Resistance, reluctance, and readiness in perpetrators of abuse against women and children

Perpetrators of abuse and violence against women and children are often reluctant participants in intervention programs. They frequently fail to attend scheduled appointments, are sometimes openly hostile to intervention staff, and often judge program materials as irrelevant to their situation. Recognizing this problem, researchers and practitioners have begun to develop models and tools to more appropriately assess and intervene with reluctant clients. Unfortunately, the resulting proliferation and inconsistent application of terms and theories have led to considerable confusion in characterizing reluctant clients and have significantly hampered research on strategies that may be helpful to better meet the needs of this client group. The purpose of this review is to help standardize the definition and measurement of treatment reluctance as it applies to violence perpetration and to review evidence for the importance of these aspects of client reluctance to intervention. Recommendations for assessing reluctance in research and clinical practice are also provided.

Increasing honest responding on cognitive distortions in child molesters: the bogus pipeline procedure

Professionals conclude that child molesters (CMs) hold offense-supportive beliefs (or cognitive distortions) from CMs'questionnaire responses. Because questionnaires are easily faked, we asked 32 CMs to complete a cognitive distortion scale under standard conditions (Time 1). A week later (Time 2), the same CMs completed the scale again. This time, approximately one half of CMs were attached to a pseudo lie detector (a bogus pipeline), and the rest completed the scale again under standard conditions (controls). At Time 1, CMs showed low cognitive distortion scores, seeming to indicate that they were faking good. At Time 2, bogus pipeline CMs seemed to believe that the apparatus could detect lies. However, this did not encourage more distorted belief disclosure compared with (a) their own previous scores and (b) controls. Furthermore, the bogus pipeline appeared to reduce cognitive distortion endorsements. The results stand in marked contrast to the common view that most CMs hold distorted beliefs.

Moral reasoning, interpersonal skills, and cognition of rapists, child molesters, and incest offenders

54 inmates were subdivided into four groups and classified according to their index offense. The groups included Rapists (n = 14), Incest Offenders (n = 9), Child Molesters (n = 11), General Offenders (n = 20). Nonoffenders (n = 20) were included as a control group. Psychometric tests including the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, the Defining Issues Test, Survey of Interpersonal Values, Porteus Maze, and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory were administered to all inmate and control groups. Analysis showed the rapists and child molesters scored higher on moral reasoning on the Defining Issues Test; also rapists' scores were more elevated on the Psychopathic Deviate and Paranoia scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory than those of other offender and control groups. These results imply that rapists and child molesters have the ability to understand moral issues; however, given their personality orientation, they ignore these interpersonal social values.

IntroductionExposing Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors

This article introduces a special volume on misinformation about child sexual abuse. Despite extensive research findings on the long-term effects and consequences of child sexual abuse, misinformation on this topic is widespread. Several forces have worked to support and disseminate this erroneous information. Because it is difficult to comprehend the horror of sexual crimes against children, society's denial and disbelief have often unwittingly supported the agendas of those who want to discount or minimize the impact of these crimes. The media has also contributed to the aura of skepticism surrounding claims of sexual abuse and its mental health impact, and has reported favorably on controversial and unproven claims such as the “false memory syndrome.” In the hope of countering misinformation and thus raising the level of discourse to the engagement of real scientific issues, a number of well known and respected researchers and clinicians examine various facets of the problem.