NCJ Number
178858
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2000 Pages: 99-126
Date Published
2000
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the literature on patterns of empathy, social skills, and other cognitive processes (i.e., theories, attitudes, and distorted cognitions) of incarcerated sex offenders or those who have identified themselves as sex offenders.
Abstract
These three general topics were chosen because many view these phenomena as central to the understanding of sex offending. This article first presents general empirical findings relevant to the phenomena of empathy, social skills, and distorted cognitions. The article then moves to a discussion of specific cognitive models that have been offered to account for the data. The authors discuss the available data relevant to these cognitive models. The next section of the article reviews the treatments for sex offenders that have the stated goal of modifying the processes this article examines. The article's final section summarizes some of the identified problems and weaknesses in the study of the aforementioned processes in sex offending. The authors argue that too little attention has been given to basic cognitive psychology and the role that cognitions or conceptualizations can play in promoting the understanding of the sex offender. They suggest that following the information processing approach as a generalized model will help integrate and direct research efforts. 114 references