Heterosocial competence of rapists and child molesters: a meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of 119 effect sizes from 14 papers examined the heterosocial competence of sex offenders. Rapists had significantly lower heterosocial competence than non-sex-offenders, but this effect was relatively small. Rapists in prison differed from non-sex-offenders who were not in prison; however, they did not differ from non-sex-offending prisoners. When unreliable measures were excluded from the analysis, nonincarcerated students and other volunteers who reported committing rape did not differ from nonincarcerated non-sex-offenders. The difference in heterosocial competence between child molesters and non-sex-offenders was significantly larger than the difference between rapists and non-sex-offenders. Also, child molesters had significantly less heterosocial competence than rapists. Findings clarify the relationship between heterosocial competence, rape, and child sexual abuse. Implications for the research and treatment of sex offenders are discussed.     

Assessing reoffense risk with juvenile sexual offenders

This article summarizes a two-year study of juvenile sexual offenders in Washington. Both community-based and institution-based treatment programs were evaluated. A typical profile of the juvenile sexual offender is offered, as well as recidivism data from a mean 20-month follow-up period.     

A study of the cycle of abuse among child molesters

The current study was designed to determine whether there is support for the cycle of abuse theory among child molesters. A group of 147 sex offenders on probation were used in this study. The victims of 32 of these offenders were under the age of 10, and 19 of these offenders reported a history of childhood sexual abuse. Results indicate that being abused as a child is related to being a child molester. It was also found that the MMPI-2 did not predict the status of the subjects in regard to being abused as a child and having a victim under 10-years-old.     

Assessing child abuse: the TRIADS checklist

Although all types of abuse injure children, psychological abuse is most elusive and damaging on many levels, particularly levels of attachment, affective development, and the evolution of empathetic capacities that allow a child to receive and transmit, in an appropriate manner, emotional information between people. Some think that this type of psychological abuse coupled with neglect and perhaps early physical abuse impairs the child's total capacity to respond emotionally (Brothers, 1989). Essentially, empathy is a matter of a complex informational processing activity. Alexithymia, an inability to perceive the emotions of others, has been linked in primate studies to deprivation (Sackette, 1966). This awareness of the impact of environmental factors on the development of critical emotional and ultimately interpersonal regulating mechanisms underscores the need to attend to all aspects of child abuse.     

Sentencing outcomes of convicted child sex offenders

This research examines the sentencing outcomes of convicted child sexual offenders from data collected over an eight year period. Multiple regression and nominal log linear regression are used to examine length of prison sentence, length of probation sentence, and whether the convicted offender is actually sent to prison or to probation. While many independent variables appear to be related to sentence outcome, they fall into three categories: characteristics of the offender, characteristics of the victim, and characteristics of the crime. Additionally, while many variables appear related at the bivariate level, when multivariate analysis is applied, fewer variables remain significant, and these are mostly from the characteristics of the offense.     

Assessing child welfare outcomes: the American perspective

This paper examines US research on child welfare outcomes, focusing on family preservation, out-of-home care, and family reunification services. The review highlights the range of mixed findings in each of these areas, along with methodological issues and constraints. In light of the complexity of child welfare services, future outcome research should complement the rigorous use of quantitative methods with the careful application of qualitative methods.     

Empathy, intimacy, loneliness and locus of control in child sex offenders: a comparison between familial and non-familial child sexual offenders

There has been relatively little previous research examining differences between subgroups of child sex offenders. In this study, we compared a group of familial and non-familial child sex offenders attending a community based treatment program on a number of relationship dimensions thought to be important in explaining offending. No statistically significant differences were found between these groups on measures of general empathy, intimacy and loneliness, although non-familial offenders were found to have higher levels of cognitive empathy and a more internal locus of control than familial offenders. These findings are discussed in terms of their possible implications for service delivery.     

