Developmental experiences of child sexual abusers and rapists

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study is to identify the distinct developmental experiences associated with child sexual abuse and rape.

Method

For 269 sexual offenders (137 rapists and 132 child sexual abusers), developmental experiences were recorded from a behavioral checklist, a parental-bonding survey, and a sexual history questionnaire. Offender classification was obtained from official records and verified through polygraph examinations.

Results

Compared to rapists, child sexual abusers reported more frequent experiences of child sexual abuse (73%), early exposure to pornography (65% before age 10), an earlier onset of masturbation (60% before age 11), and sexual activities with animals (38%). In contrast to child sexual abusers, rapists reported more frequent experiences of physical abuse (68%), parental violence (78%), emotional abuse (70%), and cruelty to animals (68%). Both child sexual abusers and rapists (>93%) reported frequent exposure to violent media during their childhood. Most offenders (94%) described having insecure parental attachment bonds; 76% of rapists reported avoidant parental attachments and 62% of child sexual abusers reported anxious parental attachments.

Conclusions

Findings from this study support the role of specific developmental experiences as etiological factors in differential sexual offending. Child sexual abusers’ developmental histories were characterized by heightened sexuality; whereas rapists’ childhood histories were more indicative of violence. These findings have implications for the treatment of sexual abusers and the prevention of sexual abuse.

Practice implications

This study's findings suggest that sexual offenders have been socialized to satisfy human needs of intimacy and sexuality through maladaptive means, which implies that a risk management approach may not be sufficient treatment. Although risk models teach offenders skills to avoid high-risk situations, they fail to address the maladaptive strategies that they may have developed for satisfying needs. Instead, the focus of treatment should be to equip offenders with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to achieve these needs in an acceptable manner. Thus, this model will provide these individuals with the opportunity to live a healthy life without sexual offending.

Introduction

As society continues to endure the effects of sexual violence, there is an urgent challenge to identify the etiological factors underlying sexual offending. Etiological research has suggested that it is the interaction of biological and social learning factors that influence the development of sexual offending behaviors (Ward & Beech, 2006). Genetic factors may predispose an individual to pursue a specific human need (e.g., sex or intimacy), but it is the environmental experiences (e.g., child maltreatment) that provide the methods for which these needs are met either appropriately through the development of relationships or inappropriately through the use of sexual violence. As recent findings have illustrated that different types of sexual offenders report experiencing different types of maltreatment (e.g., Lee, Jackson, Pattison, & Ward, 2002; Simons, Wurtele, & Heil, 2002), the present study examines the adverse childhood experiences associated with differential sexual offending behaviors, specifically child sexual abuse and rape.

Many researchers have proposed that the origins of sexual offending lie in the offender's history of being sexually victimized as a child. A review of the literature suggests that approximately 25–70% of adult sexual offenders in treatment or prison settings report having been sexually abused during childhood (Barnard, Hankins, & Robbins, 1992; Dhawan & Marshall, 1996; Graham, 1996; Hindman & Peters, 1999). Although offenders in these studies included both child sexual abusers and rapists, recent findings have shown that more child sexual abusers report experiencing sexual abuse as children compared to rapists (Lee et al., 2002, Simons et al., 2002). These findings support the cycle of abuse hypothesis: sexual offenders who experienced sexual abuse as children re-enact this trauma in adulthood (Hanson & Slater, 1988; Ryan, 1989). However, a recent prospective examination of the cycle of abuse hypothesis (Salter et al., 2003) found that only 12% of male victims of sexual abuse went on to commit child sexual abuse. These researchers concluded that the experience of sexual abuse appears to be neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for becoming a sexual offender. Instead, they suggested that a pattern of experiences characterized by intra-familial violence, emotional rejection, and female perpetration increased the risk of male victims becoming abusers. Other studies have found that child sexual abusers who reported being sexually victimized during childhood were significantly more likely than non-abused sexual offenders to have also experienced other types of childhood maltreatment including emotional abuse, physical abuse, and neglect (e.g., Craissati, McClurg, & Browne, 2002a). Clearly, not all victims of sexual abuse become perpetrators, and not all offenders have experienced this form of child maltreatment exclusively, which calls for further exploration of sexual abuse as a developmental antecedent.

