The pathway from childhood sexual abuse to adult sexual offending

197 Pages·2015·1.58 MB·English

The pathway from childhood sexual abuse to adult sexual offending: A
multi-method comparative investigation

Sarah Jane Barnes, M.Sc.

Doctor of Philosophy
University of York
Psychology
October 2014
Abstract
It is thought that men experiencing childhood sexual abuse are at an increased
risk of becoming a child sex offender in adolescence or adulthood (Jesperson,
Lalumière & Seto, 2009). While a large number of men experience childhood
sexual abuse (approximately 10% of the male population, Radford, et al., 2011)
only a minority go on to offend sexually (Salter et al., 2013).
The broad aim of this thesis was to provide evidence for or against the victim
to offender pathway, while addressing these some key limitations of the literature.
Five empirical chapters are presented, building on the findings of previous
research. The thesis uses a range of methodologies including self report
questionnaires, empirical tests and interviews to provide validity to the results
reported. Finally, a 2x2 (offender x victim) design is used throughout the thesis
to allow comparisons to be made across multiple groups.
The key findings of the thesis demonstrated that the four groups are separate
groups; differing significantly on a variety of measures. Self report measures
suggested that offender victims have almost baseline scores on cognitive
distortions about sex with children and emotional congruence with children.
However, their responses on more empirical measures suggested that this finding
was not valid and may have been falsified by the offenders. Differences were
also found between offender victims’ and non-offender victims’ narratives about
their childhood, with offenders expressing more sexualized words and few
positive words compared to non-offenders; they also reported having fewer
people for support throughout their lives.
It is concluded that experiencing childhood sexual abuse does have an impact
on later sexual offending, however it is not the sole reason people offend; other
influencing factors must be involved. Additionally, self report measures may not
be accurate reflections of people’s opinions, with offender victims’ self reports
found to be highly inaccurate. It is recommended that practitioners consider an
offender’s victimization status when considering treatment needs for offenders as
they may require treatment to address issues relating to their abusive experiences
to enable them to fully engage with treatment programs to address their offending
behaviors.
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Table of Contents
Page
Abstract 2
Table of Contents 3
Index of Tables 6
Index of Figures 7
Acknowledgements 8
Author’s Declaration 10

Chapter 1: Childhood Sexual Abuse and Its Role in the 11
Victim to Offender Pathway: A Review
1.1 Introduction 11
1.2 Defining Child Sexual Abuse 12
1.3 The Epidemiology of Child Sexual Abuse 15
1.4 Explanations for Gender Differences in Sexual 19
Abuse
1.5 The Development of Inappropriate Sexual 21
Behaviors Following Sexual Abuse
1.6 Children’s Resilience to Sexual Abuse 23
1.7 Sexual Functioning and Sexually Risky 24
Behaviors
1.8 The Potential Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse 26
on Later Sexual Offending Behavior
1.9 which may Increase the Likelihood of a Sexual 29
Abuse Victim Becoming a Child Sex Offender
1.10 Is Becoming an Offender a Male Phenomenon? 30
1.11 Protective Factors 31
1.12 Attachment and Sexual Offending 33
1.13 Victim to Offender Cycle or Pathway? 35
1.14 Issues with Current Research 35
1.14.1 Childhood sexual abuse literature 35
1.14.2 The sex offender as victims literature 37
1.14 Future recommendations 37

Chapter 2: The Social Correlates of Believing Adult and 39
Child Rape Myths in a General Population Sample
2.1 Introduction 39
2.2 Method 42
2.2.1 Participants 42
2.2.2 Materials 43
2.2.2.1 Part C of the Sexually Victimized Children 43
Questionnaire (Finkelhor, 1979)
2.2.2.2 Experiences of Close Relationships (ECR) – Revised 43
Questionnaire (Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000)
2.2.2.3 Emotional Congruence with Children Subscale 43
(ECC) (Beckett, 1987)
2.2.2.4 Miller Social Intimacy Scale (Miller and Lefcourt, 44
1982)
2.2.2.5 Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne 44
& Marlowe, 1960)
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2.2.2.6 UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3) (Russell, 1996) 44
2.2.2.7 Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (Liebowitz 1987) 45
2.2.2.8 Molest and Rape Scales (Bumby, 1996) 45
2.2.2.9 Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss & Oros, 1982) 46
2.2.3 Procedure 46
2.3 Results 46
2.3.1 Correlations 47
2.3.2 Group Comparisons 47
2.4 Discussion 50

