ATSA - Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings

70 Years of Recidivism Research

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:32:40 +0000

What do distinguished researchers do during COVID-19 lock downs? A huge meta-analysis of recidivism research for sexual offending that covers the span of 70 years, of course. Then, they look at the recidivism rates based on the changes in law and culture in the United States and Canada.

Recidivism Research at the ATSA Conference

Patrick Lussier, a professor of criminology at Universite Laval in Canada, presented a keynote speech at this year’s ATSA Conference based on two scientific publications this year looking at 70 years of recidivism research of sexual offenses in the US and Canada.

It was a super interesting talk made even better by their analysis of recidivism rates in relation to law changes and sexual offender registry adoption.

What do and don’t we know about sexual offense recidivism?

The first study by Lussier et al was published in the journal Criminal Justice Review.

They started with 3206 studies on recidivism which was pared down to 859 studies which fit the criteria for inclusion:

Published after 1949
Be in English or French
Be a longitudinal study looking at sexual offenders
Provide actual data on recidivism

One of the very interesting aspects of this study was the historical perspective taken on sexual offending and recidivism.

As professionals, our time is valuable. Dr. Weeks created the Mitigation Aide Research Archive because there isn’t enough focused, data-backed research available in easily digestible formats.

Recidivism Research, Sexual Offending, and the Past

The earliest writings on sexual “deviance” come from the 19th century and the book by Kraftt-Ebing, published in 1886 is often cited. In this book, he described sexual deviance as a sexual behavior that is repetitive and persistent that was deemed odd, atypical and outside the norm.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, research on sexual offending began to focus on mental health problems of the offending person as well as the characteristics of people who offended.

Publications at the time indicated that there was an assumption that prison was not something that would deter a person who committed a sexual crime, and they would instead need individualized psychological interventions. Therapy tailored to their individual needs was the preference.

Studies from this era treated people who offended as specialists with major mental health problems related to sexual deviance.

The 1980’s

Starting in the 1980s studies started to look at sexual offense recidivism and a shift happened in the field. A very influential report was published stating that nothing worked to deter recidivism.

This influenced a movement away from looking at those who offended as individuals and moved things towards a deterrent focused model. This eventually would lead to a very large increase in incarceration rates.

Learn more about Primary Prevention and its benefits in these articles:

The 1990’s to Today

In the 1990s sexual recidivism became a common indicator of risk which influenced laws and management of those convicted of sexual offending.

In the early 2000s sexual recidivism became a go-to statistic for evaluators and the courts.

Since the 2010s there has been criticism of the risk paradigm which suggests that people who have committed a sex crime have continuing propensities to commit future sex crimes.

This is supported by many studies that indicate low recidivism rates. The field has come to understand that the risk of reoffending is not a static thing, but changes based on the developmental stage of the person as well as life circumstances.

What do we know about sexual recidivism?

There is no such thing as a true base rate.

Recidivism rates based on what the study is measuring, the length of the follow up period and the nature of the individuals in the sample population.

Recidivism rates vary based on the length of the follow up period

Studies on recidivism can have a follow up period that varies from a few months to about 25 years.

Recidivism rates are associated with individual characteristics

These can include the person’s criminal history, past sexual offending history, psychological, sexual, and social functioning.

Recidivism is not limited to sexual recidivism.

Many people who commit a sexual crime are not specialists. Recidivism rates for sexual reoffending are low, the lowest across all types of crime.

Recidivism rates for adult offenders vary by age.

Rates of crime peak in adolescence and decrease into adulthood.

The Specificity of Adolescent offenders.

Adolescents who commit a sexual crime are not destined to become adult offenders.

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What is unresolved?

Current measures underestimate risk.

How much? We all know that recidivism studies are based on known behavior, and we also know that many sex crimes are not found out. Therefore, we know that recidivism rates are likely an underestimate of actual recidivism. What we do not know is how big that underestimate is.

What is the accuracy of long-term estimates of sexual recidivism?

