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Individuals convicted of sexual offenses are rarely asked their views of the police and courts. The aims of this study were to examine the impact of feelings of guilt on perceptions of the police and police interview outcomes and spill-over effects from perceptions of the police to perceptions of the courts. Participants were 116 adult males incarcerated for sexual offenses who were invited to report their perceptions of police interviewers, feelings at the time of interview, interview outcomes, and perceptions of the court process. Feelings of guilt were related to perceptions of the police. Both feelings of guilt and perceptions of the police were associated with interview outcomes. Spill-over effects were found as perceptions of the police were directly related to perceptions of the courts. The findings highlight the important role of police officers as gatekeepers to the criminal justice system, with associated implications for police officers’ training and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored sex offenders' parental and adult attachment difficulties and assessed the extent to which these were associated with preferences for therapists' interpersonal qualities. One-hundred and twelve adult male child sexual offenders were invited to provide self-report data on their attachment histories, adult attachments and preferences for therapists' interpersonal qualities. A weak relationship between childhood and adulthood secure attachment was found, suggesting that attachment at the time of offending may be more relevant than childhood attachment to the aetiology of sexual offending. Participants valued a range of therapists' qualities previously identified as important for positive treatment change. Therapist trust and genuineness were perceived as particularly important by those with attachment difficulties, demonstrating the need for these qualities in offender programmes where attachment difficulties would be expected. There were some differences in the preferences for therapists' qualities between participants with different adult attachment types, highlighting the importance of responsivity factors in treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately half of sexual offenders in prison and community settings refuse to participate in sex offender treatment programmes; however, the reasons for this remain largely unexplored. This pilot study used the previously untested Treatment Refusal Scale—Sexual Offender Version in an English prison, with 72 adult males (63 treatment accepters and nine treatment refusers) imprisoned for sexual or sexually motivated offences. Principal factors analysis revealed three factors within the scale: “pressured to take part in programmes”; “fear of negative effects”; and “programme is not relevant to/appropriate for me”. Treatment refusers scored more highly than treatment accepters on the first and last components, while there was no statistically significant difference in the scores of the two groups on the “fear of negative effects” component. Suggestions for further development of the scale are discussed, along with the practice implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To examine the links between empathy and cognitions, 50 interview transcripts were analysed from a sample of male sex offenders who had abused children, recruited from four prisons in the North Island of New Zealand. Thematic analysis revealed an overarching framework where participants appeared to create “psychologically comfortable positions” that enabled them to offend. The main themes identified were: “complete denial”; “partial denial”; “justifications: beliefs and attitudes to support offending behaviour”; excuses: ignoring the perspectives of others”; and “taking responsibility for own actions”. These findings suggest that rather than viewing empathy as a trait-like process applied equally to all situations/people by each person in line with their empathic abilities, it would be better construed as a construct that is variously applied (i.e. it may be blocked by the presence of psychologically comfortable cognitions). This has implications for the way in which empathy is addressed in sex offender treatment programmes, as most work to improve empathic skills, which appears to conceptualise empathy as a trait-like skill or concept. The findings of this study would suggest that an increase in empathic skills will not necessarily have an impact on future offending, as cognitions in the form of denial, minimisation, excuse-making and justification are likely to prevent the application of empathic responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]