THE CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OFFENDER: A REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PERSONNEL SECURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP07-01280R000400460001-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 29
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 1, 1988
• Content Type: REPORT

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OS REGISTRY
PERS-TN-88-002
SEREC
THE CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OFFENDER:
A REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH
AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PERSONNEL SECURITY
Suzanne Wood
August 1988
Approved for Public Distribution: Distribution Unlimited
DEFENSE
PERSONNEL SECURITY
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER
99 Pacific Street, Building 455-E
Monterey, California 93940-2481
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PERS-TN-88-002
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THE CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OFFENDER: A REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH AND IMPLICATIONS
FOR PERSONNEL
PERSONAL AUTHOR(S)
'3a TYPE OF REPORT
t 3b TIME COVERED
14 DATE OF REPORT (Year, Month. Day)
15 PAGE COi,NT
Technical Note
FROM _ __ To
1988 August
28
6 SL.P?L(MENTARY NOTATION
COSATI CODES
18 SUBJECT TERMS (Continue on reverse of neceuary and identify by block number)
GELD
GROUP
SUB-GROUP
Child sexual abuse; adjudication;
ersonnel securit
p
y
9 e.8STRACT (Continue on reverie if neceuary and identify by block number)
At the request of the Navy Appeals Board which is sometimes required to adjudicate
cases of people requiring security clearances who have histories of committing child
sexual abuse, a literature review was conducted on child sexual abuse offenders. This
review, based on Finkelhor's Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse, covers the areas of
offender profiles, treatment efficacy and recidivism rates. Theories of adult sexual
interest in children are described according to Finkelhor's typology, but it is
emphasized that adult sexual relationships with children are not explainable with
single theories. The paucity of good research on offender recidivism and on efficacy
of treatment is described. A bibliography is appended.
20 0 5'R13UTION ' AVAILABILITY OF ABSTRACT
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Carson K. Eo an
[phone]
83 APR edition may be used until exhausted
All other editions are obsolete
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PERS-TN-88-002 August 1988
THE CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OFFENDER:
A REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH
AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PERSONNEL SECURITY
Prepared by
Suzanne Wood
Released by
Carson K. Eoyang
Director
Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center
Monterey, CA 93940-2481
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Part of PERSEREC's mission, in addition to performing
research and analysis for DOD to improve personnel security
procedures, programs and policies, is to provide educational
assistance to DOD agencies on personnel security matters.
This technical note represents PERSEREC's response to a
request from the Navy Appeals Board for help in conducting a
literature review in the area of child sexual abuse--offender
profiles, treatment efficacy and recidivism rates.
PERSEREC will provide similar research reports on various
topics relevant to screening, selection, and adjudication of
personnel requiring security clearances.
Carson K. Eoyang
Director
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PERS-TN-88-002 August 1988
THE CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OFFENDER:
A REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH
AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PERSONNEL SECURITY
Prepared by
Suzanne Wood
Summary
Issue and Background
The Navy Appeals Board is required from time to time to
adjudicate relatively rare cases of people requiring Top
Secret or SCI clearances who have histories of committing
child sexual abuse. Often these individuals have been-.
declared cured. This situation has posed a problem for
members of the Appeals Board, many of whom are as yet
unfamiliar with practice and research in the area of child
sexual abuse.
Objective
PERSEREC was asked to review research literature in these
areas in order to educate the Appeals Board on current theor-
ies on offender recidivism and treatment efficacy.
Approach
An extensive bibliographic search was undertaken on the
research on child sexual abuse, offender profiling, recidivism
rates and efficacy of treatment. Finkelhor's Sourcebook on
Child Sexual Abuse was found to be the only work that reviewed
all recent literature and was thus used as the basis for
examining the subject.
Results
Theories of adult sexual interest in children were
described according to Finkelhor's typology, emphasizing that
adult sexual relationships with children cannot be explained
by single-factor theories.
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Conclusions and Recommendations
Due to the paucity of good research on offender recidiv-
ism and on treatment efficacy, personnel security adjudicators
were advised to consult one or more of the books reviewed in
this research and, lacking real guidance from current
research, consider the special circumstances of each indivi-
dual case in assessing the personal strengths and weaknesses
as they pertain to security reliability.