Studies have gotten better in terms of having longer follow-up periods. However, these studies are based on older samples. Therefore, we do not know if this effect still holds true with more recent cohorts of offending individuals.

What is the effect of where you live?

Is it possible that registry laws and laws that restrict residences are creating variations in sexual recidivism rates caused by crime displacement?

What is the effect of post release experiences on recidivism?

Most studies simply look at whether or not a new offense was committed. They do not look at what the person’s environment was like. Were they on probation/parole? Were they in therapy? Did they have employment, housing, supportive people around them? Are low risk individuals actually low risk or are they being effectively managed in the community?

After reading this summary (and we didn’t cover everything) one might leave with more questions than answers.

Studies like this are important to highlight the weaknesses in the field and introduce new avenues of research for us to improve recidivism research, prediction, and treatment and policy making for individuals who have committed a sexual crime.

Reference: Lussier, P., Thivierge, S.C., Frechette, J. & Proulx, J. (2023). Sex Offender Recidivism: Some Lessons Learned from Over 70 Years of Research. Criminal Justice Review, doi:10.1177/0734016823157385journals.sagepub.com/home/cjr

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses? Then you should stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

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How to Un Villain: Listening with an Open Mind

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Sketch of Dr. David J. Ley from his X (Twitter) profile.

We all have known a villain or two. Even the sex addiction treatment community has villains. Why are these people villains?

Because they question the validity of sex addiction.

Two, in particular, come to mind, though upon reflection they are not the same.

Villain Introduction

The first villain, Dr. David Ley, is a rather publicly outspoken opponent of the idea of sex addiction. He is a clinician, writer, and sometimes public debater of Dr. Rob Weiss.

The second villain is Dr. Prause. She is an academic and researcher from the University of California with a prolific CV. Her publications appear in peer reviewed scientific journals. Her argument against sex addiction as a concept is more theoretical and based on the scientific concept of validity.

Listening, Not Just Hearing

Dr. Nicole Prause

Imagine my surprise, after spending three hours in an Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA) training on Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD), that the first plenary speaker of the ATSA conference was Dr. Prause making her case against sexual addiction.

To be completely honest, I have not read much of her scientific work.

My knowledge of her is second hand from a community that does not consider her a friend.

I had two choices:

Sit and listen to the talk from a position of defensiveness based on my belief in CSBD.
Sit and listen from a place of openness and process her information with an open and clear mind.

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Giving the Villain a Chance

I put on my open-minded researcher hat and listened to her talk entitled Psychophysiology and the Failure to Discriminate Sexual Compulsion as a New Disorder. Her talk focused on two key components of proving the construct validity of a theory.

Particularly, she focused on convergent and discriminant validity.

Research Methods

As a recap for those who did not endure lots of research methods in school:

Convergent validity is a type of construct validity that tests whether things that should be related are related.
Discriminant validity, on the other hand, tests whether constructs that should not have a relationship do not have a relationship.

In looking at these two types of construct validity, Dr. Prause is addressing whether our measures of assessing sexual addiction are related and whether sexual addiction is different than other things such as depression.

As professionals, our time is valuable. Dr. Weeks created the Mitigation Aide Research Archive because there isn’t enough focused, data-backed research available in easily digestible formats.

Determination of a New Disorder

We often point to Voon et. al (2014) as a neuroscientific study that lends support to sexual addiction because the results of the self-determined sex addicts in the study had similar results to those of substance abusers.

Prause argues that when you look at the brain imaging studies of sexual desire you see the same reactivity, suggesting that Voon et. al very possibly just studied sexual desire as opposed to sexual addiction.

In terms of discriminant validity, Dr. Prause looks to the many studies that look at sexual addiction and its comorbidity with other mental health issues like major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, alcohol use disorder, etc. The point she made is that if a diagnosis has so much overlap with other diagnoses, it is likely not its own separate diagnosis but symptoms of some other construct.

