Sexual Offenders: Personal Construct Theory and Deviant Sexual Behaviour

As such, sexual fantasies serve the primary function of fulfilling interpersonal goals through the mode of mental representation. Evolutionary theory provides another interesting explanation as to the purpose and function of gender differences in sexual fantasies. Research literature states that women are more likely to prioritise their own physical and emotional sensations, where men conjure images of sexual partners.

Women are also more likely to fantasise about a single individual with whom they have shared history, or those whom they wish to pursue a long-term relationship. Throughout the course of time, it has proved advantageous for the male to copulate with young and fertile females. By comparison, females are driven to reproduce on the basis of parental investment, and a quality gene pool possessed by the male. It also follows that where males project outwardly, viewing women and a means to obtain sexual pleasure, women have become conditioned to remain passive in this role.

They do so under close scrutiny of male sexual attention, [26] to fantasise a specific and special partner. A person may have no desire to carry out a fantasy; people often use fantasies to help plan out future sexual encounters. During sexual contact, some people can use their fantasies to "turn off" undesirable aspects of an act.

Many couples share their fantasies to feel closer and gain more intimacy and trust, or simply to become more aroused or effect a more powerful physical response. Fantasies may also be used as a part of sex therapy.

James Horley (Author of Personal Construct Perspectives on Forensic Psychology)

They can enhance insufficiently exciting sexual acts to promote higher levels of sexual arousal and release. A study that looked at married women indicated that sexual fantasies helped them achieve arousal and orgasm. The incidence of sexual fantasies is nearly universal, [37] but vary by gender, age, sexual orientation, and society. However, because of a reliance on retrospective recall, as well as response bias and taboo , there is an inherent difficulty in measuring the frequency of types of fantasies. According to a United States survey, the incidence of certain fantasies is higher than the actual performance.

The sexes have been found to contrast with respect to where their fantasies originate from. Men tend to fantasize about past sexual experiences, whereas women are more likely to conjure an imaginary lover or sexual encounter that they have not experienced previously. On the other hand, women's fantasies tend to be more focused upon mental sexual stimulation and contain more emotion and connection.

Much research has been conducted which has highlighted several gender differences in sexual fantasies. Some of the patterns which have frequently emerged include men's greater tendency to report sexual fantasies falling in the following categories: Women are also likely to report fantasies involving the same-sex partner, or those with a famous person, [47] although both sexes have been found to prefer intimate fantasies over the other three types outlined, including fantasies of oral sex and sex outdoors.

Another way the sexes differ is that men are much more likely to fantasize about having multiple sexual partners i. The sexes also differ in terms of how much they fantasize about dominance and submission. Men fantasize equally often about dominance and submission, whereas women fantasize about submission more frequently than dominance. Sexual fantasies may instead vary as a result of individual differences, such as personality or learning experiences, and not gender per se. The age of first experiencing a sexual fantasy has also been found to differ between the sexes. Males are likely to report this at a younger age, typically between the years of 11 and 13, [52] and describe these as being more explicit in content.

For instance, younger men have been found to endorse more fantasies with multiple partners, a trend which declines with age, whilst homosexual fantasies increase slightly. Meanwhile, for women, fantasies with strangers and same-sex partners remain relatively stable across the lifespan. Sex differences have also been found with regard to paraphilic fantasies i.

Examples of paraphilic sexual fantasies include incest , voyeurism , transvestic fetishism , sex with animals see zoophilia , and pedophilia. Unusual sexual fantasies are more common in men, with fantasies of urinating on their sexual partner and being urinated on being significantly higher among males. Paraphilic sexual fantasies in females include sexual sadism, exhibitionism , and pedophilia. Sexual fantasies may be more likely to be executed in contemporary society due to more liberalized attitudes towards the previously taboo topic of sex, and increased awareness of the variety of sexual experiences that now exist.

Since numerous variables influence sexual fantasy, the differences between gender can be examined through multiple theoretical frameworks. Social constructionism predicts that sexual socialisation is a strong predictor of sexual fantasy and that gender differences are the result of social influences.

A social constructionist explanation may say that this is because women are raised to be chaste and selective with men, whereas evolutionary theory may state that ancestral women preferred the reproductive security of having one partner, such that being faithful to him will result in a greater likelihood of him investing resources in her and her offspring, an idea which is still ingrained in modern women today.

The theory suggests that this mating strategy may have been advantageous for our female ancestors, such that affiliation with a high status male increases offspring survival rate via protection and provision. In , Masters and Johnson carried out one of the first studies on sexual fantasy in homosexual men and women, though their data-collection method is unclear. Their sample consisted of 30 gay men and lesbians, and they found that the five most common fantasies for homosexual men were images of sexual anatomy primarily the penis and buttocks , forced sexual encounters, an idyllic setting for sex, group sex, and sex with women.

