Psychopathy traits and parental dysfunction in sexual offending and general delinquent adolescent males

The Lived Experience of the Adolescent Sex Offender: A Phenomenological Case Study

“…These experiences are significant contributing factors in developing sexual maladaptive behaviors (Creeden, 2013;Hunter, Figueredo, & Malamuth, 2010;Netland & Miner, 2012;Prichard, Spiranovic, Watters, & Lueg, 2013;Worling, 2005). Schwartz, Cavanaugh, Prentky, and Pimental (2006) confirmed that a high number of adolescents with sexual behavior problems and aggression have experienced similar life situations.…”

Empathy deficits and adolescent sexual offending: A systematic review of the evidence base

“…Neither of these IRI studies found any difference in cognitive general empathy between ASO and NSO groups, although they did both find significant differences in components of affective general empathy, with ASOs scoring lower on Empathic Concern (Lindsey et al, 2001) and Personal Distress (O'Halloran et al, 2002). This might indicate that ASOs have lower affective general empathy than NSOs; however, the evidence from Netland and Miner (2012) contradicts this. Using a measure of affective general empathy (the lack of empathy scale in the MIDSA), Netland and Miner (2012) compared three sub-groups of ASO with an NSO group.…”

“…It has also been suggested that the transparent nature of self-report empathy measures may leave them open to the influence of social desirability on responding when assessing sex offenders (Tierney & McCabe, 2001; for specific analysis of the IRI see Curwen, 2003). Researchers can control for this by using empathy measures that assess socially desirable responding or by using additional measures to identify such responding; however, nearly half of the studies that used self-report tools did not describe attempts to control for social desirability (Burke, 2001;Hunter & Figueredo, 2000;Moriarty et al, 2001;Netland & Miner, 2012;Lindsey et al, 2001;Van Vugt et al, 2008).  Clinician-rated empathy score ("Offender acknowledges and understands the negative impact of the offense on victim (empathy)") from a local juvenile sex offender programme protocol for assessing offenders.…”

“…On one hand, some of these issues will also apply to these ASO and NSO comparisons; on the other, one might expect many sources of variability between ASO and NSO comparison groups to be minimised due to the fact that each group was made up of offenders. For example, Netland and Miner (2012) recruited all their participants from a wider study of child sexual abuse perpetration which drew its samples from residential and outpatient sex offender treatment programmes, juvenile probation departments, and juvenile detention centres, all of whom had attended offender treatment programmes (Miner et al, 2010). However, it is not clear how well each of their groups was matched on age, and it is also possible that a bias could have been introduced due to the fact that their comparison groups were made up of volunteers from a wider sample (particularly as the proportions volunteering from each group appear to be different).…”

Adolescent sexual aggressiveness and pornography use: A longitudinal assessment

“…Callousness, a key indicator of psychopathy, is usually defined as the tendency to use others for personal gain without empathy or feeling bad about it (Frick & Dickens, 2006). Callousness has been found to predict sexual aggression and delinquent behaviour in adolescent males (Netland & Miner, 2012). It has been shown to contribute to aggression in two ways: through reactive aggression, which is a result of feeling threatened, and proactive aggression (violence is used to establish dominance) (Price & Dodge, 1989).…”