The Villain May Not Be a Villain After all

What I found most interesting: despite not believing that sexual addiction is its own separate diagnosis, she treats people who come in with problematic sexual behavior similarly to a clinician who does believes sexual addiction is valid. For example:

Assess for other mental health conditions
Engage in behavioral analysis of the sexual behavior they are concerned about
Then treat them with shame reduction work and ACT

Final Thoughts

She agrees that people struggle with sexual behavior sometimes.

Dr. Prause thinks we should help them get a handle on the things they find to be a problem.

She does not believe in using a 12-step model or forced abstinence.

My personal take is that she believes that what some of us would call compulsive sexual behavior disorder is not its own thing but that the same behaviors are likely a symptom of some other mental health issue.

My other take away… I don’t think she is a villain at all. She is just someone who wants us to really think critically about our work.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

The post How to Un Villain: Listening with an Open Mind first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

An Education about Asexuality

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 14:03:13 +0000

I saw ACE: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen mentioned on the list serve for the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA). As a clinician who works with clients with some type of problematic sexual behavior, I was keen to read this book to get a better education about asexuality.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

In years of doing this work, I had not seen any work specifically about asexuality.

In all honesty, I had been exposed to very little relating to asexuality.

If I dig back into the recesses of my brain for work in college and graduate school, I cannot recall the topic being brought up. In CSAT training, there was talk of sexual anorexia, but nothing about asexuality.

My own preconceptions

First, I need to admit that I am guilty of saying that sexuality is a part of being a human being and everyone has a sense of sexuality.

In our work with problematic sexual behavior and sexual offending, don’t I say that our work is to find out what their sense of healthy sexuality is?

Yes, I do.

And I haven’t given too much thought to whether or not my clients are asexual.

They do not really bring it up, but neither do I.

I need to acknowledge: this book made me take a very hard look at my own assumptions about sexuality. And the work I do.

As a sex positive therapist, I am incredibly open about all types of sexuality. I have never not believed in asexuality; I just never gave it too much thought. If it did nothing else, this book made me a better therapist for making me investigate my own assumptions.

Struggling with excessive sexual thoughts, urges, or activities that are causing you distress? Take the free, online Sexual Symptom Assessment Scale (SSAS) and get a link to share with your therapist.

My thoughts after my education about asexuality

This book is also a great way to introduce a person to the preferred language around sexuality that includes asexuality. Again, owning my ignorance, I had not heard the term allosexual.

Someone who is allosexual experiences sexual attraction to another person. This contrasts with someone who identifies as asexual, meaning they have a persistent lack of sexual attraction to any gender.

This book also introduced me to the term demisexuality.

A person may identify as demisexual if they do not experience sexual attraction to another person unless they have formed a strong emotional bond with them. My clients had spoken of this before, but I (we) never named it.

Challenging Assumptions

This book also makes the reader take a hard look at their assumptions.

Many people might assume that if a person is asexual, that they do not then feel romantic love and are never in relationships. This dive into asexuality provides us with the reality.

Many people who identify as asexual find romantic love, have great relationships and can even be kinky! The nuances of these relationships are many and require honesty and communication between the parties.

But don’t all relationships require this anyway?

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Sexual Addiction Treatment Services has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7250. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Sexual Addiction Treatment Services is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

The Recommendation

The only downside to this book for me is that, at times, it feels a bit preachy. However, if I look at how our culture ignores, talks about or judges asexuality, I can understand how the author could end up writing in this tone for some of the book. When you are part of a community that has been basically invisible, you want to be heard and heard authentically.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who works in therapy or sexual education.

Particularly, this book is important for those of us who work with clients with sexual issues of any kind.

It can help us be better at our work and meet our clients where they are without judgement.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Need support and not local to the Lehigh Valley? Check out the LGBT National Help Center.

If you are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, local to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, and need support a great place to start is the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center.

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Do Minor Attracted Persons Make Your Skin Crawl?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 13:20:01 +0000

What are Minor Attracted Persons (MAPs)? Let’s talk about the things that make us uncomfortable and learn in the process.

