x2

• Subtypes of sexual offenders


  • Deviant sexual arousal
  • Distorted cognition
  • Affective dysfunction
  • Personality problems
• Deviant sexual arousal subtype


  • Classic preferential offender (children – pedophile, voyeurs, exhibitionist)
  • Large number of victims in target group
• Treatment target for deviant sexual arousal subtype

  1. Arousal reconditioning

  2. Directed masturbation – increase arousal to stimulus not related to children
• Distorted cognition subtype


  • Misinterpretation of signals from victims – view women/children as sexual objects & feel entitled to sex
  • See world as dangerous, act out before world hurts them (women are unknowable)
• Treatment target for distorted cognition subtype

  1. Cognitive modification

  2. Challenging thinking – around sexual entitlement & distorted beliefs around women and children
• Affective dysfunction subtype


  • Situational offenders – trigger for offence, lack of seeking opportunities to offend
  • Impulsive behaviour designed to regulate emotional states
• Treatment target for affective dysfunction subtype

  1. Emotion regulation driven by sex = coping strategy to alleviate negative affective states

  2. Support in developing prosocial coping mechanisms/impulsivity control around arousal
• Personality problems subtype


  • Offending due to inability to form and maintain 'normal' adult relationships – romantic, not mutually beneficial = clingy, avoidant, lack of emotion
• Treatment target for personality problems subtype

  1. Interpersonal skills

  2. Empathy, perspective-taking, prosocial way of engaging with adults (general interpersonal skills rather than specific sex offender treatment)
• Strengths of the subtypes model

  • Focuses on multiple factors, treats sexual offending as multifaceted issue
  • Suggests several 'routes' into sexual offending
  • Gives attention to state and trait factors (and individual differences - dynamic)
  • Unpacks how psychological and situational factors interact leading up to an offence through identification of sub-types
• Limitations of the subtypes model

  • Lacks specificity – no account of how 4 factors come together to result in an offence
  • Unduly simplistic – no account of where 4 factors originate/ aetiology [origin of condition]
  • Not clear why one causal factor is more predominant over the others
• Intimacy and social skills deficits pathway

  • Insecure attachment = anxious or avoidant stemming from abuse or neglect
  • Adult rejection = linked to social skills
  • Social isolation = risk factor for those using sex as coping strategy
  • Children seen as less hostile = less dangerous, children as sexual beings – used to overcome internal inhibitors
  • Emotional congruence = feel safe with child
• Deviant scripts pathway


  • Premature sexualisation = offender abused themselves or had early sexual exposure
  • Sex devoid of emotion – lack of emotional bond with someone (adult form of bonding), used as a 'tool' to show someone care – internal script distorted & loses any meaningful element for offenders
  • Difficulty maintaining healthy relationships = other ways to show love other than sex, offenders don't do this think it's pure physical = relationship breakdown
  • Children less rejecting = opportunity
  • Offence if in environment with a child, show child that they care through deviant sexual behaviour
• Emotion Dysregulation Pathway

  • Lack of emotional competence – ability to inhibit impulses stem from this lack of skill
  • Anger/sad/down - think sex best way of coping, counteract emotions by offending = Outlet for emotion (release anger)
  • Low self-worth – coping = Improved self-worth
  • Offence
• Distorted cognition pathway


  • Dangerous World – Entitlement to sexual activity whenever they want it & women as objects
  • Desire
  • Opportunity – due to entitlement. (eg. Woman walking alone, they want sex, woman alone so they'll take it)
  • Offence
• Multiple Deficits Pathway


  • Paedophilia – classic deviant sexual interest with children
  • Cognitive distortions – try to rationalise feelings - yet know they're different to vast majority so may withdraw themselves from society
  • Social isolation
  • Emotional congruence with children (incongruent with adults) - need to feel connections and connected with other people and go to children if can't with adults = seek out what they can = children
  • Offence (situational and environmental factors)
• Strengths of the pathways model

  • Coherency – examining psychological differences between sub-sets of offenders = builds on elements of previous models
  • Acknowledgement of different 'routes' (pathways) into child sexual abuse = beyond paedophile paradigm – not condone but show feeling and how they get there to offending
  • Suggest importance of early formative years/development for templates (for emotional regulation), otherwise distort
• Significant minority of offenders were abused themselves and go on to abuse
• Limitations of the pathways model

  • Applicability to adolescent offenders – between young people, sibling
• Multiple deficit pathway - have critical deficits in all 4 of previous pathways
• Distortes cognition - Dangerous world and children don’t pose the threat that adults do