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From time to time the Navy Appeals Board is required to
adjudicate cases of people requiring Top Secret or SCI
clearances who have histories of committing child sexual
abuse.* Often these individuals have been convicted and have
received treatment for long periods of time. Many have been
declared cured by therapists, ministers and parole and proba-
tion officers and consequently may be suitable candidates for
high level security clearances. This situation has posed a
dilemma for members of the Appeals Board, many of whom are as
yet unfamiliar with practice and research in the field of
child sexual abuse. PERSEREC was asked to conduct a litera-
ture review in the general areas of offender profiles, treat-
ment efficacy and recidivism rates. This review is intended
to inform Board members about the theoretical and empirical
work on child sexual abuse offenders. An extensive biblio-
graphy is appended for the reader requiring indepth informa-
tion.
*See "Definitions" at end of this paper.
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Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Research on the Offender . . . 1
Emotional Congruence . . 4
Sexual Arousal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Blockage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Disinhibition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Research on Offender Recidivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Research on Efficacy of Treatment . . . . .. . . . . . . . 7
Significance for Personnel Security . . . . . . . . . 8
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Offender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
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Child sexual abuse is often referred to as the "last
frontier of child abuse." The battered-child syndrome was
first described in France in 1860 by Ambroise Tardieu.
However, it was not until the early 1960s that the phenomenon
of child abuse was again recognized as a major issue. This
increased attention resulted from the publication of C. Henry
Kempe's 1962 pivotal article on the battered-child. The
following decade witnessed a confirmation of Kempe's work by
other professionals and scholars in the field. Studies of
incidence, epidemiology, characteristics of abusing families,
and other variables appeared in the literature. Child abuse
was found to be an alarmingly common occurrence across all
social classes.
The specific issue of sexual abuse of children emerged in
the mid-1970s and has developed quickly. There has been a
dramatic increase in the number of cases reported to authori-
ties, and the public has become aware of the epidemic propor-
tions of the problem through media attention. Professionals
and academic researchers have also shown an interest in the
subject, resulting in a growing body of literature.
Finkelhor (1987) has conducted a thorough review of the
present literature on child sexual abuse. As might be
expected, special methodological problems confront researchers
in this area. Victims, offenders, and other family members
are loath to discuss such a delicate subject; this is par-
ticularly true in the case of incest. Additionally, research
interest is recent and researchers are scattered across a
number of disciplines. This retards communication and fer-
tilization across disciplines. Finkelhor's major problem
in reviewing the new literature and linking it with older
research is the disparate quality of the work. It is marred
by "inadequate samples, oversimplistic research design,
conflicting definitions, and unsophisticated analyses."
Despite these problems, certain common findings emerge. It
is these patterns which are the topic of this review.
Most theories of adult sexual interest in children derive
from psychoanalytic theory and, more recently, from theories
of social learning and feminism. Finkelhor criticizes these
efforts for their single-factor explanation and their
inability to handle the full range of pedophilic behavior; no
single factor can begin to explain child sexual abuse in its
diverse manifestations. Finkelhor classifies the theories of
adult sexual interest in children into four psychological
categories: emotional congruence, sexual arousal, blockage,
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and disinhibition. These sets of theories answer respectively
the following questions: (1) Why does a person find sexual
relations with a child emotionally gratifying and congruent?
(2) Why is a person sexually aroused by a child? (3) Why is a
person frustrated or blocked from obtaining sexual and emo-
tional gratification from more conventional sources? and (4)
Why is 'a person not deterred by social constraints and inhibi-
tions against having sexual relations with a child.
Summary of Empirical Evidence for
Explanations of Child Molestinga
Theory
Evidence
(1) Emotional congruence
Children attractive because
of lack of dominance
One positive study.
Arrested development/
immaturity
Mastery of trauma through
repetition
Identification with
aggression
Male socialization to
dominance
Some support but inferences
weak.
Some support but inferences
weak.
Several studies show frequent
histories of sexual abuse in
offenders' backgrounds.
Several studies show frequent
histories of sexual abuse in
offenders' backgrounds.
(2) Sexual arousal
Heightened arousal to
children
Clear experimental evidence
except for incest offenders.
Conditioning from early
childhood
aAdapted from Finkelhor(1986).
Several studies show frequent
histories of sexual abuse in
offenders' backgrounds.