There were many research presentations this year at the ATSA conference relating to MAPs.

This was great to see! From a scientific perspective, we just don’t know much about the MAP community. Therefore, we don’t know about their needs or how to help those who seek it.

What are Minor Attracted Persons?

Very few people are aware of the term. MAP is the acronym for a Minor Attracted Persons.

As a therapist I need to be specific, although the media tends to lump everyone into a single category.

Pedophilia – the name for the attraction to prepubescent children (typically 12 and under). We use this for diagnosis, DSM-V, and research purposes.
Hebephilia – the name for the attraction to pubescent children (not pre- or post- pubescent; typically 13-17 year olds). Again, we tend to use this term for diagnosis, not in the DSM-V, and research purposes.
MAP – Minor Attracted Persons. A non-diagnostic umbrella term for a person who is attracted to children. There is no specific age nor pubertal status associated with this label.

The Minor Attracted Persons Debate

There are some people who do not like the Minor Attracted Persons (MAP) moniker.

I have heard these arguments from people in both research and supervision. The argument loosely goes like this:

“The MAP label is not descriptive enough.”

“It lumps all minors together and does not distinguish between prepubescent, pubescent, and post-pubescent attraction.”

I understand these arguments when it comes to research. There is not enough scientific research in the community looking at any type of attraction to minors.

To lump pedophilia and hebephilia together for research purposes assumes that there are no differences between people who have these attractions.

While this may be the case, due to lack of research, we just don’t know. It is better to look at these groups separately until we can definitively say they are similar enough to put in the same research subject category.

Preparing a sentencing report for a minor attracted person? Get the data you need, quickly, with Mitigation Aide.

Treatment Providers

I am neither a MAP, nor a researcher. I am a treatment provider.

If someone has engaged in sexual offenses, it’s imperative to know their arousal template. It allows us to help them manage unwanted or illegal behavior.

However, I will argue, once we’ve made the diagnosis, we no longer need to continue to use the pedophile language, particularly with our clients.

Why do we need a different term?

I am going to make an assumption, based on my work with clients, that the main reason to use the term Minor Attracted Persons is due to shame and stigma.

The general public, fueled by sensationalist media, equate pedophile with child molester.

There is an assumption made that someone who is attracted to children either has or will eventually sexually offend with a child.

Bluntly, this is not true. Attraction is not a behavior.

While pedophilia and sexual offending are related, they are not synonymous. The label of pedophile is stigmatizing. There is no way around that truth.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Shame, Stigma, and Minor Attracted Persons

I recently learned of the work of Braithwaite (1989) and how this researcher classified shame.

Braithwaite argued that there were two types of shame, reintegrative and disintegrative:

“Reintegrative shaming is temporary, used to communicate censure to an individual, but ultimately aimed at correcting a person’s behavior and, for offenders, reintegrating them back into the community. Disintegrative shaming is a more permanent and reoccurring shame, resulting in a master status that encourages stigmatization and breaks the bond between the person and the community (Bailey & Klein, 2018)”

I learned of this work when researching the effects of the sex offender registry on the people who have to register.

Reducing Shame as Primary Prevention

In the public’s eyes attraction to children equals child molesting. Therefore, those who are attracted to children get put in this category without ever hurting anyone.

If they come forward for treatment or talk about their attraction to family or friends they can face the disintegrative shame that encourages stigmatization.

Research Relating to Minor Attracted Persons

Levenson and Grady (2019) recently published work where they spoke to MAPs about their experiences. Specifically, this study looked at people seeking help for their attraction.

The subjects of this study reported that they often felt isolated and alone with their feelings.

They also experienced feelings of shame, fear and expected to be misunderstood by people, including therapists.

Particularly distressing was finding that therapists wanted to “cure” the minor attraction. However, the client wanted to work on concerns such as depression or loneliness and not specifically their minor attraction.

Learn more about Primary Prevention and its benefits in these articles:

Back to the Beginning: Why Terminology Matters

From a person centered, trauma informed perspective, we should be using appropriate terms rather than potentially increasing shame and isolation.

