Executive Functioning in Pedophilia and Child Sexual Offending

Massau, Claudia; Tenbergen, Gilian; Kärgel, Christian; Weiß, Simone; Gerwinn, Hannah; Pohl, Alexander; Amelung, Till; Mohnke, Sebastian; Kneer, Jonas; Wittfoth, Matthias; Ristow, Inka; Schiltz, Kolja; Beier, Klaus M.; Ponseti, Jorge; Walter, Martin; Krüger, Tillmann H.C.; Walter, Henrik; Schiffer, Boris

doi:10.1017/s1355617717000315

Cited by 42 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…One explanation for this finding is based on the limitations of the normative comparison data used. It remains unclear how the results from specific executive function tests relate to the complicated processes involved in offending behaviours (Massau et al, 2017). Significant correlations were not seen between executive functioning and older age, depression or substance use scores contrary to our hypothesis, and similar to another investigation (Combalbert et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

“…Executive dysfunction is not inevitable with the presence of a psychiatric condition or substance abuse (Testa & Pantelis, 2009). It remains unclear how the results from specific executive function tests relate to the complicated processes involved in offending behaviours (Massau et al, 2017). A range of other sociodemographic and biopsychosocial factors, and how they contribute to offending, were not addressed in the current study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Psychiatric disorders, substance use, and executive functioning in older probationers

Fitton

Bates

Hayes

et al. 2018

Criminal Behav Ment Health

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Background: Although the number of older people serving community sentences (probation) after conviction for a criminal offence in England and Wales has increased rapidly since about 2006, this population has received little research attention. Aim: To examine the mental health, substance use, and executive functioning of older probationers. Methods: Thirty-two male probationers aged 50 years and older were recruited from probation services in the Thames Valley, England, and administered validated semistructured interviews for psychiatric disorders, symptom checklists for depression and substance use, cognitive impairment screens, and neuropsychological tests of executive functioning (examining verbal fluency and response inhibition).Results: We found that older probationers presented with a high prevalence of mental health difficulties (overall caseness n = 22; 69%, 95% CI ) that exceed estimates in the older general population. Prevalences of depression (25%) or alcohol abuse or dependence (19%) were found to be high. In comparison with normative data, however, older probationers did not present with deficits in tested executive functioning.Conclusions and implications for practice: Mental health and substance use problems were more prominent than cognitive deficits in this sample of older probationers. Further work should include older community controls to inform service planning and to determine how these mental health factors interact with offending.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Psychiatric disorders, substance use, and executive functioning in older probationers

Fitton

Bates

Hayes

et al. 2018

Criminal Behav Ment Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Supporting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and EEG studies (see below), neuropsychological research has shown executive dysfunctions in child sexual offenders (92). Interestingly, a recent neuropsychological study supports the results by Kärgel et al (91) in so far as executive dysfunctions (worsened response inhibition abilities) are related to offense status rather than pedophilic preference (93).…”

Section: Functional Imaging-functional Magnetic Resonance Imagingmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…Results of fMRI, and neuropsychological studies found impaired (motor) response inhibition functions in sexual offenders against children (90,92). Recent studies revealed that a worsened response inhibition ability is related to offense status rather than pedophilic preference (91,93).…”

Section: Potential Biomarkers For Therapy Response and Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2020

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The use of biomarkers in medicine is a common and valuable approach in several clinical fields. Understanding the relationship between measurable biological processes and clinical outcomes not only is indispensable in the face of understanding physiological processes in healthy as well as in diseased organisms but also for understanding and evaluating treatment effects. Therefore, also in the context of forensic psychiatry, biomarkers and their potentially beneficial effects are of growing interest. The objective of this review is to examine if there are biomarkers that may serve as a tool to support diagnostic process, treatment evaluation, and risk assessment of pedophilic individuals and child sexual offenders. In the first part, we present an overview of the current neurobiological, as well as physiological and psychophysiological approaches to characterize pedophilia and child sexual offending. Secondly, we discuss and evaluate the impact of these approaches on the development of biomarkers for diagnosis, therapy, and risk assessment in pedophilic subjects and child sexual offenders. We conclude that a lot of research has already enhanced our neurobiological knowledge about pedophilia and child sexual offending. Although there surely exist promising parameters and approaches, in our view currently none of these is ready yet to serve as a clinically applicable diagnostic, response, or predictive biomarker for pedophilia and child sexual offending. Therefore, further work remains to be done. The development of a composite diagnostic biomarker to assess deviant sexual interest, combining several measures like functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalogram, eye tracking, and behavioral approaches seems to be most promising. A valid and reliable measurement of deviant sexual interest, insensitive to manipulations could significantly support clinical diagnostic process. Similarly, regarding therapy evaluation and risk assessment, a composite biomarker to assess inhibitory control functions seems to be promising. Furthermore, the application of the Research Domain Criteria-approach, a new approach for investigating and classifying mental disorders, offers the possibility to take research to a new level.

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“…Lastly, all of our patients had a history of sexual offending against children. According to previous research, SOC with PD present reduced inhibitory control compared to men with PD but no offence history (Kärgel et al, 2016;Massau et al, 2017). Thus, impaired inhibitory control might increase the risk of offending, and different levels of impairment might be associated with contact compared to noncontact or no offending.…”

Section: Limitations and Suggestions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 92%

The Effects of Acute Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Attentional Bias in Pedophilic Disorder: A Pre-registered Pilot Study

Pezzoli¹,

Ziogas²,

Seto³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Individuals with Pedophilic Disorder (PD) experience personal and interpersonal difficulties and are at risk of sexually offending against children. As such, innovative and empirically validated treatments are needed. Recent studies have indicated that sex offenders with child victims (SOC) with PD display an automatic attention bias for child-related stimuli as well as reduced activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), a brain area involved in cognitive control, including control over sexual arousal. In the present pre-registered pilot study, we were the first to investigate whether acutely increasing prefrontal activity could reduce the putative pedophilic attention bias. To do so, we delivered a single 20-minute session of active anodal vs. sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dlPFC to 16 SOC with PD and 16 matched healthy controls, while they performed a task requiring controlled attention to computer-generated images of clothed and nude children and adults. We collected responses unobtrusively by recording eye movements. No significant tDCS effect on visual attention to sexually salient stimuli emerged during or immediately after stimulation. From a qualitative perspective, observations were in line with a bias for sexually preferred vs. non-preferred stimuli in patients but not in controls. Importantly, active vs. sham tDCS reduced this bias across outcome measures in patients but not in controls. Based on these preliminary findings, it is worth further investigating the possibility of using brain stimulation as a therapeutic intervention for PD. Methodological improvements were also identified and discussed to assist future research.

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Executive Functioning in Pedophilia and Child Sexual Offending

Cited by 42 publications

References 43 publications

Psychiatric disorders, substance use, and executive functioning in older probationers

Psychiatric disorders, substance use, and executive functioning in older probationers

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

The Effects of Acute Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Attentional Bias in Pedophilic Disorder: A Pre-registered Pilot Study

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