The use of sexually explicit stimuli by rapists,child molesters,and nonoffenders

Retrospective recall provided the basis for estimating the use of sexually explicit materials by sex offenders (voluntary outpatients) and nonoffenders during pubescence, as well as currently. Offenders were also asked about their use of such materials as incitors to offend. The sexual materials of concern were restricted to magazines, films, or videotapes depicting very explicit consenting sex between adults, a man forcing sex upon a woman, and sex between an adult male and a child. Twenty‐three rapists and 51 men who molested children other than their own (i.e. child molesters) reported significantly greater use of materials than was indicated by either incest offenders or nonoffender controls. Rapists and child molesters reported frequent use of these materials while preparing themselves to commit an offense. Current use was significantly related to the chronicity of their sexual offending (as revealed by number of victims) amongst the child molesters and to laboratory‐assessed sexual preferences for children in the heterosexual child molesters.     

A child welfare agency project: therapy for families of status offenders.

A pilot project providing therapy for families of status-offender youths has proved effective in reducing placements and costs.     

Comparing different types of child abuse and spouse abuse offenders

This study examined differences in offenders' background characteristics, personal and interpersonal problems, and family climate between three types of child abuse offenders (neglecters, physical abusers, and psychological abusers) and two forms of spouse abuse offenders (physical abusers and psychological abusers) in two large samples (child abuse n = 2,910; spouse abuse; n = 7,035) of cases officially identified over a 8-year period (1988-1995) by the U.S. Air Force Family Advocacy Program. Comparisons addressed demographic factors, personal and interpersonal problems, and aspects of family climate. Among child abusers, results supported the conclusion that types of child abuse varied with offender demographics and family climate factors. For spouse abusers, however, types of abuse were not as distinctly different in terms of the comparison variables. In general, therefore, for child abuse--but not for spouse abuse--findings challenge the view of abuse as a unitary phenomenon.     

Assessing safety culture in child welfare: Evidence from Tennessee

States continue to search for ways to prevent harm to children and families within the child welfare system. Recently, states and researchers alike have looked to other high hazard sectors that have experienced harm-free performance by creating and sustaining a strong safety culture – an organizational focus and priority on safety. Safety culture is enabled by leader actions to prioritize safety (safety climate) and make it safe for employees to take an interpersonal risk (psychological safety). Safety culture is enacted by behaviors for detecting and correcting errors and unexpected events (safety organizing) and recognizing how stress affects work performance (stress recognition). However, despite their conceptual relevance and practical promise for child welfare, these and other safety culture constructs have yet to be subjected to rigorous empirical analysis in child welfare. This study draws on 1719 employees in the state of Tennessee's child welfare system to examine whether safety culture can be reliably and validly measured, can characterize organizations across a state (i.e., employees have shared perceptions of the safety culture), and be linked to relevant outcomes (e.g., employee emotional exhaustion). Our results confirm that components of safety culture can be reliably and validly measured in child welfare, perceptions of culture are shared within each of the Tennessee child welfare system's twelve regions, and that safety culture is generally associated with lower levels of employee emotional exhaustion, but also indicate that there is considerable opportunity for improvement as the levels of safety culture are low relative to other sectors.     

An adolescent services plan to incorporate status offenders into the child welfare system

A model plan is presented for adolescent services that would facilitate the current trend to shift troubled but nondelinquent youngsters from the juvenile justice system into the child welfare system.     

Intergenerational families in child welfare: Assessing needs and estimating permanency

Much of the empirical literature on intergenerational child maltreatment focuses on the mechanisms that explain how maltreatment is transmitted across generations. Few studies have examined child protective service outcomes associated with intergenerational families. The current study addresses this gap in the literature. This study compares 1196 caregivers, most of whom are single African American females, and 2143 children from first and second generation child welfare-involved families. All families have a history of substance abuse. We sought to understand how first and second generation families differ with regard to social and economic status indicators, as well as whether intergenerational child welfare involvement is associated with permanency outcomes. Our findings indicate that second generation families experience significantly more risk factors at the time of case opening, and are two-thirds as likely to be reunified as compared with first generation families. The singular effects of generation status disappeared, however, once the interaction between mental health diagnosis and second generation status was entered into the model, suggesting that it is not just being intergenerationally involved in the child welfare system that reduces the chance of reunification, but rather second generation caregivers have more mental health problems that are associated with a lower likelihood of reunification.     