From a public education standpoint, I would like to see the term de-coupled from people who sexually offend against children.

Misuse of the term pedophile is one of my soap boxes. I will forever argue about semantics and how the word is used. I’m tired of the media misusing the word and equating it to child sexual abuse.

I challenge you to think about these issues for yourself:

Can you accept that some people are attracted to children?

Can you accept that it’s not a choice?

Will you decry the assumption that every person who is attracted to children is going to offend?

To end, I will leave you with something heard more than frequently in graduate school.

Correlation is not causation.

References: Bailey, D.J.S. & Klein, J.L. (2018). Ashamed and Alone: Comparing offender and family member experiences with the sex offender registry. Criminal Justice Review, 43(4), 440-457. Braithwaite, J. (1989). Crime, Shame and Reintegration. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University. Levinson, J.S. & Grady, M.D. (2019). Preventing sexual abuse: Perspectives of Minor Attracted Persons About Seeking Help. Sexual Abuse, 31(8), 991-1013.

Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

The post Do Minor Attracted Persons Make Your Skin Crawl? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Sex Offender Treatment: Helpful or Placebo?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 13:29:45 +0000

In most jurisdictions in the United States, a person convicted of a sex crime is mandated to sex offender treatment.

This treatment tends to be group therapy primarily being Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT.

As the leader of a community of treatment providers, I am always striving to improve my practices. Therefore, I use evidenced based treatment modalities and the interventions best suited to our clients to decrease risks of recidivism.

So, when the question of whether or not what we are doing is helpful or harmful comes up, I pay attention.

Meta-Analysis of Sex Offender Treatment Outcomes

The keynote address Thursday morning at this year’s ATSA conference was by Dr. Teresa Gannon.

She presented her recently published meta-analysis of the effectiveness of sexual offender treatment. It was recently published in Clinical Psychology Review and is open access.

She looked at all types of violent offending but spoke this morning, specifically, about treatment for sexual offending.

There have been some studies that have been published that have provided a grim picture of treatment. Most specifically, Dr. Gannon points to a 2017 report from the UK Ministry of Justice that stated that people who had committed sexual crimes and had treatment had a 25% increase in their rates of recidivism.

To those of us who do this work, that’s a shocking number. No treatment provider wants to do more harm than good. Furthermore, none of us would ever knowingly do anything that would increase the risk of harm to anyone.

Details of the Meta-analysis

Enter Dr. Gannon and her colleagues. They embarked on a meta-analysis of 70 studies on offending behavior. Furthermore, they analyzed variables that could influence treatment outcomes.

Their work asked three specific questions:

Does offense specific treatment influence recidivism risk?
Is a trained psychology professional needed?
What program variables are important for success?

Results of the Study on Sex Offender Treatment

The results of the meta-analysis were both encouraging and enlightening.

Over a 6 year follow up period, individuals who engaged in sex offender specific treatment reoffended at a rate of 9.5%.

Those who did not attend sex offender specific treatment reoffended at a rate of 14.1%.

Sex offenders who attended treatment were 32.6% less likely to reoffend than those who did not attend. This result is the encouraging part.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

What has the Greatest Impact on Sex Offender Treatment?

The first important question involved the presence of a licensed psychology professional. Was there a licensed professional involved in provision of treatment?

This was broken down into unclear/none meaning that a psychology professional was not directly involved with providing treatment or it was unclear. The other categories were inconsistent and consistent.

The results indicated that treatment is more effective when a psychology professional is consistently hands on in the treatment process.

What Other Factors Impact Recidivism?

The last set of factors investigated involved actual variables in the treatment program.

It was found that offenders who attended group only had better outcomes than those who attended group and individual therapy.

Those programs where a licensed psychology professional provided supervision had better outcomes.

Programs that used arousal conditioning had lower recidivism rates.

Programs that didn’t use polygraph testing had better outcomes than those that did use it.

