribute towards sexual offences. Several theories of sexual offence have been drawn or extended from these expressions. Nonetheless, most of these theories are vague on their predictions. However, the etiological findings in this article have plugged a wide gap that has been left in most of these theories. Conclusion Developing the ability to evaluate the possibility of sexual offenders repeating their offences has received much effort, even though less effort has been made towards reducing such possibilities (Seto, 2008). Treatment, assessment, and policy efforts could be better understood through studies on etiology of sexual offence, which has been the area of focus in this article. This empirical study has helped come up with a categorization of adult sexual offenses, with a clear classification of variables into distinguishable subtypes. Substantiation for the presence of the opportunistic, sexual-high competence, sexual low competence and angry subtypes can be associated with those proposed by Prentky and Knight (1991). This has been presented by a sexual offenders’ representative sample. Strategies for prevention of sexual abuse and violence can be formulated using such investigations of sexual offence subtype attributes. Future studies should however try to add more weight on the factors that have been identified as the root cause of sexual offence in this article. References Amir, M. (1971). Patterns in forcible rape. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Davis, G. E., & Leitenberg, H. (1987). Adolescent sex offenders. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 417–427. Fargo, D. (2008). An empirical taxonomy of incarcerated male sexual offenders using finite mixture modeling: Adult victims. Utah: Psychology Faculty Publications. Groth, A. N., Burgess, A. W., & Holstrom, L. L. (1977). Rape: Power, anger, and sexuality. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 1239-1243. Hazelwood, R. R., & Burgess, A. W. (2001). Practical aspects of rape investigation: A multidisciplinary approach (3rd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Knight, R. A. (1999). Validation of a typology for rapists. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14, 303-330. Marshall, W. L. (1997). Pedophilia: Psychopathology and theory. In D. R. Laws & W. T. O’Donahue (Eds.), Sexual deviance: Theory, assessment, and treatment (pp. 23-45). New York: Guilford Press. McCabe, M., & Wauchope, M. (2005). Behavioral characteristics of men accused of rape: Evidence for different types of rapists. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 241-253. Prentky, R. A., & Knight, R. A. (1991). Identifying critical dimensions for discriminating among rapists. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 39, 643-661. Rosenberg, R., & Knight, R. A. (1988). Determining male sexual offender subtypes using cluster analysis. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 4, 383-410. Seto, M. C. (2008). Pedophilia and sexual offending against children: Theory, assessment, and intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Vermunt, J. K., & Magidson, J. (2005). Latent Gold® 4.0 user’s guide. Boston: Statistical Innovations. Read More