| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
An Examination of Current Psychometric Assessments of Child Molesters' Offense-Supportive Beliefs Using Ward's Implicit TheoriesUniversity of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom, T.A.Gannon{at}Kent.ac.uk
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom Are current questionnaire methods fit for the task of assessing offense-related schemas? Six published and unpublished questionnaire measures that assess child molesters' offense-related beliefs are evaluated and examined for evidence of the five implicit schemas proposed by Ward: children as sexual beings, nature of harm, uncontrollability, entitlement, and dangerous world. Current treatment approaches assume that child molesters hold some, if not all, of these implicit schemas—an assumption demonstrated through the use of appropriately modified schema-based treatment techniques. Coding the six questionnaires revealed that nonsexual offense-specific implicit theories are underrepresented on existing measures (i.e., uncontrollability, entitlement, and dangerous world) and that many questionnaire items could not be classified as tapping any implicit theories. Suggestions are made for the future design and revision of questionnaire assessments .
Key Words: questionnaire cognitive distortion child sexual offender implicit theories child molester
This version was published on June
1, 2009 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 53, No. 3,
316-333 (2009) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||