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Takeaways for the Sex Offender Treatment Study

The meta-analysis posits that, we need to think about several key elements.

The most effective treatment programs had the following characteristics:

A licensed psychology professional with expertise in treating sexual offenders, who is hands on and consistent in the treatment.
Inappropriate sexual interest is addressed.
It is group based and supervision by a psychology professional is provided.
The polygraph is not used in treatment.

On a side note, the study indicated that the countries with the best outcomes for treated offenders were Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

This is the most up to date meta-analysis of sexual offender treatment efficacy published. It is the first to provide some evidence for the efficacy of arousal conditioning. It also indicates that it is not just treatment that is effective but treatment provided by individuals with expertise in the field and offer supervision to treatment providers.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

The post Sex Offender Treatment: Helpful or Placebo? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Sex Doll Use: Is it Deviance, Addiction, or Something Else?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 18:27:17 +0000

The sex offender treatment world can tend to label out of the box practices “deviant” and the sex therapy world thinks that all conventional sex practices are pretty much just fine. The sex addiction world can tend to think all non-normative sexual practices are an addiction. But where does that leave sex doll use?

As a clinician, I live at an intersection between these three worlds.

Sex Addiction Therapy
Sexual Offender Therapy
Sex Therapy

These are often conflicting worlds.

It is probably safe to say that these three different but connected worlds all likely have different thoughts about sex dolls.

Interested in more information about sex dolls and their owners? Here’s all of our posts about them:

Sex Doll Stigma

Sex doll use and ownership is something that is seriously stigmatized. People who own dolls are often labeled perverts.

Many people look down on doll owners. While some think if a minor attracted person has a sex doll it will increase their likelihood to actually offend against a child.

We see this view point when countries or states enact legislation about importation and/or ownership of sex dolls as well as a recent controversy in Texas about the opening of a doll brothel.

It is easy to pass a law about sexual behavior on an emotional basis, however, if the science ends up saying that the law is unhelpful or even harmful, it is nearly impossible to get these types of laws overturned.

The reality is that most of these statements are either stigmas or assumptions as it is a topic that is little researched.

That’s why I was so excited to see a session at this year’s ATSA conference dedicated to research about doll ownership.

Dr. Craig Harper and Jeremy Malcolm presented preliminary research regarding sex doll ownership. The first study presented was a qualitative study about the motivations for sex doll ownership.

The proviso here is that the sample size is still small (6) but is growing as the research is ongoing.

So, Why own a sex doll?

Two themes emerged.

First: The “perfect partner” scenario.

Second: Sex.

The owners of the dolls identified deficits on real people or themselves that made relationships difficult.

The men in the study cited things such as a doll not always being critical as a reason to have a doll versus a real relationship.

Some men cited their own personal deficits as reasons for having a doll. They suffered from great anxiety when interacting with others and found it easier to have a doll. Therefore, the dolls took on emotional significance as well.

Creating the perfect partner: We all know that real people have flaws. When creating a sex doll, it is totally customizable and can be created to perfectly match a person’s arousal template.

Does Sex Doll Use Make People Aggressive?

The second study was quantitative and looked at whether or not doll ownership predicted sexual aggression.

I consider this a topic of great importance, because many people hold the belief that having a sex doll, particularly when you are talking about child sex dolls, will increase a person’s likelihood to offend against a real child.

This study comprised a control group and a group of sex doll owners who owned adult sex dolls, and had them take a survey. My summary of the results:

Owning a sex doll did not increase the likelihood of sexual aggression.
There were no differences between doll owners and non-doll owners on measures of sexual assault proclivity or paraphilic interest.
There were no differences between doll owners and non-doll owners on the emotional factors studied, nor in attachment style.

The study did find that doll owners scored higher in some of the implicit rape theories endorsements.

Particularly, they scored higher on hostility toward women, seeing women as sexual objects, seeing women as dangerous and sexual entitlement.

It should be noted that the study did not look at causation: Therefore, you cannot say whether owning a doll increased these scores or that people with these attitudes are more likely to get a doll. However, we can just note a difference.

