Obstacles to Help-Seeking for Sexual Offenders: Implications for Prevention of Sexual Abuse

ABSTRACT

Persons with potentially harmful sexual interests such as attraction to minors are unlikely to seek or receive treatment before a sexual offense has been committed. The current study explored barriers to help-seeking in a sample of 372 individuals in treatment for sexual offending. Results revealed that the shame and secrecy resulting from stigma associated with pedophilic interests often prevented our respondents from seeking professional counseling, and only about 20% tried to talk to anyone about their sexual interests prior to their arrest. Barriers to seeking and receiving psychological services included concerns about confidentiality, fears of social and legal consequences, personal shame or confusion about the problem, affordability, and challenges finding competent therapists who were adequately equipped to help them. Understanding and ultimately reducing obstacles to help-seeking can improve the quality of life for people with harmful sexual interests and potentially prevent sexual abuse of children or other vulnerable individuals.     

Shame in the Clinical Process with LGBTQ Clients

This commentary integrates the literature on the social and psychological dynamics of shame and discusses its relevance to the clinical process, especially with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and queer clients. It is argued that engagements with shame, especially where sexual desire, sexual orientation, or gender identity is a foremost consideration or conflict, may be the most important factor in producing and maintaining the therapeutic alliance. Shame, a social emotion, is considered in the light of work done in sociology, psychology, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis. Future directions for clinical research are suggested.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Suicidal Ideation Among Sexually Abused Adolescent Girls: The Mediating Role of Shame

ABSTRACT

Sexual abuse is associated with a host of negative repercussions in adolescence. Yet the possible mechanisms linking sexual abuse and negative outcomes are understudied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among self-blame, shame, coping strategies, posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. The sample included 147 sexually abused adolescent girls between 14 and 18 years of age. A total of 66% of girls reached clinical score for posttraumatic stress disorder, and 53% reached clinical score for depressive symptoms. Close to half (46%) reported suicidal thoughts in the past 3 months. Shame was found to partially mediate the relationship between self-blame and posttraumatic stress disorder. Shame and depressive symptoms were also found to partially mediate the relationship between self-blame and suicidal ideation. Results suggest that shame is a crucial target in interventions designed for sexually abused adolescent girls.     

The Role of Self-Conscious Emotions in the Sexual Health of Gay and Bisexual Men: Psychometric Properties and Theoretical Validation of the Sexual Shame and Pride Scale

Researchers have theorized about the role of sexual shame as a mechanism through which sexual minority stress manifests into mental health difficulties, such as sexual compulsivity for gay and bisexual men (GBM), and about the resilience-promoting effects of sexual pride. However, no validated measures to date have directly tapped into these constructs rather than using proxies for them, such as internalized homonegativity. We developed the Sexual Shame and Pride Scale (SSPS) and conducted a psychometric evaluation of it using a sample of 260 highly sexually active GBM. The scale had the expected structure in factor analysis and showed evidence of internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Correlational analyses demonstrated the convergent validity of sexual shame and sexual pride with relevant constructs. Regression analyses demonstrated the predictive validity of sexual shame in relation to sexual compulsivity, accounting for unique variability even after adjusting for previously demonstrated etiological factors, and the predictive validity of both shame and pride, which interacted to consistently predict four sexual behavior outcomes. Findings suggest the SSPS is a psychometrically valid and reliable measure that may be useful in future empirical work and highlight preliminary evidence for the role of these constructs in the sexual health of GBM.     

Stigmatizing Indebtedness: Implications for Labeling Theory

Given the low visibility of indebtedness and normative expectations regarding the use of credit and the accrual of debt, questions arise as to whether or not being unable to manage one's finances responsibly should necessarily lead a person to feel shame. Findings from a study, based on forty‐six interviews with members of Debtors Anonymous (DA), exploring the relevance of labeling theory to individual perceptions of one's indebtedness as shameful are presented. Shame is revealed to be a key element in the labeling process. How stigmatized labels arise in interaction, how such labels affect a person's thoughts, feelings, and actions, and how gender affects labeling experiences are discussed. Insights into the interconnections between labeling and shame show the labeling process to be considerably more complex than suggested in the original version of labeling theory.     

