| The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between offenders' early experience of physical and/or sexual abuse, their social cognition, and how the relationship between these two psychological factors facilitate sex offenders—both rapists and child molesters—to admit or to deny their offense(s) upon entering into psychodynamic treatment. There are many theories that address sexual offending; however, there is no one theory that completely explains the etiology of sexual offending.; Offenders have been found to show severe deficits in their interpersonal behavior skills, which tend to stem from early childhood abuse, neglect, and/or overall family dysfunction (Baldwin, 1992; Hartman & Burgess, 1993; Westen, 1991). The inability of offenders to appropriately process information in their social environment facilitates distortion and thus the ability to act on impulses. This inability can result in the sexual offense (Becker & Murphy, 1998; Bumby & Hansen, 1997; Cole & Putnam, 1992; Fuendeling, 1998; Hanson & Scott, 1995; Johnston & Ward, 1996; Proulx, McKibben, & Lusignan, 1996; Ward et al., 1994; Ward, Hudson, & Keenan, 1998; Ward, Hudson, & Marshall, 1995; Westen, 1991).; By looking at the dysfunctional environment of the offender's early childhood, through looking at the presence of a possible abuse history, a relationship between the abuse experienced and offenders' social cognition and subsequent behaviors may be found. In this study, the abuse history, in conjunction with the offender's interpersonal behaviors, was explored in order to see how that history and those behaviors were related to an offender's initial admission or denial of their offense upon entrance into treatment.; This study found that a history of sexual abuse among this sample was negatively correlated with denial. Therefore, those offenders who admit to a history of sexual abuse are less likely to engage in denial of their current offense than those who deny a history of abuse. Results showed that those offenders who admit to their offense and who have higher levels of education are less likely to engage in denial compared to offenders who have lower levels of education and who deny their offense. |
