NCJ Number
207729
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: November-December 2004 Pages: 31-63
Editor(s)
Vincent B. Van Hasselt,
Michel Hersen
Date Published
November 2004
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This paper incorporates the static and dynamic risk factors of sexual offenders into an etiological framework.
Abstract
This paper attempts to: a) link risk factors and assessment with etiological elements; b) clarify the relationship between the different types of risk factors; c) make distinctions between factors that are sometimes conflated; d) establish that psychological acute dynamic factors are products of learning events, stable dynamic factors or vulnerabilities, and triggering events; and e) outline a dynamic model of the interaction among significant learning events, psychological vulnerabilities, contextual or triggering factors, and their convergence in offense-related psychological states. The paper begins with a literature review of risk assessment, and notes problems in the way risk is measured and conceptualized. Next, four major etiological studies of sexual abuse are described in order to show the correspondence between risk domains and postulated causal mechanisms. These four theories are: Finkelhor’s (1984) precondition theory; Marshall and Barbaree’s (1990) integrated theory; Hall and Hirschman’s (1992) quadripartite model of child molestation; and Ward and Siegert’s (2002) comprehensive theory of sexual offending that incorporates the strongest elements of each of the previous three theories and suggests that there are multiple pathways leading to the sexual abuse of a child. The pathways model suggests that the clinical phenomena evident among child molesters are generated by four distinct and interacting psychological mechanisms: intimacy and social skill deficits; distorted sexual scripts; emotional disregulation; and cognitive distortion. Finally, the paper describes an integrated model of risk and etiological elements and discusses its clinical and research utility. With this model, interaction among significant learning events, psychological vulnerabilities, contextual or triggering factors, and their convergence in offense-related psychological states is clearly shown. The implications of the integrated model of risk are discussed. References and 2 tables