Criminogenic Needs as Intervening Factors in the Relation Between Insecure Attachments and Youth Sexual Violence

Abstract

There is a strong theoretical and research base demonstrating the link between attachment styles and adolescent sexual offending. However, this relationship may be best explained by deficit-based mediational pathways including criminogenic needs such as emotional or affect regulation and callousness. Grady, Levenson, and Bolder propose a framework that details criminogenic needs as intermediary variables in the attachment–sexual offending relationship. Using data on adolescents adjudicated of sexual and nonsexual crimes in a Western state ( N = 200), two structural equation models (SEM) tested direct and indirect relationships between ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles (in separate models), dysregulation including cognitive and behavioral transitions, emotional control, and inhibited/impulsive behaviors, callousness, delinquency, and offending type (sexual or nonsexual offending). Results revealed statistically significant direct pathways between variables of interest and a multimediational effect of dysregulation and callousness in the relationship between insecure attachments and sexual offending. Treatment, policy, and research implications are discussed.

Trauma and Maternal Caregivers as Risks for Executive Function Deficits Among Youth Who Have Sexually Harmed

“…For example, among a large sample of male YSH, 13% had a history of sexual abuse (compared with 5% of delinquent youth), 20% had a history of physical abuse (15% of delinquent youth), and 11% had a history of physical neglect (6% of delinquent youth; Levenson et al, 2017): All differences were statistically significant. Furthermore, cumulative or multiple forms of trauma may be higher among YSH when compared with delinquent youth (Levenson et al, 2017; J. Yoder et al, 2020).…”

“…Yoder & Precht, 2019). In another study, researchers found that executive functioning mediated the relationship between sexual abuse victimization and the commission of sexual harm (J. Yoder et al, 2020).…”

Predicting Sexual Recidivism

“…Fourth, the current study included predictor variables, including prior sexual victimization, 4 which would fall into the category of ACEs. Prior literature has found that ACEs in individuals with a prior sexually based offense differ from those without this history (Yoder, Dillard, and Leibowitz (2018); Yoder et al, 2019), including in samples of Florida youth (Levenson et al, 2017). This relationship is not present in the current analysis.…”

“…Empirical examinations have found support for this perspective. Youth with prior sexual offense involvement and with exposure to harsher and indifferent maternal caregiving were found to have higher child abuse experiences in comparison with youth with nonsexual offense history (Yoder, Grady, & Dillard, 2018; see also Yoder, Grady, Brown, & Dillard, 2019).…”

Using Relationship-Focused Group Therapy to Target Insecure Attachment as a Barrier to Sex Offense-Specific Treatment: A Pilot Study

“…In recent years, the SOST field has looked more closely at treatment in terms of a growing appreciation for the prevalence and impact of early childhood adversity and trauma among youth and men who sexually abuse (Grady, Levenson, & Bolder, 2017;Yoder, Grady, Brown, & Dillard, 2019). In a widely cited study using the Adverse Childhood Experience scale, Levenson, Willis and Prescott (2014b) found that men who sexually abuse had experienced three times the rate of child sexual abuse, twice the rate of physical abuse, 13 times the rate of verbal abuse, and four times the rate of emotional neglect and broken homes.…”