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Kalichman1991 PDF
Kalichman1991 PDF
2, 1991
INTRODUCTION
187
0004-000219J/0400-0187506,5010 © 1991 Plcnunl PublishingCorporation
188 Kalichman
research (e.g., Groth, 1979; Groth and Birnbaum, 1978; Prentky et al., 1985).
Based on an extensive review of the literature, Finkelhor and Araji (1986)
have suggested a multifactorial model of pedophilia. This model
hypothesizes that men who sexually molest children are socially and
emotionally immature, and have poor social skills, low levels of self-esteem,
poor impulse control, and more signs of psychotic thinking (Araji and
Finkelhor, 1985; Finkelhor and Araji, 1986). Finkelhor and Araji (1986) sug-
gested that the personality characteristics of sex offenders tend to be con-
gruent with the developmental period of their victims. While Finkelhor and
Araji do not provide a description or explanation for sex offenders of adult
victims, their model of pedophilia implies that affective and personality dif-
ferences can be found between child and adult sex offenders.
Few studies have examined sex offenders using psychological assess-
ment instruments. However, some studies using the Minnesota Multi-
phasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) provide support for describing child
offenders as emotionally and socially immature. Child sex offenders fre-
quently have high scores on scales Depression ( D ) , Paranoia (Pa),
Schizophrenia (Sc), and Social Introversion (Si) on the MMPI as compared
to sex offenders against adults (Levin and Stava, 1987). In addition, the
MMPI has been shown to make reliable distinctions among incarcerated
rapists (Kalichman, 1990). Although studies using the MMPI provide in-
formation about psychopathology, they are limited in their ability to
describe personality functioning (Butcher and Tellegen, 1978). Thus,
most of the studies using psychometric instruments fail to identify affec-
tive and personality characteristics of sex offenders independent of
psychopathology.
The present study investigates the psychopathological and psychologi-
cal characteristics of sex offenders as they are differentiated by their
victim's age. Sex offenders are discussed in three groups formed on the
basis of their victim's age: prepubescent child offenders, offenders against
postpubescent adolescents, and offenders against women (Araji and Finkel-
hot, 1985). Based on previous research (Levin and Stava, 1987; Shealy,
1989) and Finkelhor and Araji's (1986) model, it is hypothesized that signs
of psychopathology will be greater in offenders of younger victims. Specifi-
cally, offenders with younger victims are expected to show higher levels of
emotional disturbance, psychotic thinking, social alienation, and social in-
adequacy. In addition, offenders of younger victims are expected to report
lower levels of self-esteem and less of a tendency to present themselves in
a socially desirable fashion.
Personality Characteristics of Sex Offenders 189
METHOD
Measures
Items were taken from the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory (1967) and
are endorsed as either "like me" or "unlike me," scored in the positive
self-esteem direction. Scores are summed to reflect an individual's tendency
to view himself or herself in a positive light. The SES has demonstrated
sufficient reliability with alpha coefficients of .74 and 2-week interval test-
retest reliability of .87. The SES has also shown convergent and divergent
validity with other measures of self-esteem and personality functioning
(Kalichman, 1988).
Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. The MC-SDS was developed
to measure an individual's need for social approval (Crowne and Marlowe,
1960). The 33 true-false items are summed to yield a score reflecting the
endorsement of culturally approved attitudes and behaviors.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Raw scores from
the three validity and 10 clinical scales of Form R were utilized for group
comparisons (Butcher and Tellegen, 1978), and K-corrected T scores were
used to present group profiles.
RESULTS
for further analyses. All of the victims for the other two groups were
female.