Rem,ember this is preliminary data.

The second study has 70 doll owners and 90 controls at present. However, the research is a step in the right direction as it is empirically looking at doll ownership. The second study found preliminary evidence that owning a sex doll is not associated with an increase in sexual aggression.

Why does it matter?

Laws in states and countries are being enacted regarding sex doll ownership.

These laws are being proposed without research to back up whether or not bans would be effective.

It is easy to pass a law about sexual behavior on an emotional basis, however, if the science ends up saying that the law is unhelpful or even harmful, it is nearly impossible to get these types of laws overturned.

Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Sex Doll Use: Is it Deviance, Addiction, or Something Else? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Institutional Abuse and How to Predict and Prevent it

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 12:34:17 +0000

Institutional abuse, stories of sexual harm from schools and churches, seems to be in the news almost every day.

This is both a good and a bad thing.

It is good because it means that more victims are starting to come forward, speak their truth and hold their abuser accountable.

I think it’s kinda obvious why it’s bad. No one should be able to abuse their position of power or authority.

So, How do we Prevent Institutional Abuse?

As with any type of sexual abuse, the question becomes, how do we prevent institutional abuse?

We all want to believe that there is some way to screen out those individuals who might be prone to sexually abusing others. We would love to bar them from becoming clergy, boy scout leaders, teachers, etc.

Despite the prevalence of this form of abuse, there is not a lot of research on institutional sexual abuse as a specific form of abuse.

ATSA’s most recent edition of their scientific journal, Sexual Abuse, was dedicated to the problem of institutional abuse.

Learn more about Primary Prevention and its benefits in these articles:

Scientific Studies and Research

I think it would be easier for most to believe there’s something unique about people who commit institutional abuse.

Harris and Terry (2019) indicate that child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrators in institutional settings are similar to those who offend elsewhere.

Additionally, the factors that make children vulnerable to abuse are not unique to these settings either.

This makes it difficult to identify those who might abuse and keep them out of situations where they have easy access to victims.

Personality Characteristics and Institutional Abuse

Amrom, Calkins & Fargo (2019), researchers from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, looked at personality characteristics of sexual abusers.

They hoped to find a way to identify sexually abusive clergy.

They used the MMPI-2 and MCMI-III in the study, which are widely accepted personality measures.

What is known from studies of pre-employment MMPI-2s is that clergy applicants tend to present as:

Defensive
Extroverted
Compulsive
Self-confident
Uncomfortable with expressions of anger
Strongly needing approval

Additionally, past research shows us that Episcopal and Presbyterian clergy applicants tend to present as generally well adjusted, but do display elevations of narcissistic, compulsive and histrionic traits.

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The Categorization of Amrom’s Study

Amrom et. al.’s study looked at the MMPI-2 and MCMI-III of three categories of clergy:

Sent to treatment for child sexual abuse
Referred to treatment for noncriminal sexual behavior with adults
Referred to treatment for non-sexual reasons such as depression, drug, or alcohol problems

Finally, Amrom’s control group took the test for pre-employment and had no history of clinical or sexual issues.

Results of Amrom’s Study

Amrom’s study indicated there were no differences between the sexual abuse group and the sexual misconduct group.

There was, however, a difference between the sexual abuse group and the control group. The control group showed more signs of psychopathology than the sexual abuse group.

Amrom, et. al. identified an elevation on the MCMI-III’s Aggressive/Sadistic subscale for the sexual abuse group.

Ultimately, the authors opined that the MCMI-III and MMPI-2 were not able to distinguish between the four groups. Therefore, these personality measures aren’t very helpful for screening out potential sexual abusers from the clergy applicants.

Institutional Abuse and Grooming

Another study in the special edition by Spraitz and Bowen (2019) looked at the grooming techniques used by priests who have sexually abused.

