child sex dolls - Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings

Sex Doll Owners and Contact Offenses: Correlation?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 21:55:22 +0000

Investigating Psychological Characteristics and Risky Thinking in Sex Doll Owners

Here we go again: Another article on sex doll owners!

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Yes, I continue to be fascinated by the research on this topic.

Despite what some might believe, discussions come up about it in my line of work. Even at the workshop I taught for law enforcement officers last month.

Of course, when I saw this article, published this year, I was excited to read it.

Previous research articles I have written about on sex doll ownership have been more general in nature. This isn’t surprising given the lack of even basic research on the topic. This article, however, actually digs into the main questions about the ownership of sex dolls.

Law enforcement, treatment providers and legislators want to know:

Is there any association between owning sex dolls and risk of contact sexual offending?

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.

A Quick Recap

The study was published in The Journal of Sex Research by academics at Nottingham Trent University. It sought to address whether or not there was any relationship between owning adult sex dolls and either personality characteristics of the owners or any offending supportive beliefs.

First to recap: There are three main schools of thought when it comes to sex doll ownership.

Owning a sex doll increases risk as it can reinforce the objectification of women. Those in this school of thought point to the research that tells us that having views of women as sexual objects is associated with higher levels of sexual aggression. The hypothesis here is that owning a sex doll increases a person’s negative attitudes towards women and objectification of women which leads to a higher risk of sexual aggression. (While sex dolls do come in all genders, the literature on the topic focuses on women and female sex dolls).
Sex doll ownership is protective, meaning that owning a sex doll actually could reduce sexual aggression against live humans. These individuals could reduce their sexual aggression risk by acting out those desires with a sex doll.
The final group does not look at sex doll ownership as increasing or decreasing risk. It looks at the functions that sex dolls can serve to their owners. Some owners of sex dolls report that the doll is a surrogate for a relationship. Perhaps sex doll owners have had difficult relationships in the past or have particular sexual interest which would make relationships difficult. The doll can serve as a physical and, sometimes, emotional surrogate.

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 Study

This study looked to assess whether there were any particular psychological characteristics of sex doll owners. They also tested the assumption that doll ownership could be associated with a propensity for sexual aggression.

The participants were found in a sex doll ownership forum. A control group was found online through a survey platform called Prolific.

Participants answered questions about:

Demographics
Doll ownership
Psychological assessments that looked at:
- Sexual aggression
- Sexual fantasies
- Offense supportive thinking
- Emotional functioning
- Personality style
- Attachment style

In this study, they used male doll owners in the statistical analysis.

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The Results

The study found that doll owners were slightly older than non-doll owners. Sex doll owners were a little less likely to have partnered sex at least monthly.

Other than that, there were very few other differences between the doll owners and non-doll owners overall.

Doll owners did not:

Fantasize more about coercive sex
Have more of a proclivity for sexual aggression
Have issues with emotion and attachment

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

Doll owners were, however, significantly more likely:

To view women as sex objects
Have greater sexual entitlement
To see women as unknowable

Overall the results indicated that, in this study population, doll ownership did not appear to be associated with proclivities for sexual offending.

Doll owners were not more likely to be sexually aggressive or endorse sexual aggression.

In contrast, the data suggested that doll ownership was a potentially protective factor when the owner did not have the beliefs that male sex drive is uncontrollable or that the world is a dangerous place.

The authors suggested that:

“The lack of differences between the two groups in this study might suggest that studying sex doll ownership through a lens that assumes psychopathology or atypicality might be misguided.”

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Take Aways

Any study has its limitations.

This study only looked at individuals who owned adult sex dolls.

It did not address the issue of childlike sex doll ownership. This makes it possible that the data for adult sex doll ownership does not necessarily generalize to individuals who own child like sex dolls.

Regardless of its limitations, this study is important because it is the first that attempts to address the specific legal and ethical questions about sex doll ownership. In particular: Does ownership of sex dolls increase a person’s likelihood of committing an hands-on sexual offense?

Much further research is needed before any definitive statements can be made.

Reference: Harper, C.A., Lievesley, R., & Wanless, K (2023). Exploring the Psychological Characteristics and Risk-related Cognitions of Individuals Who Own Sex Dolls. The Journal of Sex Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2031848

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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.

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Why Do People Own Sex Dolls

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 13:36:50 +0000

If you’re familiar with my blog, you’ll know that I love to write about sex dolls research; I find the topic fascinating and it intersects directly with my work, too.

The controversy over child sex dolls stirs up very strong feelings and hard and fast opinions made without any actual data to back them up.

Today, I’m excited to share new research so that we can start to put some facts behind our opinions.

Opinions on Sex Dolls

When it comes to child-like sex doll ownership, opinions tend to fall in three camps:

“Allowing someone who is minor attracted access to a child-like sex doll will enhance their risk of moving on to a contact sexual offense with a child.”
“Allowing someone who is attracted to children access to a child-like sex doll will serve as a protective mechanism and decrease their likelihood for offending against a child.”
“Child like sex dolls serve other functions either in lieu of or in addition to a sexual function.”

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.

A Study on Sex Dolls

Doctors Harper and Lievesley recently published a research article in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior on their research about child-like sex doll ownership.

As there is so little research on this topic, the goal of this study was to provide an initial “snapshot” into the characteristics of individuals who own or would like to own a child-like sex doll.

