Implicit theories in high secure male child sexual offenders with a mental disorder
Creators: name: Mannix, Karyn
Publisher: name: University of Lincoln
Year: 2024
Subjects: C800 - Psychology

description: There is an abundance of research on the aetiology and maintenance of childsexual offending and many factors have been proposed as being influential,including distorted cognitions. These are the focus of this study, in particular, theunderlying implicit theories thought to generate them. Ward and Keenan (1999)hypothesised that child sexual offenders hold five distinct implicit theories whichaccount for the majority of their cognitive distortions, and which they use to makepredictions about the meaning of children’s behaviour and underlying desires andintentions. These include Children as Sexual Beings, Nature of Harm,Uncontrollability, Dangerous World and Entitlement. However, it is unclear at thepresent time whether child sexual offenders with a mental disorder have similar ordifferent cognitions which may have influenced their offending. This aim of thecurrent study was to explore this.Semi structured interviews eliciting cognitions were carried out with 12 adult malehigh secure child sexual offenders. Content analysis indicated that the majority ofthe cognitive distortions exhibited by this sample of men could be categorizedwithin Ward and Keenan’s (1999) five implicit theories. Evidence of a possible newimplicit theory representing deviant sexual interest in children, Children as SexuallyAttractive, was also found. Additionally, child sexual offenders whose offendingappeared to be associated with intimacy deficits were not felt to be adequatelycaptured under the Dangerous World implicit theory, and the theme of ‘LonelyWorld’ was felt to be more suitable to represent this group of men. Diagnosis didnot impact upon the presence of implicit theories although content differences werefound. Participants with a diagnosis of personality disorder (n = 5; 100%) morecommonly articulated cognitions associated with the Children as Sexual Beingsimplicit theory and reported deviant sexual interest in children. In comparison,participants with a diagnosis of mental illness reported beliefs associated with theUncontrollability implicit theory (n = 5; 100%), and only two men made reference tosymptoms of their mental illness.2These preliminary findings appear to support previous studies identifying cognitionsand personality as risk factors to sexual offending in men, irrespective of diagnosis.It can be concluded from this that psychosis alone is not a sufficient motivator forsexual offending and cognition appears to play an influential role. This isparticularly relevant to those with a mental illness as the majority of research intotheir sexual offending up to now has mostly focused on the role of psychosis. Interms of assessment and treatment, these findings primarily suggest that implicittheories should be addressed in therapy rather than focusing solely on their surfacelevel cognitive distortions, regardless of diagnosis. Further research is necessary inorder to advance understanding of implicit theories in child sexual offenders with amental disorder before any treatment and assessment tools can be adequatelydeveloped. Additionally, future research will build on the limited theories andtypologies, particularly for those with a mental illness, which in turn should help toadvance the assessment, formulation and treatment of these offenders.