Neurobiological Implications in Assessing Treatment Need in Sexual Offenders

Abstract

Several alterations of brain functioning may increase the risk for committing sexual offences. Similarly, physiological abnormality may limit the amenability of sexual offenders to treatment interventions aimed at reducing the risk of reoffending. Based on an overview of research on cerebral responses associated with sexual interest and arousal, this chapter pulls together findings from case studies, electrophysiology, and brain imaging. Both structural and functional brain‐imaging studies are reviewed, with a focus on paedophilia and sexual offences against children, as most studies available to date concerned this area. In a more applied sense, findings on general cognitive ability and neuropsychological functioning are highlighted that may prove helpful to structure the psychological assessment of sexual offenders. Finally, genetic, connatal, and hormonal peculiarities are described that can be associated with a greater risk of sexual offending. In conclusion, a thorough examination of possible somatic risk factors is recommended. This assessment should comprise both neurological/psychiatric and psychological assessment. Such an assessment should be dependent on the indication in a given case, however, and not be applied indiscriminately.

What can the eyes tell us about atypical sexual preferences as a function of sex and age? Linking eye movements with child-related chronophilias

“…The Information Processing Model continues to be the main basis for research on both typical [ 45–48 ] and atypical sexual responses [ 14 , 49 , 50 ]. The model has been supported through neurobiological evidence [ 51 , 52 ], and has been integrated into the most recent explanatory models of sexual violence, such as the Incentive-Motivation and Hierarchical Control Model [ 41 ]. This model integrates pre-conscious and conscious components of sexual stimulus processing, from its early phases, in which motivational processes triggered by incentives and/or cognitive representations of incentives are involved, to its late phases, in which a slow conscious executive control is involved, which allows delaying gratification and regulating behavior [ 30 ].…”