A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted between the three
groups with the raw scores of the validity and clinical scales of the MMPI,
state and trait anxiety and anger, self-esteem, and social desirability scores
entered as dependent factors. Results indicated that the multivariate effect
reached statistical significance, F ( 3 8 , 236) = 1.48, p < 0.04. For the
MMPI, univariate tests of significance indicated that there were significant
differences on scales F, F (2, 141) = 5.2, p < 0.01, Hypochondriasis (Hs),
F (2, 141) = 4.8, p < 0.01, Hysteria (Hy), F (2, 141) = 3.4, p < 0.04, Pa,
F (2, 141) = 5.6, p < 0.01, Psychasthenia (Pt), F (2, 141) = 4.9, p < 0.01,
Sc, F ( 2 , 141) = 4.7, p < 0.01, and Si, F ( 2 , 141) = 6.2, p < 0.01. Also,
scale D approached significance, F ( 2 , 141) = 2.5, p < 0.08. For the
measures independent of the MMPI, univariate tests indicated significant
differences on the Trait Anxiety, F (2, 141) = 3.5, p < 0.05, Trait Anger,
F ( 2 , 141) = 6.1, p < 0.01, and Self-esteem scales, F ( 2 , 141) = 5.6,
p < 0.01.
Pairwise comparisons were conducted using Tukey's Honest Sig-
nificant Difference (HSD) tests at the p < 0.05 level of significance.
Results indicated that child offenders scored significantly higher on scales
Hs, Hy, Pt, Sc, and Si than the adult offenders, and the adolescents of-
fenders were not significantly different from either of the other two groups
on these scales. On scale F, the child offenders scored significantly higher
than the adolescent offenders while the adult offenders did not differ from
either group. Finally, the child offenders scored significantly higher than
both the adolescent and adult offenders on scale Pa and the latter two
groups did not differ from each other on this scale (see Table II). This
pattern of results suggests that offenders with younger victims evidence
greater degrees of psychopathology as reflected in the scales of the MMPI.
However, offenders against adolescents obtained scores on most scales that
fell between the child and adult offenders.
Tukey's HSD tests for the scales independent of the MMPI showed
a similar pattern of results. The child offenders were significantly higher
in trait anxiety and trait anger and lower in self-esteem than the adult of-
fenders and the adolescent offenders were not different from either of
these groups (see Table III). Thus, converging with the MMPI, measures
of affectivity and self-esteem provide further support for the prediction that
sexual offenders against younger victims display greater degrees of emo-
tional disturbance.
Figure 1 presents the mean K-corrected MMPI profiles for the three
offender groups. While group profiles obscure individual profiles and are
difficult to interpret (Butcher and Tellegen, 1978), they provide aggregate
192 Kalichman
Table II. Mean MMPI Raw Scores and Significant Differences for the
Three Offender Groupsa
Offender group
Child Adolescent Adult
(n = 54) (n = 42) (n = 48)
Scale X SD X SD X SD
DISCUSSION
the "psychotic tetrad" (Pa, Pt, and Sc) and scale Si (Graham, 1987). This
pattern of scores on the MMPI has been described as characteristic of
pedophiles (Meyer, 1989). High scores on scales Hs and Sc suggest sig-
nificant difficulties in developing interpersonal relationships and the
experience of social alienation (Duckworth and Anderson, 1987; Meyer,
1983). Also, higher scores on scales Hy and Sc suggest consistent im-
maturity in a variety of behavior settings and the frequent experience of
unusual sexual ideations (Duckworth and Anderson, 1987; Meyer, 1989).
In addition, their higher scores on scales F, Pa, and Pt provide further
evidence that offenders of children experience higher levels of emotional
disturbance and psychopathology (Graham, 1987). Scores on scale Si indi-
cate that child offenders are socially inadequate and that they find
themselves uncomfortable with others (Graham, 1987). Thus, offenders of
younger victims present themselves as more psychologically distressed than
offenders of adult victims, and adolescent offenders fall somewhere be-
tween the two.
The results observed on the affective and self-esteem measures
showed a similar pattern. While all of the groups were higher than normal
populations in trait anxiety, the child offender group was nearly 1 standard
deviation higher than normative samples (Spielberger et al., 1983). In ad-
dition, the child offender group was higher than the adult offender group
in trait anxiety. The child offenders also reported greater levels of trait
anger than adult offenders. In addition, the pattern of self-esteem scores
suggests that offenders of younger victims experience greater self-
degradation than offenders of older victims. Taken together, these results
show offenders of children to be more emotionally expressive, lacking in
194 Kalichman
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MMPI SCALES
Fig. l. Mean MMPI p r o f i l e s f o r t h e t h r e e o f f e n d e r groups. Solid = child,
Broken = adolescent; Dotted = adult.
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Personality Characteristics of Sex Offenders 197
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