Citation

Carvalho J, Nobre PJ. Int. J. Law Psychiatry 2014; 37(2): 210-216.

Affiliation

Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: joana.pereira.carvalho@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijlp.2013.11.007

PMID

24268826

Abstract

Core cognitive schemas may play a role in the vulnerability for sexual offending. Identifying these schemas could help to conceptualize sexual crimes and rehabilitate convicted sexual offenders. The aim of this preliminary study was to explore the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and sexual offending, as well as how rapists and child sex molesters differ in terms of these schemas. Thirty-two men convicted for rape, 33 convicted for child sexual abuse, and 30 non-offenders were evaluated using the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ-S3) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Results showed that participants convicted for child sexual abuse presented significantly more schemas from the disconnection/rejection, impaired autonomy/performance, other directness, and over vigilance/inhibition domains than non-offenders, whereas rapists presented more schemas from the impaired autonomy/performance domain than non-offenders. Differences between sex offenders showed that child molesters presented more schemas of pessimism than rapists. Preliminary findings suggested that EMSs may impact sex offender's perceptions about themselves and about the world. Schema-focused therapy (Young, 1990, 1999) may thus be an acceptable approach to sex offender's psychological assessment and intervention.

Language: en