Some studies have shown, in addition to traditional grooming techniques, clergy will use their role as priests or as an extension of God to abuse parishioners. The researchers analyzed records from several Archdioceses and unsealed records that all involved priests or monks in sexual abuse cases. They created a taxonomy of grooming techniques in the priest sexual abuse cases.

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What is Grooming?

Grooming is the process an abuser uses to create a “special” relationship with a victim and create opportunities to abuse. Typically the abuser is an adult and the victim is a child.

In this study, priests used the following techniques:

Giving alcohol, cigarettes or drugs to the victim
Giving gifts to the victim
Taking the victim on overnight trips
Physical contact
Using mentorship or friendship
Playing favorites
Creating a relationship with the family
Abusing the position of respect and reverence

Results of the Grooming Study

Unfortunately, the researchers found the grooming techniques of abusive clergy in their sample were no different from non-clergy.

The technique of abusing the position as a person of God was not an overt form of grooming.

They found that the use of this technique may not be “purposeful, overt, or done consciously in all instances.”

There were clergy who did use this technique overtly, but not many in this study.

Takeaways About Institutional Abuse

In short, the studies in this special issue of Sexual Abuse confirm, for the studies published, the individuals who perpetrate sexual abuse in institutions are not significantly different from those who abuse outside of institutions.

These results are frustrating as it would be a boon to the prevention of sexual abuse if there was a way to predict who might abuse versus who might not.

The research will continue and hopefully, in the future, more work will be published that can help institutional abuse prevention efforts.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

As professionals, our time is valuable. Dr. Weeks created the Mitigation Aide Research Archive because there isn’t enough focused, data-backed research available in easily digestible formats.

The post Institutional Abuse and How to Predict and Prevent it first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Girls and Sexting

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 03:21:20 +0000

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I am writing to you today from the annual conference of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA).

Each year, in addition to traditional talks, there are poster presentations. Today, Marion Desfachelles, a Ph.D. student at the University of Montreal, presented a poster on her research on girls and sexting.

Background on Canadian Laws

Canada’s laws regarding teenage sexting are different from the US.

In Canada, sexting is divided into two categories, Primary and Secondary.

Primary sexting is defined as sending or receiving sexually explicit content in a private context.
Secondary sexting is defined as distributing the image or video to the public.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled this year that to establish an intimate photo exception to the juvenile pornography laws. This exception allows “two youths, who engage in lawful sexual activity, to consensually record their own lawful sexual activity as long as that recording is made or possessed for their personal use.”

In the US, two minors in this situation would face criminal penalties.

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Desfachelles’ Research

As most of the research on secondary sexting is focused on boys, Ms. Desfachelles wanted to look at how girls engage in primary or secondary sexting. To do this, she looked at the arrest records of 27 girls who were arrested or suspected to be involved in cases of juvenile pornography.

What did the study find?

Girls are sometimes the primary sexter and the secondary victim, meaning a girl may have taken an image for a partner but it was then distributed outside the context of that relationship. Girls also distributed sexual imagery to others.

An interesting finding was that the girls did acknowledge that sending these images would be hurtful to the victims, but the girls thought that the victims of the secondary sexting were responsible for the situation.

The study found three main motivations for secondary sexting:

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The most common motivation was that of revenge or hurt.
The other two motivations seen were goodwill and fun, meaning peer pressure.

Boys continue to be most frequently the originators of the secondary sexting, but girls sometimes start the process and definitely participate in the secondary sexting.

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We know that there is significant emotional damage to the victim of secondary sexting.

Prevention campaigns often focus on not sexting at all.

The author suggests that, as sexting is becoming a more normative behavior for teens, the prevention efforts be moved to focus on prevention of secondary sexting.

What can you do as a parent?

Help teens understand that they should keep something that was sent in the context of a relationship private.

Teach teens about consent and that consent also applies to distribution of images sent with the expectation of privacy.

As always, parents should be talking to their children about sexting.

We also need to expand our discussions about how, if their child does engage in sexting, they can do so in a safe and respectful manner and to understand the risks involved in sending an explicit image to another person.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Girls and Sexting first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.