La calidad de vida. Juicios de satisfacción y felicidad como indicadores actitudinales de bienestar

Abstract

This article argues that institutional apologies are rituals that can be conceived from a neo-Durkheimian viewpoint as external social tools of collective emotion, which allow people to assume collective guilt and shame, increase agreement with reparatory behaviors, and reinforce social cohesion. The review of studies presented in this monograph shows that an apology reactivates and intensifies collective emotions, mainly of shame and guilt, above and beyond merely reminding people of past misdeeds, and increases support for reparation. Shame and sorrow fuel and support reparative tendencies. Finally, salience of past collective violence together with an apology improves social climate to some extent, enhances intergroup reconciliation by decreasing prejudice and improving intergroup contact, and helps to reconstruct in-group collective memory in a more critical way. Changes in collective emotions and representations of the past mediate the positive effects of apologies on reparation and social cohesion.     

Social Workers' Attributions for Sexual Offending Against Children

ABSTRACT

This study examined the reasons given by social workers and social work students for sexual offenses against children in New Zealand. Qualified and student social workers were asked to give the reasons why they think men sexually offend against children. A Grounded Theory methodology was applied to the reasons given for sexual offending and a set of eight categories derived from the data. These categories were then used to compare the types of reasons given by the two subject groups. The results suggested that both social workers and students (within group analysis) were more likely to cite power/control as a reason for offending. Social workers also made significantly more attributions than students. There were no other differences in the frequency with which reasons were cited between qualified and unqualified social workers although gender did emerge as a significant factor. Power and control emerged as the most important differentiating factor, with females tending to be more likely to give an answer which fits into this category. Sexual motivation was the next major reason on which differences were found, with females being less likely to explain the occurrence of sexual offending by reference to this factor. The research, educational, and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Give a Woman an Inch,She’ll Take a Penis

ABSTRACT

Women speaking out against sexual violence is nothing new, but institutions firing the male perpetrators or those accused signals a potential sea change. This essay was initially published as one of a series of blog posts written about #MeToo. This essay contains that post with the addition of thoughts about how we might integrate revelations in ways that create social change. This includes shifting from a focus on the guilty individual to the corrupt or at least culpable institution. In this light, more complex ideas of subjectivity that can disrupt human exceptionalism are key, as they can challenge White supremacist, heteropatriarchal responses to vulnerability and shame that seem to fuel much of the sexual (and other forms of) masculinized violence and the justifications for it.     

Shame,Sexual Compulsivity,and Eroticizing Flirtatious Others: An Experimental Study

Clinical observation and correlational studies with nonclinical samples suggest that a linkage between negative affective states (especially shame) and engagement in erotic pursuits typifies sexual compulsivity. The present study tested whether experimental induction of shame leads to increased interest in erotically suggestive targets among more sexually compulsive individuals. A total of 74 age-traditional heterosexual university students first recalled either an emotionally neutral or a shame-inducing personal experience, then completed a nonpredictive gaze-cueing task featuring flirtatious or emotionally neutral faces of the same or opposite sex. They also rated the faces’ attractiveness and completed a validated sexual compulsivity scale and two control measures (executive control, sociosexuality). Higher (versus lower) sexual compulsivity predicted weaker gaze-triggered attentional orienting in response to the flirtatious opposite-sex face in the shame (versus neutral) condition, and this was accounted for by (higher) attractiveness ratings of the flirtatious opposite-sex face. Shame thus appears to increase sexualization (i.e., reduces salience of agentic features and increases appeal of physical attributes) of erotically suggestive targets among more sexually compulsive individuals.     