Chapter 3: Identifying Relationships Between Attachment 53
Style, Social Isolation and Pro Sex Offending Attitudes:
Implications for the Victim to Offender Pathway
3.1 Introduction 53
3.2 Method 56
3.2.1 Participants 56
3.2.2 Measures 57
3.2.3 Procedure 57
3.3 Results 58
3.4 Discussion 63

Chapter 4: Using empirical measures of deviant sexual 67
interest as preliminary evidence for the victim to offender
pathway
4.1 Introduction 67
4.2 Method 70
4.2.1 Participants 70
4.2.2 Image Stimuli 71
4.2.3 Generic Procedure 71
4.2.4 Study 1: Viewing time 72
4.2.4.1 Method 72
4.2.4.1.1 Materials 72
4.2.4.1.2 Procedure 72
4.2.4.2 Results 72
4.2.5 Study 2: IAT 75
4.2.5.1 Procedure 75
4.5.5.2 Results 76
4.2.6 Study 3: Stroop Tasks 77
4.2.6.1 Materials 77
4.2.6.2 Procedure 78
4.2.6.3 Results 78
4.3 Discussion 80

Chapter 5: The relationship between empirical and self- 84
report measures of deviant sexual interest: A comparison
study
5.1 Introduction 84
5.2 Method 86
5.2.1 Participants 86
5.2.2 Materials 86
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5.2.3 Procedure 86
5.3 Results 86
5.4 Discussion 89

Chapter 6: Analyzing the Content of Offender and Non- 93
Offender Narratives of their own abuse experience
6.1 Introduction 93
6.2 Method 96
6.2.1 Participants 96
6.2.2 Materials 96
6.2.3 Procedure 97
6.3 Results 97
6.4 Discussion 106

Chapter 7: Discussion 111
7.1 Overview 111
7.2 Key findings of the thesis 112
7.3 Meaning of the results in the context of the 114
victim to offender pathway
7.4 Implications of the results 118
7.5 Critique of the present research 119
7.6 Future research directions 122
7.7 Conclusions 124

Appendices 126
A Example Consent Form 126
B Self Report Questionnaires 127
C Emails confirming Ethical Clearance from the 147
University of York and the National Offender
Management Service Ethics Boards
D Instructions given for each study 150
E Debrief information 156
F Word lists used in the Stroop tasks 159
G Qualitative questionnaire 160

References 172

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Index of Tables
Page
Table 2.1 Reliability analyses for all measures used 49
Table 2.2 Pearson’s correlation coefficients and relevant 50
significance levels for all measures used
Table 3.1 Reliability analyses for all measures used 61
Table 4.1 Means and standard deviations for viewing time 76
(ms) conditions for offender vs. non-offender
groups
Table 4.2 Means and standard deviations for viewing time 76
(ms) conditions for victim vs. non-victim groups
Table 5.1 Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics and significance 89
levels for the various measures broken down
across the four experimental groups.
Table 5.2 Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficients for the 89
offender victim group with relevant p-values
Table 5.3 Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficients for the 89
offender non-victim group with relevant p-values
Table 5.4 Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficients for the 90
non-offender victim group with relevant p-values
Table 5.5 Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficients for the 90
non-offender non-victim group with relevant p-
values