A study found that homosexual men preferred unspecified sexual activity with other men, oral sex, and sex with another man not previously involved. In both studies, homosexual and heterosexual men shared similar fantasies, but with genders switched. It found that when compared to heterosexual male fantasies, homosexual males were more focused on exploratory, intimate, and impersonal fantasies. There were no differences in sadomasochistic fantasies.

In general, there was little difference in the top fantasies of homosexual versus heterosexual males. At the time of the study, homosexuality was illegal. A study compared heterosexual and homosexual women in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and found some differences in the content of their fantasies. In gender-specific findings, homosexual women had more fantasies about specific parts of a woman face, breasts, clitoris, vagina, buttocks, arms or hair , while heterosexual women had more fantasies about specific parts of a man's body face, penis, buttocks, arms or hair.

Homosexual women also had more fantasies of "delighting many women"; there was no significant difference when subjects were asked if they fantasized about delighting many men. There was no significant difference in responses to questions that were not gender-specific. Rape or ravishment is a common sexual fantasy among both men and women, either generically or as an ingredient in a particular sexual scenario. Some studies have found that women tend to fantasize about being forced into sex more commonly than men. Other studies have found the theme, but with lower frequency and popularity.

However, these female fantasies in no way imply that the subject desires to be raped in reality—the fantasies often contain romantic images where the woman imagines herself being seduced , and the male that she imagines is desirable. Most importantly, the woman remains in full control of her fantasy. The fantasies do not usually involve the woman getting hurt. Conversely, some women who have been sexually victimized in the past report unwanted sexual fantasies, similar to flashbacks of their victimization. They are realistic, and the woman may recall the physical and psychological pain involved.

The most frequently cited hypothesis for why women fantasize of being forced into some sexual activity is that the fantasy avoids societally induced guilt—the woman does not have to admit responsibility for her sexual desires and behavior. A study by Moreault and Follingstad was consistent with this hypothesis, and found that women with high levels of sex guilt were more likely to report fantasy themed around being overpowered, dominated, and helpless. In contrast, Pelletier and Herold used a different measure of guilt and found no correlation.

Other research suggests that women who report forced sex fantasies have a more positive attitude towards sexuality, contradicting the guilt hypothesis. Additionally, it said that force fantasies are clearly not the most common or the most frequent. Social views on sexual fantasy and sex in general differ throughout the world. The privacy of a person's fantasy is influenced greatly by social conditions. Because of the taboo status of sexual fantasies in many places around the world, open discussion—or even acknowledgment—is forbidden, forcing fantasies to stay private.

In more lax conditions, a person may share their fantasies with close friends, significant others, or a group of people with whom the person is comfortable. The moral acceptance and formal study of sexual fantasy in Western culture is relatively new. Prior to their acceptance, sexual fantasies were seen as evil or sinful, and they were commonly seen as horrid thoughts planted into the minds of people by "agents of the devil".

Sigmund Freud suggested that those who experienced sexual fantasies were sexually deprived or frustrated or that they lacked adequate sexual stimulation and satisfaction. Others believe that St Paul includes fantasy when he condemns works of the flesh such as "immorality" or "uncleanness". Despite the Western World's relatively lax attitudes towards sexual fantasy, many people still feel shame and guilt about their fantasies.

This may contribute to personal sexual dysfunction , [42] and regularly leads to a decline in the quality of a couple's sex life. While most people do not feel guilt or disgust about their sexual thoughts or fantasies, a substantial number do. In general, men and women are equally represented in samples of those who felt guilt about their fantasies.

The most notable exception was found in a study that showed that women felt more guilt and disgust about their first sexual fantasies. In women, greater guilt about sex was associated with less frequent and less varied sexual fantasies, and in men, it was associated with less sexual arousal during fantasies. Studies have also been carried out to examine the direct connection between guilt and sexual fantasy, as opposed to sex and guilt. Studies that examined guilt about sexual fantasy by age have unclear results—Knoth et al. A study examined guilt and jealousy in American heterosexual married couples.

It associated guilt with an individual's fantasy " How guilty do you feel when you fantasize about Higher levels of guilt were found among women, couples in the 21—29 age range, shorter relationships and marriages, Republicans , and Roman Catholics ; lower levels in men, couples in the 41—76 range, longer relationships, Democrats , and Jews. Higher levels of jealousy were found in women, couples in the 21—29 range, Roman Catholics and non-Jewish religious affiliations; lower levels were found in men, couples in the 41—76 range, and Jews and the non-religious.