Characteristics of Youth Who Sexually Offend

SUMMARY

Sexual abuse by juveniles is widely recognized as a significant problem. As communities have become more aware of juvenile sex offending they have responded with increasingly severe responses. This is despite recidivism data suggesting that a relatively small group of juveniles commit repeat sexual offenses after there has been an official response to their sexual offending. Research has shown that juveniles who commit sexual offenses are a heterogeneous mix, varying according to a wide range of variables. This article provides an overview of the characteristics of youths who have committed sex offenses. Factors that will be discussed include types of offending behaviors, family environment, histories of child maltreatment, social skills and interpersonal relationships, sexual knowledge and experiences, academic and cognitive functioning, and mental health.     

Shame in Self and Society

This article proposes that shame is the master emotion of everyday life but is usually invisible in modern societies because of taboo. A review of shame studies suggests a taboo that results in denial and silence. The studies by Cooley, Freud, Elias, Lynd, Goffman, Lewis, and Tomkins have been largely ignored. Their work suggests a vital connection between shame and social life: shame can be seen as a signal of a threat to the bond. If so, understanding shame would be necessary for the study of social systems. The taboo on shame in English still holds: current usage, for the most part, assigns an intense and narrow singular meaning. This meaning offends, on the one hand, and misses the everyday function of shame, on the other. Perhaps the problem can be approached, as it is in traditional societies, by the use of a broader term, such as “bond affect” or “Shame.” Such a concept could lead to discovery of the emotional/relational world.     

Differential perceptions of a hypothetical sexual assault survivor based on race and ethnicity: Exploring victim responsibility,trauma, and need for social support

Objective: Explore the ways in which a sample of college women interpret racially/ethnically coded vignettes to understand their perceptions of responsibility and trauma experienced by a hypothetical female sexual assault survivor and her need for social support. Participants: Convenience sample of college women (N?=?51) attending a large, predominately white university in the Southeastern United States recruited between January and March 2013. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned one of three vignettes describing a hypothetical date rape scenario. Vignette scenarios were identical except for discrete statements coded to signify either an African American, Latina, or white female student. Participants responded to open-ended questions that gauged their interpretations of responsibility, trauma, and social support. Results: Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses revealed six overarching themes, including overt victim blaming/shaming, justification of the sexual assault, and perceived need for social support. Conclusions: Findings point to the significance of including race in discussions about and programs that address sexual assault on college campuses to ensure that all women who experience sexual violence receive the support that they need.     

THE SYSTEMIC TREATMENT OF SHAME IN COUPLES

Shame remains largely a hidden phenomenon in the treatment of couples. It can manifest itself as a determining factor in events ranging from entrenched blaming to missed appointments. Although there is a growing body of literature on individual shame dynamics and, to a lesser extent, on couple and family shame dynamics, there is little written on how to incorporate these theories into treatment. This paper offers working definitions of shame, proposes a systemic definition of shame as seen in couples, reviews the literature on coule shame dynamics, and explores issues of therapeutic stance and treatment techniques in working with shame in couples therapy.     

Gay shame in a geopolitical context

With the developing acceptance of gay equality in the west, it is assumed that we live in a post-shame era, with ‘the world we have won’. However, this is a chimeric cliché of neoliberalism (rather like the idea that we are all postfeminist now). The ‘proud’ homosexual of the west is discursively constructed against the ‘shamed’ homosexual of the east, a typecasting resonant with postcolonial clichés of the primal, religious, and homophobic savagery of the global south in contrast with the civilising, liberal evolution of the secular global north. Shame displacement is of course a dynamic of shame itself. The perceived failure in achieving the ‘proud iconic gay’ of media cultures in the global North results in a traumatic double bind of being ashamed of being ashamed. This article will reconsider the cultural politics and temporality of shame for primarily white gay identities after the ‘War on Terror’. As Islamophobia has exponentially increased, some western gays translocate their unacknowledged shame onto a misconceived ‘brown threat’ in a complex, aggressive, and racist shame loop [Lewis, H.B., 1971. Shame and guilt in neurosis. New York: International Universities Press; Scheff, T.J., and Retzinger, S.M., 1991. Emotions and violence: shame and rage in destructive conflict. New York: Lexington Books].     