Research also indicates that sexual offenders often report a childhood history of physical abuse, suggesting that victims of physical abuse learn violence in their family of origin and may translate that violence into their interpersonal relationships as children and then later as adults. Studies have found physically abused boys are more likely to be charged with sexual offenses during adolescence (Kobayashi, Sales, Becker, Figueredo, & Kaplan, 1995) and arrested for violent sex crimes (e.g., rape) later in life (Widom & Ames, 1994). Simons et al. (2002) found that a majority (70%) of rapists reported being physically abused as children, and this group displayed less empathy for women and admitted to sexually assaulting more adult women, in comparison to rapists who reported a childhood history of sexual abuse.

Emotional abuse has also been suggested as a possible developmental precursor to sexual violence. Emotional abuse or psychological maltreatment is defined in terms of verbal hostility or the degree of negativity and dysfunction governing parent–child attachment relationships (McGee, Wolfe, & Wilson, 1977; Straus, 1979). Studies (e.g., Bagley, Wood, & Young, 1994; Hoglund & Nicolas, 1995; McGee et al., 1997) have shown that the effects of child maltreatment on the subsequent development of negative attitudes and externalizing behaviors depend on the degree of perceived damage caused to the individual. The degree to which sexual abuse is perceived as damaging is often related to the perceived experience of emotional abuse (Bagley et al., 1994). Findings have also indicated that physical abuse results in aggressive behaviors only when it is experienced with emotional abuse (Lee et al., 2002, McGee et al., 1997). More research is needed to examine the potential role of emotional abuse as a developmental precursor to sexual offending.

Developmental research has clearly demonstrated the relationship between all types of child maltreatment and poor parent–child attachment bonds. Research has identified three types of attachment: secure attachments develop when parents are sensitive to the needs of the child; insecure (anxious/ambivalent) attachments develop when parents respond inconsistently to the needs of the child; and insecure (avoidant) attachments develop when the parent is typically detached, lacking in emotional expression, and unresponsive to a child's needs (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991). In 1989, Marshall postulated that sexual offenders fail to achieve secure childhood attachments (Marshall, 1989). Recent models of sexual deviance suggest that poor parental bonding enhances the effects of child maltreatment and may subsequently initiate the processes that lead to sexual offending, by creating vulnerability in the child (Marshall & Marshall, 2000), a lack of empathy for others (Craissati, McClurg, & Browne, 2002b), or intimacy deficits (Ward, Hudson, Marshall, & Siegert, 1995). Others have suggested that poor parent–child attachments may actually increase the risk of being sexually abused in childhood (e.g., Alexander, 1992; Marshall & Marshall, 2000; Smallbone & McCabe, 2003). Although there is clinical and theoretical support for the link between poor parental attachment relationships and sexual offending, empirical evidence is more limited. For example, Smallbone and Dadds (1998) found intra-familial child sexual abusers to be more likely to regard their mothers as unloving, inconsistent, and abusive; whereas rapists were more likely to regard their fathers as uncaring and abusive. Child sexual abusers in Craissati et al. (2002b) described their mothers as uncaring and overprotective. An avoidant paternal attachment was related to coercive sexual behavior in Smallbone and Dadds (2000). Findings from these studies suggest that maternal and paternal attachments of child sexual abusers and rapists need further examination.

Another common correlate of child maltreatment is domestic violence. Children who directly experience abuse are also likely to witness chronic violence in their homes. Over two decades ago, Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz (1980) suggested that observing inter-parental aggression was a greater risk factor for engaging in violence against women than was experiencing physical abuse as an adolescent. Recent research has found that males who witnessed their fathers abusing their mothers were more likely to exhibit dating aggression (Jankowski, Leitenberg, Henning, & Coffey, 1999). Others have found that sexually aggressive adolescents were more than three times as likely as nonviolent adolescents to have been exposed to severe parental violence (Spaccarelli, Bowden, Coatsworth, & Kim, 1997). These findings, combined with the current high rates of domestic violence, emphasize the importance of examining parental violence as a developmental antecedent to sexual offending.