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TABLE 1 (continued)
Modeling from earlier
childhood
Several studies show frequent
histories of sexual abuse in
offenders' backgrounds.
Hormonal abnormalities
Misattribution of arousal
("parental" or "affectionate"
labels mistaken for sexual by
some individuals)
Socialization through
pornography or advertising
(3) Blockage
Difficulty relating to adult
females
Inadequate social skills
Sexual anxiety
Unresolved Oedipal dynamics
Repressive norms about sexual
behavior
(4) Disinhibition
Impulse disorder (e.g. poor
impulse control)
Senility
Mental retardation
Alcohol
Mixed evidence.
Untested.
Untested.
Generally positive evidence.
Suggested by 2 studies.
Some support from
uncontrolled studies.
Family problems evident, but
not necessarily the ones
Oedipal theory would predict.
Suggested by 2 studies.
True for some small group of
offenders, but not for all.
Negative.
Negative.
Present in great many
instances, exact role
unclear.
Failure of incest avoidance
Situational stress
Patriarchal/cultural norms
Two studies show higher rates
of abuse in stepfather
families.
Only anecdotal evidence.
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Emotional Congruence
These theories assume offenders have an emotional defect
such that children are suitable sexual objects. Some theories
of pedophilia (e.g., Howells, 1979) suggest that abusers
select children for sexual partners because children have some
driving emotional meaning for them. Another (Hammer & Glueck,
1957) posits that child molesters suffer from arrested psycho-
sexual development, are emotionally immature and, therefore,
relate to the child at the child's level. Still another
theory maintains that molesters have a low self-esteem and few
social skills so that relating to children gives them a
feeling of omnipotence and control (e.g., Loss & Glancy,
1983). It has also been proposed that abusers, in relating to
children, try to overcome the effects of some trauma in their
own childhood by visiting a similar trauma on a child, who is
less powerful (e.g., Howells, 1981).
Sexual Arousal
Theories grouped under this heading assume that early
conditioning accounts for sexual preference. for children,
i.e., early sexual experiences with children leads to a sexual
fixation on children (Wenet, Clark & Hunner, 1981). Some
researchers (e.g., Atwood & Howell, 1971; Quinsey et al.,
1975) assert that pedophiles have an arousal preference for
children, but the preference may be mediated by the notion of
the relationship between victim and offender. For example,
Quinsey et al. (1979) found that incestuous child molesters
have more appropriate sexual age preferences (adults) than
those who are nonincestuous. One consistent finding, in this
area is that many child molesters were themselves the subjects
of sexual abuse while children (e.g., Groth & Burgess, 1979).
It is hypothesized that such experiences for various reasons
condition arousal to children in later life.
Blockage
These theories assert that child molestation occurs
because offenders are blocked from satisfying sexual needs
through conventional relationships. Often the blockage is
attributed to problems in the maternal relationship which make
it difficult to relate to other women (e.g., Hammer & Glueck,
1957; Gillespie, 1964). Trauma in early sexual experiences is
seen as another possible cause for blockage. Related theories
suggest that child molesters are timid, awkward and have poor
social skills which prevent them from attaining adult rela-
tionships with women (e.g., Gebhard et al., 1965; Langevin,
1983).
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Research on Offender Recidivism
It is unfortunate that recidivism, one of the most
important issues for policy in connection with child abuse,
has received so little attention. Professionals who work with
child molestation offenders have scant information available
to predict whether a person will continue to commit this
crime. Finkelhor uncovered ten recidivism studies, and these
are difficult to compare because of different research designs
and variables. The results are presented below.
Recidivism Rates from Various Studies of Convicted Offenders
Recidivism Rate
% of Sample
(percentage)
Who Are
Any
Sex
Years of
Child
Offense
Offense
N
Follow-Up
Molesters
Christiansen
et al.
24
11
3175
14-24
68
Fitch
42
25
139
4-9
100
Groth
Frisbie & Dondis
30
13
194
3
a
female victims
18
1035
1-7
100
male victims
35
428
1-7
- 100
Hall
313
5
100
Meyer & Romero
44
48
10
100
Prentky
50
137
1-24
100
Radzinowicz
Soothill
28
18
404
4
100
& Gibbons
48
23
174
23
85
Tracy et al.
23
13
141
5