Such a shame—a consideration of shame and shaming mechanisms in families

Shame is a powerful emotion associated with the exposure of any aspect of the self that we wish to keep hidden from others. In its healthy manifestation, shame guards the boundary of the self and promotes a realistic self-appraisal of our capacities and our limitations. However, too much shame results in a sense of the self as fundamentally flawed, and can lead to lifelong problems in living. Shame originates in relationship to others, and most notably by how we are seen as children by our parents. This paper focuses on shame in the family context, the ways shame can be misused in the parent/child relationship and the effects of this on the child. Shame is put forward as an important, but neglected, consideration in child mental health and a core issue in child abuse. The implications for work with children and families are briefly discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Shame in Women's Recovery from Alcoholism

Abstract

This study compares the recovery experience of female members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) who reported a history of childhood sexual abuse (68%) with those who did not report experiencing childhood sexual abuse. A sample of 53 women was obtained from AA. A significant relationship was found between shame and two measures of difficulties in recovery-problems in social adjustment and relapse. Though the hypothesis that experiences of child sexual abuse predicted difficulty in recovery was not supported, these data suggest that shame may be an important variable in both the etiology and treatment of alcoholism in women.     

Exploring the Concepts of Recognition and Shame for Social Work

Recognition and shame are both concepts that potentially offer social workers a structure to build practice on; two states experienced by both social workers and service users. ‘Recognition’, within social, political and economic thought, has been established as a field in which inequality and exclusion can be analysed. Social work theorists have also made inroads into exploring its reach. ‘Shame’ in twentieth century and contemporary sociological and psychoanalytical accounts, is understood as a force in limiting human agency, well-being and capacity This paper briefly outlines some of the defining ideas in circulation in relation to recognition and shame, and then briefly considers how psychoanalytical and contemporary social structural analysis builds on this, making links to contemporary social work thinking throughout. The paper also specifically considers some of the uses of recognition and shame for thinking about social worker and service user ‘well-being’, and the connections, through both the relational and the socio-political, which inflect social work practice.     

“They Look at You like You're Nothing”: Stigma and Shame in the Child Support System

More than 22 million or 1 in 4 children in the United States are currently served by the child support program. This program, the third largest used to address childhood poverty, regulates non‐custodial parents' financial support of their children through federal, state, and municipal legislation and policies. The collateral consequences, particularly those related to economic stability and criminal justice involvement, associated with child support system participation have been widely studied. However, many of the interpersonal interactions between those who have cases in the system and those who work in the system have been largely ignored. In this article, I use courtroom observations, in‐depth interviews, and cultural artifacts to explore the practices of stigmatization and shaming in this important legal and bureaucratic process. I explore stigma and shame in three thematic areas: (1) shame in social interactions, (2) shame as a tool of social control, and (3) the social consequences of shame. I ultimately suggest that stigma and shame in the child support system, resembling that in the welfare and criminal justice systems, reinforces cognitive boundaries between parents perceived as “responsible” and those perceived as “deadbeats.”     

Prostitution of Young Persons

SUMMARY

Juvenile prostitution in the German welfare work is being interpreted as a peculiar behaviour which cannot be influenced by criminal law but by psychodynamic and social condition factors and motives. The public prostitution of adolescents largely takes place unaffected by criminal persecution. In view of the legislation in Germany, the regulations of criminal law have not had any decisive influence at juvenile prostitution. In Germany there exists a sufficient protection of children and adolescents. The current discussion about the expansion of the childhood definition of young people up to 18 years, and a de-legalization of agreed sexual actions between people under and over 18 years ignores a typical juvenile behaviour. A change in the situation of life of juvenile prostitutes by a legal intensification, as well as a change in behaviour through an anonymous sanction system like that of legislation, cannot be expected.