Deviant sexual fantasies are sexual fantasies which involve illegal, nonconsensual, and sadistic themes. It is based on factors like history, society, culture and politics. When a study used statistical analysis and the Wilson sex fantasy questionnaire to investigate atypical fantasies, having zoophilllic or pedophillic fantasies were found to be rare and only 7 themes including urination, crossdressing , rape etc. Most research into sexual crimes involve men. Sexual crimes such as sexual homicides are quite rare [74] because most deviant sexual fantasizers never engaged in deviant sexual behaviors [52] and are not at risk of engaging in sexual crimes.

Deviant and sadistic sexual fantasies are believed to be the underlying risk factors for sexual crimes. Other risk factors that contribute to the likelihood of sex crimes include biological, physiological and psychological factors like mental disorders especially paranoia and psychosis ; violent history, arrests, poor academic performance, [74] substance abuse , financial gain, [91] [92] unemployment, and watching pornography.

For example, most rapists report both early traumatic experiences and sexually deviant fantasies [93] [94] and sex murders of children reported a significantly more pre-crime childhood sexual abuse and deviant sexual fantasies than sexual murderers of women. Sadistic themes are consistently present in the sexual fantasies of offenders across various types of sexual crimes and varying risk factors.

Volitional Impairment

They occur in high prevalence alongside other paraphilic fantasies in psychopaths and individuals with dark triad traits. The capitalization of the Fifty Shades trilogy changed the perception of BDSM from being extreme, marginalized and dangerous to being fun fashionable and exciting. Sadistic sexual fantasy is one of the key factors for understanding serial killers.

A lot of sexual homicides are well planned [] due to extensive practice in form of sexual fantasies. Childhood abuse plays a significant role in determining if sadistic fantasies will be tried out in real life. These manifestations then cause uncontrollable desires to act out one's fantasy in order to find relief.

Researchers found that the sadistic contents in fantasies began appearing about 1—7 years after the start of masturbation. Some studies suggest that deviant sexual scripts might be learnt through social learning theory due to an early exposure via sexual molestation and reinforcements by orgasms and masturbation. MacCulloch and colleagues [] have suggested that the early traumatic experiences cause the early development of sadistic fantasies through sensory preconditioning and this might be the reason offenders find it too difficult to restrain themselves from trying out their sadistic fantasies in real life.

The American Sex Survey: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Brower and Price concluded that "Evidence is strongest for an association between focal prefrontal damage and an impulsive subtype of aggressive behaviour. Stone and Thompson concluded that sex offenders suffered from executive function deficits. Denney outlines research supporting the view that violent behavior is either premeditated or impulsive.

Denney states, "Overall, there appears to be enough research implicating a relationship between neurocognitive functioning and aggression, particularly the impulsive type, to indicate that neuropsychology has a place in the evaluation of violent criminal defendants" p. Moreover, recent literature points to the utility of neuroscience in evaluating volitional impairment in light of Crane Fabian, As such, examining frontal lobe functioning, as it relates to impulsivity and decision-making, is warranted.

In connecting impulsivity, decision-making, and volition, Martin and Potts have argued that decision making and impulsivity are functionally related. In addition, Kalis et al. Accordingly, examining impulsivity and decision-making in the context of VI by means of psychological assessment measures lie at the heart of the proposed protocol.

The WCST has been a staple for neuropsychological assessment of frontal lobe function for well over sixty years Berg, Contemporary administration of the WCST is computerized PAR, and takes approximately twenty-five minutes to complete when administered by computer. The WCST assesses "set shifting," which is the ability to move from one behavioral task with certain rules to another behavioral task with different rules.

Those without the ability to properly set-shift make what are called "perseverative responses. Difficulty with set-shifting provides evidence of impairment in properly controlling behavior Nyhus and Barcelo, ; Monchi, Pedrides, Petre, Worsley, and Dager, Perseveration of this sort has been linked to impulsivity Stanford, Greve, Gerstle, ; Leshem and Glicksohn, It assesses simulated decision-making ability, presenting the test-taker with four computer generated, virtual decks of cards Bechara, The IGT takes approximately 20 minutes to complete when administered by computer.

The goal of the IGT is for the test taker to win as much play money as possible. The IGT assesses the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, where the ability to inhibit impulsive acts leads to poor outcomes. In the IGT, perseveration is manifested in returning to "bad" card selection choices card selection choices that have high gain but larger relative losses. In the proposed protocol, one or both of these two neuropsychological measures are coupled with a self-report measure of impulsivity.

The BIS is a question self-report measure utilizing a Likert scale. It examines the degree to which the individual possesses behaviors associated with impulsiveness. The BIS yields a score that is examined in relation to normative data from a demographically matched and census based sample. Normative data on these tests are derived from samples that are not specific to sexual offenders. Assessment measures, when used as part of an idiographic evaluation, are not viewed as linked to a type of offender e.

Therefore, the idiographic approach is central to the thinking expressed in this protocol. As a starting point, however, if an individual's scores fall below i. Such an approach, at the least, allows for the systematic, reliable collection of data with a theoretically and clinically plausible connection to VI that could be examined in relation to a mental disorder.