Female sex offenders: a comparison of solo offenders and co-offenders

Even though much of the prior sex offender literature focuses on males, recent research has included females as offenders. Such research, however, has been limited by small sample sizes. Several researchers have proposed typologies of female sex offenders that include both females who act alone (i.e., solo offenders) and females who act with another person (i.e., co-offenders), often a male. The current research includes a cross-national sample of 123 females who were solo offenders and 104 who were co-offenders. It was found that the two groups of females were not significantly different in regard to their age, race, time of offense, and the location of the offense. Co-offenders were more likely than solo offenders to have more than one victim, to have both male and female victims, to be related to the victim, and to have a nonsexual offense in addition to the sexual offense listed.     

Comparing differential responses within child protective services: a longitudinal examination

This study examines the efficacy of a family differential response program to lower rates of (1) reentry into child protective services (CPS) and (2) child removal. Data were collected over 20 months from one region of British Columbia, Canada. Comparisons between family development response (FDR) and cases assigned to regular investigation (INV) suggest that FDR does not decrease recidivism to CPS. However, fewer children in the FDR group were removed than children in the INV group.     

Further evidence for the multidimensional nature of maternal sensitivity: differential links with child socioemotional functioning at preschool age

There has been increasing scholarly attention to the study of maternal sensitivity as a multidimensional construct. This report investigated the predictive value of three dimensions of sensitivity during mother–infant interactions in an effort to gain greater understanding of how specific facets of sensitivity relate to child socioemotional outcomes. Maternal cooperation/attunement (accurate interpretation of infant cues and capacity to adjust the interaction correspondingly), positivity (positive attitude toward the infant), and accessibility/availability (consistent attentiveness) were assessed observationally in 195 mothers of 1-year-old infants. Child socioemotional functioning was assessed using behavioral tasks and maternal and teacher reports when children were 4 years of age. The results revealed that maternal accessibility/availability was predictive of less externalizing behavior, more prosocial behavior (mother- and teacher-reported), and better theory of mind, while maternal positivity predicted effortful control. These results highlight the advantages of a multidimensional assessment in understanding how sensitivity predicts different developmental outcomes.     

Assessing the differential impacts of online,mixed, and offline gambling

The emergence of new behaviours associated with communication technologies has prompted questions about the evolution of gambling in the population. The development of online gambling gave rise to public health concerns back 20 years ago. Current knowledge indicates that online gamblers generally tend to show more psychosocial problems than offline gamblers. But those portraits tend to neglect the differences between pure and mixed online gamblers. The goal of this research is to assess if, and to what extent, online gambling generates more harmful impacts on the health and well-being in a sample of adult gamblers in Québec. The propensity score matching method was chosen to assess the variable prevalence of impacts on a sample of 810 regular gamblers recruited from an online panel. They were divided into sub-groups: pure online gamblers (n = 143), mixed online gamblers (n = 125), and a control group of offline gamblers (n = 542). The study has revealed that among online gamblers and their entourage, online gambling does, in fact, result in an extra burden of impacts in several aspects of their lives: work, relationships, mental/physical health, finances, quality of life, and problem gambling according to the Canadian Problem Gambling Index. Results also show that combined with offline gambling, online gambling significantly increases the burden of impacts in terms of both the number and intensity of impacts. This is the first empirical study using propensity score matching to asses the incremental impacts of online gambling by separating pure and mixed gamblers and to compare them to offline gamblers.     

Assessing the local need for family and child care services: a small area utilization analysis

This article reports the findings of a study to develop a new method for allocating resources to family and child care services within Northern Ireland. Downloads from financial and client databases, together with a survey of social worker case activity, were used to estimate utilization costs across 500 local areas. Regression techniques were then used to account for variations in these costs in terms of local socioeconomic conditions. The resultant needs index represents a fair and equitable means of allocating central family and child care budgets to local units of management and service delivery.