The authors provided anonymous, IP address protected surveys to individuals on online forums and asked them questions regarding:

Doll ownership
Sexual interests
Emotions
Personality
Attachment styles
Sexual objectification
Sexual offending

In total, 205 men answered the survey, and their answers were used in the data analysis.

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The Results

They found that child-like doll ownership was not just something sexual.

Dolls were used for sexual reasons but also for emotional reasons and “other” reasons which included art, non-sexual intimacy, non-intimate care, improving quality of life and to prevent offending behavior.

Those individuals who used the dolls for sexual purposes had sex with the dolls on average 8.08 times per month which was significantly more often than they engaged in partnered sex.

Other findings showed that doll owners, based on the Interest in Child Molestation Scale, were significantly less likely to express a desire to engage in a contact sexual offense.

They also were less likely to score as having an anxious attachment style.

The characteristics of child sex doll ownership from this study indicated that:

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

“…doll owners were significantly older than non-owners. They were also more likely to exhibit schizotypal personality traits, to report engaging in sexually objectifying behaviors than non-owners and reported more anticipated enjoyment in relation to hypothetical child sexual abuse scenarios.”

The doll owners were also less sexually preoccupied than those who did not own a doll and were less antisocial.

They were also self-reported less arousal to child sexual abuse scenarios.

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Takeaways

Let’s go back to those thoughts on child-like sex doll ownership and what the data from this study shows.

The authors state that they did not find any evidence in their study to support that child-like sex doll is inherently risky and promotes in person child sexual abuse.

The authors stated that their data supports a functional model of child-like sex doll ownership meaning that most people own a doll to serve a functional need.

Limitations on the Study about Sex Dolls

As with any research study, there are limitations, and they should be noted:

This is a preliminary study, which means the results are not definitive and should be replicated before they are taken to be 100% truth.
As with any survey study, there is no way to ensure that the participants answered questions 100% truthfully.

The way the survey was presented did provide anonymity, but that may not have been enough to inhibit some people’s tendency to answer in a socially desirable fashion.

This study is a great first step toward creating actual, scientific evidence that can then be used to support fact-based opinion and legislation about child-like sex doll ownership.

Reference: Harper, C.A. & Lievesley, R. (2022). Exploring the Ownership of Child-Like Sex Dolls. Archives of Sexual Behavior, doi.org/10.1007/s10508-022-02422-4

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.

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

The post Why Do People Own Sex Dolls first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Let’s Talk About Sex Dolls

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 17:51:03 +0000

For me, the concept of sex dolls is fascinating and when my web guy told me that some people were searching for more information about it, I jumped at the chance to write about them again.

The first thing to do when talking about sex dolls is to forget that image of the plastic blow up doll with a permanently gaping mouth. Today’s sex dolls are high tech, sometimes robotic, really life like and nothing like what most people imagine.

Let’s talk about some of the controversies.

Child Sex Dolls and Sex Offenders

This one is a hot button issue with some people falling in either camp. Child sex dolls are manufactured outside of the United States and they are extremely realistic looking. This is pretty uncomfortable for a lot of people.

The two sides of the argument are as follows.

For individuals who have an exclusive attraction to prepubescent children, child sex dolls might be a way for them to have some sense of sexuality without harming children.

The other side of this camp thinks that allowing people who are attracted to children to have child sex dolls will actually increase their risk of harming a live child.

The trouble is, there is hardly any research on the topic to help people make an informed opinion.

For more thoughts on the topic, check out Prostasia Foundation’s blog on the topic.

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.

Sex Dolls and Adults

If we are talking about adult sex dolls, we can avoid the controversy that comes with child sex dolls, but you still get the stigma.

There are many reasons why someone might want a sex doll.

Perhaps they have difficulty meeting people, forming relationships, or hooking up with others for sex.

Perhaps they have a trauma history that makes sex with another person something they can’t engage in.

Or maybe, they just want to.

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

There is even a sex doll rental company in Houston, Texas that has lawmakers up in arms. They have tried to block it but, to the best of my knowledge, it is still up and running.

In the sex therapy community, the use of sex dolls does not carry the same stigma that it might in other circles. Fundamentally, an adult who wants to have an adult sex doll should be able to do so without worry about what other people think.

However, some people worry that using a sex doll or a sex robot as a replacement for human interaction could be harmful.

Check out some other’s thoughts on the topic here:

Using Love Dolls As a Substitute for Human Intimacy (Psychology Today)
Sex Bot use ‘unrelated to healthcare’ (Medical News Today)

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Answering Your Questions

Some of the google searches related to sex dolls that have landed people on my website have questioned whether or not sex doll use is addictive.

I will take this moment to remind people that when it comes to sex addiction or problematic sexual behavior issues, it is often not the behavior that is problematic but the person’s relationship to the behavior.

A sex doll is a sex doll. If you are questioning whether your use of the sex doll is an addiction, the better questions relate to your relationship with the doll.

Is it something that you cannot stop doing?

Is engaging with the sex doll interfering with your life, work or other relationships?

If your interactions with the doll do not meet the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria for Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder, the problem may be an issue of moral incongruence instead of addiction or problematic sexual behavior.

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.

The post Let’s Talk About Sex Dolls first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.