In addition to observing parental violence, researchers have confirmed that excessive violence in the media (i.e., graphical depictions of aggressive behaviors) increases the likelihood that viewers will behave more aggressively (Huesmann & Malamuth, 1986). Exposure to violent media is exceptionally influential when the viewer is a young child, as younger viewers are more likely to acquire habits and rules that will guide their behavior in later years (Huesmann, 1998). Although research has demonstrated the indirect effects of mass media exposure on antisocial behavior against women (e.g., Linz, Donnerstein, & Penrod, 1984; Malamuth & Briere, 1986), its role in instigating sexual offenses against children has not been adequately explored. Today's widespread availability of violent programming increases the importance of examining violent media as a potential developmental risk factor for sexual offending.

There is also support for a link between early exposure to graphic depictions of sexual interactions (i.e., pornography) and sexual offending. Men who commit sex crimes often report a history of early exposure to pornography; 86% of child sexual abusers described early exposure to pornography, as did 65% of rapists in Simons et al. (2002). Ford and Linney (1995) found that 42% of their adolescent sex offenders reported exposure to hard-core sex magazines, with the child sexual abusers being most frequently exposed at the youngest ages (between 5 and 8 years old). As the accessibility of hard-core pornography on the Internet continues to increase, the examination of early exposure to pornography as a risk factor for learning sexual offending behaviors has become even more imperative.

Along with early exposure to pornography, there is also evidence of early and frequent masturbation in the histories of many sexual offenders. For example, Condron and Nutter (1988) found evidence that sexual offenders begin masturbating at an earlier age compared with other males. Smallbone and McCabe (2003) found that those sexual offenders who had been sexually abused in childhood had begun to masturbate significantly earlier (11 years) than those who had not been sexually abused (13.4 years). As suggested by Marshall and Marshall (2000), offenders who are sexually abused as children and use their experience as a stimulus for masturbation may be more likely to develop sexual interests in children, especially when the content is repeated and used as a coping mechanism to escape from distress.

Heightened sexuality can also be demonstrated with animals. For example, one study found high rates of bestiality among adolescent sexual offenders (Frazier, 1997). Other studies have documented the relationships between physical abuse of children, domestic violence, and animal abuse (e.g., Ascione & Arkow, 1999; DeViney, Dickert, & Lockwood, 1983). Retrospective studies of incarcerated males have also shown that violent offenders, in comparison to nonviolent offenders, were significantly more likely to have engaged in cruelty toward animals during childhood (Merz-Perez, Heide, & Silverman, 2001). Findings from these studies support the importance of determining whether child sexual abusers and rapists differ in their treatment of animals during childhood.

Taken together, these findings suggest that it may not be one type of abuse that serves as a developmental risk factor for later sexual offending. Instead, multiple abusive experiences may precede maladjustment. Although it has been shown that many childhood adversities coincide and that different types of maltreatment may be associated with different types of sexual offending behaviors, there remains a lack of empirical research that examines the integration of the environmental factors examined in these etiological studies of sexual offending. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to examine the distinct combination of developmental experiences that may be associated with differential sexual offending (i.e., child sexual abuse and rape).

Based on previous findings, it is hypothesized that child sexual abusers and rapists will report not one type of maltreatment, but a developmental history comprised of several adverse experiences. Specifically, most child sexual abusers will report experiencing sexual abuse, early exposure to pornography, and early and frequent masturbation. It is also hypothesized that most rapists will report experiencing physical abuse, early exposure to violent media, and exposure to domestic violence. In addition, it is expected that both groups will report experiencing emotional abuse and insecure parent–child attachment. For exploratory purposes, the childhood experiences of animal abuse will be examined in both groups. The co-occurrence of these developmental experiences for both groups of sexual offenders will also be examined.