NCJ Number
122933
Journal
Preventing Sexual Abuse Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Dated: (Autumn 1989) Pages: 4-7
Date Published
1989
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Information from sex offenders, their families, and their child victims forms the basis of this discussion of the ways in which offenders are able to deceive victims, society, and themselves.
Abstract
The preliminary results of this research indicate that offenders often share a repertoire of rationalizations, denials, distortions, and minimizations to justify their deviance. They also use a false logic to shift the responsibility from themselves to their victims. The strength of their belief in their false logic depends on whether they are antisocial offenders, compulsive-chronic offenders, or something in between. In addition, they have easy access to victims in part because of societal denial that sexual abuse is a prevalent crime and denial of the harm that it inflicts on victims. Moreover, the system designed to protect victims is often ineffective as a result of its own disordered thinking on the subject and its tendency to treat child sex abusers more leniently than other offenders.