Finally, these three measures are by no means the only potentially useful ones and other substitutes may be indicated on a case-by-case basis. It is important to note, however, that difficulties on any of the measures suggested in this protocol may be due to cognitive limitations or developmental delay. Either test will assist in determining whether the individual's scores, if problematic, are due to intellectual impairment or developmental delay.

In addition, if psychosis is suspected, adjustment may be needed. This is consistent with an individualized approach to interpretation that is suggested as part of this protocol. As noted above, the first step must be to rule out cognitive limitations or developmental delay. If such limitation or delay exists, this aspect of the individual's functioning must be considered in examining the components of the protocol that follow. Cognitive limitations may affect the scores on the neuropsychological screens and tests such that difficulty is evidenced, but possibly due to potential underlying developmental delay rather than a specific impairment in behavioral control per se.

In addition, a general understanding of the directions of the screens and tests provided in the administration, due to cognitive limitations, may be affected and should be examined and ruled out if suspected from a record review, collateral contacts, or by interview. Furthermore, the presence of psychosis must be ascertained and the protocol adjusted accordingly.

Absent such limitations, this step is skipped.

This VI Protocol utilizes three sources of data: An overview of the screens and test used in this protocol is provided in Table 1. Although cut-offs derived from respective manuals or research are provided, the established norms for these scales have not, of course, been provided for the construct of VI. As underscored earlier, VI is a strictly legal construct, and bears a theoretical relationship to the behavioral constructs of impulsivity and decision-making.

Ultimately, an idiographic approach is regarded as central to conducting a comprehensive evaluation.

This approach does not abandon nomothetic components, but, rather, incorporates such data into a larger picture. Structured professional judgment uses this approach in creating an individualized approach to risk when examining risk of recidivism for general violence e. In sum, each case must be understood idiographically, and the nomothetic data that the tests produce must be integrated into such an idiographic understanding of the person.

That is, an individualized conceptualization of VI is created in each case. It is the ability to inhibit action by will that is the nub of the behavioral control condundrum. The ability to inhibit by will , examined idiographically, and with nomothetic components, is the heart of the scientific, psychological evaluation of behavioral control presented in this article.

Following the idiographic approach, and informed by the ideas inherent in SPJ, an individualized conceptualization of VI is created in each case Douglas and Reeves, To be clear, this translates to the combined consideration of the recommended nomothetic data with a comprehensive analysis of relevant behavior. Decisions related to VI should not be based solely on the results of these three measures discussed here.

This presents the best fit for opining about psychological questions in a forensic context where each individual must be examined in the light of the law Janus and Meehl, ; Janus and Prentky, ; Nestor, To re-emphasize, relevant known behavior, both prior to the governing offense and subsequent to the offense, both in community and in lock-up, must be carefully considered in any evaluation. However, this approach does not endorse the tautology purporting that a behavioral control impairment exists through the use of circular logic: Past behavior can assist in determining present functioning, but past behavior alone cannot serve to determine impairment in behavioral control.

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Recent, in situ behavior cannot be ignored; civil commitment is a question concerning present functioning. Hence, the totality of behavior, including post-offense behavior, must be considered, along with the recommended testing. A further point not directly discussed is the passage of time between the assessment by the mental health practitioner and the last known evidence of behavioral dyscontrol. Since an individual may have been incarcerated for many years before being evaluated for civil commitment, "old" evidence may not be reliable. Advanced age alone may have a mitigating effect on behavioral dyscontrol e.

This problem is addressed in two ways. First, by emphasizing that behavioral evidence must, whenever possible, include behavior after the governing offense unless the governing offense was recent , including all institutional comportment.

A developmental record, or timeline, of behavioral dyscontrol should be one critical piece of evidence. Second, this behavior log is complemented by current measures self-report and neuropsychological. The legal term "mental abnormality" has no clear meaning in psychological parlance. The diagnostic task is complicated by the fact that the "mental abnormality" must, at least by common practice, include a documentable classification within a reliable, valid diagnostic system, i.

Following this line of thinking, it is evident that different possibilities exist. Such an individual would be eligible for civil commitment. This latter case would fail to meet the standard for civil commitment under most SVP schemes. To comply with the statutory requirements of civil commitment, the individual should be found to have a defensible, relevant DSM-IV diagnosis causing a serious difficulty in controlling behavior.

Finally, it is emphasized that this protocol is intended to assess VI and not risk of re-offense. The question of likelihood , typically operationalized in terms of risk, is a separate, third element examination that is not addressed in this article. It is possible that an individual may have difficulty with behavioral control caused by a mental disorder but not be at high risk of re-offense. An example might be an individual with a record of downloading and using child pornography.