Citation

Gannon TA, Hoare JA, Rose MR, Parrett N. Psychol. Crime Law 2012; 18(2): 209-224.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10683161003752303

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Recent research by Beech, Parrett, Ward, and Fisher has suggested that Ward and Keenan's male-derived implicit theories represent a good theoretical fit for explaining female child molesters' offence-supportive cognitions. This paper re-examines the applicability of Ward and Keenan's (1999) male-derived implicit theories for explaining the self-reported offence-supportive cognitions of 16 UK female child molesters. Using almost identical analytic methods to Beech et al., we show that it is indeed possible to code female child molesters' offence-supportive cognitions under each of the five male-derived implicit theories proposed by Ward and Keenan. However, our results show that the content of female child molesters' offence-supportive cognitions appears very different to that of male child molesters. Based on our findings, we discuss relevant treatment implications and offer a re-conceptualization of implicit theories for female child molesters using the sex-role stereotyping literature. We also propose that - unlike male child molesters - female child molesters are unlikely to hold generalized implicit theories that sexualize children.