NCJ Number
178829
Journal
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry Volume: 30 Issue: 2 Dated: June 1999 Pages: 93-103
Date Published
June 1999
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Fifty-seven incarcerated sex offenders were assessed for their capacity to perceive interpersonal difficulties and experience related anxiety.
Abstract
Offenders were rated for the degree of violence manifested during the commission of the crimes for which they were convicted and incarcerated. Each of the subjects was administered the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems. It consists of the following subscales: domineering, vindictive, cold, socially avoidant, nonassertive, exploitable, overly nurturant, and intrusive. Subjects also provided answers to the Interactional Anxiety Questionnaire, which measures fear of assertion, fear of negative evaluation, fear of aggression, and fear of self-competence. The findings suggest that the men who have committed sexual offenses against minors view themselves as easily exploitable and nurturant, and those who have committed sex offenses against adult females showed minimal regard for external negative views of themselves. These two groups did not differ significantly from each other on the dimensions of social avoidance and non-assertiveness. Assertiveness was found to decrease as a consequence of multiple incarcerations in both groups. Furthermore, perception of interpersonal difficulties and experience-related anxiety correctly classified 72 percent of high-violence and low-violence sex offenders. 2 tables and 22 references