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Index of Figures
Page
Figures 3.1.1- Line graphs demonstrating the nature of the 62
3.1.5 significant interactions between the victim and
offender groups of the measures used.
Figure 3.1.1 Mean social desirability score 62
Figure 3.1.2 Mean ECC score 62
Figure 3.1.3 Mean social intimacy score 62
Figure 3.1.4 Mean loneliness score 62
Figure 3.1.5 Mean molest score 62
Figure 4.1 Examples of the image stimuli used in the 71
studies in this Chapter. One image is taken from
each of the image categories described in the
materials section.
Figure 4.2 Mean viewing times (ms) across the four 74
experimental groups for the four image
categories used. Error bars represent 1 standard
deviation.
Figure 4.3 Interaction between victim and offenders on 74
mean viewing times (ms) for images of boys.
Figure 4.4 D-Scores calculated for the four groups for based 77
on reaction times (ms).
Figure 4.5 Example stimuli used in the pictorially modified 78
Stroop task
Figure 4.6 A bar graph showing mean reaction times (ms) 80
for the modified Stroop tasks. Error bars
represent 2 ± SD.

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Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been possible without the help, support and
encouragement of my supervisor Dr. Jo Clarke. Jo has been a constant rock
throughout the past 4 years, she has somehow managed to keep me positive and
motivated at times when the tunnel was so long and dark that I could not tell
which way to go. I will truly miss our supervision sessions but know that our
relationship has developed to one of friendship. Thank you Jo you genuinely are
a shining star!
I would like to thank the members of my Thesis Advisor Panel, Dr. Poppy Nash
and Prof. Andy Ellis for all of the fantastic advice over the past four years.
I must also pay a special thank you to all of the professionals who helped me to
access some of the most difficult participant groups: All at York and North
Yorkshire Probation Trust who have helped with ethical clearance, accessing
offenders and providing desk space for me and my mountain of paperwork. Peter
Saunders and Jon Bird at NAPAC, Bob Balfour at Survivors West Yorkshire and
Jannie Rennie at Open Secret for promoting my research in a bid to access
survivors – you all work so hard for great causes, keep up the good work!
Thank you to Dr. Philip Quinlan, Becky Gilbert, Rosa Kwok and Steven Gillespie
for helping me to figure out how to work E-Prime. To Karisha George for being
my lab partner and Ph.D. support buddy over the past four years.
Thank you to the Department of Psychology at the University of York for funding
my Ph.D. and making the experience, and resulting thesis, possible.
I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to every person who completed
the studies in my thesis. To all the survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I hope
that the findings of my research begins a process of understanding of the impacts
of sexual abuse in the offender pathway and enables future research to ultimately
prevent people from becoming offenders following offenders. No more victims.
I would like to say a huge thank you to my partner Andrew and our baby Ella;
you have kept me sane over the past few years. I know that you have struggled
with my Ph.D. literally all over the house and having to listen to me tell you about
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statistics and findings that you neither know nor care about. Thank you for all of
the support, love, cups of tea and various Doctor of Philosophy gifts – I can start
using them now! Well after my viva!
To my wonderful mum, who painstakingly proof read my thesis for free, my
fabulous dad who does not have a clue what I do for a living and continues to ask
me why I am not in school today but supports me nonetheless. Thank you for the
countless loans, road trips to various universities and free rent over the years – I
will make sure that you have a nice retirement home! Thank you to my little
sister Heather for the forks and to Molly for the cuddles when I have been
stressed.
To my fellow musketeers Laura and Kate, thank you for the many, many laughs,
think a quaffer celebration is required! To Nichola, thank you for being my
agony aunt, dancing partner and always making me laugh. The three most
amazing friends that a Doctor could possibly ask for!
I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the many lifelong friends that I have
made along the way to writing this thesis – there are far too many names to
mention but your laughs, encouragement and ears for my ranting and frustration
have been so greatly appreciated I could never thank you all enough for your
support.
Finally, to every single person who has asked me about how my research is
going, expressed interest in my work or asked if they could help in any way in
completing my work. I look forward to being Dr. Sarah J. Barnes, or Dr. Ross to
my friends!

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Authors Declaration
I hereby certify that the work presented in this thesis is the result of my original
work and has not been submitted in any form for the award of another degree at
this or any other university. To the best of my knowledge this thesis contains no
material previously published or written by another person unless otherwise
credited.

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