Behavioral Monitoring of Sexual Offenders Against Children in Virtual Risk Situations: A Feasibility Study

Abstract

The decision about unsupervised privileges for sexual offenders against children (SOC) is one of the most difficult decisions for practitioners in forensic high-security hospitals. Facing the possible consequences of the decision for the society, a valid and reliable risk management of SOCs is essential. Some risk management approaches provide frameworks for the construction of relevant future risk situations. Due to ethical reasons, it is not possible to evaluate the validity of constructed risk situations in reality. The aim of the study was to test if behavioral monitoring of SOCs in high-immersive virtual risk situations provides additional information for risk management. Six SOCs and seven non-offender controls (NOC) walked through three virtual risk situations, confronting the participant with a virtual child character. The participant had to choose between predefined answers representing approach or avoidance behavior. Frequency of chosen answers were analyzed in regards to knowledge of the participants about coping skills and coping skills focused during therapy. SOCs and NOCs behavior differed only in one risk scenario. Furthermore, SOCs showed in 89% of all cases a behavior not corresponding to their own belief about adequate behavior in comparable risk situations. In 62% of all cases, SOCs behaved not corresponding to coping skills they stated that therapists focused on during therapy. In 50% of all cases, SOCs behaved in correspondence to coping skills therapists stated that they focused on during therapy. Therapists predicted the behavior of SOCs in virtual risk situations incorrect in 25% of all cases. Thus, virtual risk scenarios provide the possibility for practitioners to monitor the behavior of SOCs and to test their decisions on unsupervised privileges without endangering the community. This may provide additional information for therapy progress. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the predictive and ecological validity of behavioral monitoring in virtual risk situations for real life situations.

Sexual attraction modulates interpersonal distance and approach-avoidance movements towards virtual agents in males

“…Sexual orientation was assessed using the Kinsey scale [30], on which subjects reported their sexual orientation reaching from 0 (solemnly heterosexual) to 6 (solemnly homosexual). As common practice in sex research [7,[32][33][34], we formed two groups by considering exclusive and predominantly exclusive homosexual orientation and heterosexual orientation. 48 subjects chose 0 or 1 on the Kinsey Scale, which can be categorized as a heterosexual orientation and thus gynophilic, and 24 subjects chose 5 or 6 on the Kinsey scale, which indicates a homosexual orientation and thus androphilia.…”

Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review

“…Furthermore, pedophilic CSOs also seem to have lower attentional control capacities than non-pedophilic controls, as was shown in a sexual distractor task with high discrimination accuary while measuring eye movements (120). Finally, the application of virtual reality approaches could be promising to examine a more realistic, inhibitory control behavior; for instance when confronting participants with children in a virtual supermarket (138).…”

“…Although this was only a pilot study, results suggest that virtual risk scenarios could provide practitioners with the opportunity to monitor the behavior of CSOs, and to test their decisions on unsupervised privileges without endangering the community. This may provide additional information for therapy progress (138).…”

“…Applying a completely different approach, Fromberger et al conducted a pilot study to test if behavioral monitoring of CSOs in high-immersive virtual risk situations provides additional information for risk management (138). Six pedophilic CSOs and seven non-offender controls walked through three virtual risk situations (supermarket), where they were confronted with a virtual child character.…”

Psychological treatment of problematic sexual interests: cross-country comparison

“…This model has been successfully applied, mostly in North America. Recently, virtual reality was used to test the ability of patients to use coping skills in risky situations (Fromberger et al, 2018). It was suggested that neurobiofeedback mediated by interactive virtual stimuli using a brain/mind-computer interface may be a beneficial intrvention (Renaud et al, 2011).…”