Locus of Control and Sex Offenders With an Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Locus of control has been implicated as an important construct that is related to treatment outcome for several groups of offenders, including sexual offenders.However, little attention has been paid to how this construct is related to sexual offending by people with intellectual disabilities. Given this, forty-one participants with intellectual disabilities were recruited into three groups, 1) sex offenders who had undergone psychological treatment, 2) sex offenders who had no history of treatment, and 3) non-offenders. All participants completed a measure of locus of control and a measure of distorted cognitions. There was a significant difference between those who had and had not completed treatment in terms of cognitive distortions relating to sexual offending. There was no significant difference between the three groups on the measure of locus of control, with all three groups endorsing an external locus of control. Three possible explanations for how locus of control relates to sexual offending by people with intellectual disabilities is explored and discussed in light of the results.

Perceptions and expectations of regular support meetings between staff and people with an intellectual disability

“…Several researchers have suggested that individuals with intellectual disability are likely to remain more dependent on external support rather than their own resources, even when this is unnecessary (Langdon & Talbot, 2006;Wehmeyer & Palmer, 1997;Zigler & Balla, 1972). It may be argued that the ad-hoc nature of the support reinforced dependency, because there was no regular monitoring or evaluation of how these meetings contributed to people with an ID's longer term needs or goals.…”

Moral reasoning theory and illegal behaviour by adults with intellectual disabilities

“…If the proposed relationships are found, this may lead to intervention studies. Several studies have demonstrated that self-serving cognitive distortions exist amongst sex offenders with ID (Broxholme & Lindsay, 2003;Langdon & Talbot, 2006;Lindsay & Michie, 2004;Lindsay, Whitefield, & Carson, 2007), which, based on moral reasoning theory, would relate to egocentric cognitive biases stemming from maladaptive moral schema. Most 110 P.E.…”

The relationship between intellectual ability and the treatment needs of offenders in a therapeutic community prison

“…Another issue in treatment planning is whether there are differences in treatment needs between ID and non-ID populations. Although some studies have reported no difference between ID and non-ID offenders with respect to the level or type of treatment needs (Kalal, Nezu, Nezu, & McGuffin, 1997;Nezu, Nezu, & Dudek, 1998), others suggest that ID offenders have specific attitudinal and skill deficits (Langdon & Talbot, 2006;Lindsay & Taylor, 2005), which need to be a focus of treatment. However, relatively little attention has been given to how far interventions with ID offenders need to be adapted to meet differences, not only in the learning style but also in the specific treatment needs of this population.…”