3RT INTERVENTION ON COGNITIVE DISTORSIONS REGARDING THE JUSTIFICATION OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Mean-making is a very complex process, involving social, moral and psychological aspects. When it comes to trauma or crimes, the ability to “make sense” of the events and to find meaning in the midst of chaos is associated with greater psychological resilience (Chan et al., 2006). However, when it comes to sexual offenders, the existence of a usual stuck-point in mean-making. Specifically, given the many levels of the crime the offender is usually not able to access all these levels, as some are deeper than their awareness. At that moment, the talk therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for developing adaptive skills are crucial, as they have to create a safe context, in which the person can think freely and explore their inner world.

Sexual Offenders With Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Comparison Study in an Incarcerated U.S. Sample

Research indicates that individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are overrepresented among sexual offenders, and that those with ID might differ from those without ID in terms of the etiology of offending behavior. Despite this, few studies have explored ID using incarcerated U.S. samples. The present study sought to identify relevant characteristics of this population by comparing individuals with and without ID who are incarcerated in the U.S. for sexual offenses. Archival records for 3,066 participants were used to determine demographic, historical, and offense-related characteristics. Participants with ID, including those with borderline ID, comprised 19.1% of the sample and displayed elevated rates of adverse childhood experiences and psychopathology. Contrary to previous research, participants with ID were no more likely to offend against children than those without ID. These findings help to elucidate the etiology of offending behavior among those with ID and inform on potential targets for intervention.

Online child sexual offenders' language use in real-time chats

We analysed chat log communications between 38 adult males and children who were accessed by the men via social media for sexually exploitative purposes. Our goal was to understand how sexual offenders engage with children online and the dialogue they use to elicit compliance with sexual requests. Results revealed 72 discrete linguistic tactics, contained within eight overarching dialogue-based ‘moves’. Tactics were non-sequential (ie dynamic) and focused mainly on requests for sexual activity. Three distinct subgroup patterns of tactic use were evident. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

‘The Menace of Effeminacy’: Medical and Popular Discussions of Masculinity in Interwar New Zealand, c.1918-1939

<p>In January 1932, the Sydney-based lifestyle magazine Health and Physical Culture published an article titled ‘The Menace of Effeminacy’. This article, written by Carl Hertzig, and read by magazine-subscribers across the Tasman, documented anxieties around the state of men and masculinity following the upheaval of the Great War. Touching on topics such as gender, psychology, eugenics, and sexuality this article and its concerns represent those that this thesis explores in order to understand what the ‘fear of effeminacy’ actually meant for New Zealanders during the interwar years (c.1918-1939). This thesis documents and analyses contemporary discussions of male sexuality and masculinity through a series of sources in order to establish the ways in which these concepts were understood in interwar New Zealand. Firstly, it examines some of the key pieces of legislation and reports that demonstrated official approaches, and ways of thinking, towards mental defectives, sexual offenders, and those with war neuroses. It then explores medical journals, and the dissertations of medical students; and finally, it analyses parts of popular print culture in Aotearoa/New Zealand, such as magazines and newspapers, in order to investigate and piece together the landscape in which said anxieties around effeminacy, masculinity, mental stability, and other deviations from the societally prescribed norm met. This thesis approaches these primary sources in such a way that acknowledges the evolutionary framework of understanding that was pervasive in medical circles during this era. By thus examining the connections between constructions of the male body, homosexuality and effeminacy, late nineteenth to early twentieth century ideas around eugenics, and psychology and psychiatry, this work further uncovers the state of masculinity and male sexuality in New Zealand during the interwar period. This thesis argues that the ‘threat’ to masculinity perceived in a variety of venues was a mixture of anxieties around physical and mental wounds inflicted by the Great War; population concerns exacerbated by the exposure of the health-standards of troops, and worries of how to recover and reconstruct a virile society following four years of strife; concerns at the apparent loosening of sexual mores, and the changing manifestations of both masculinity and femininity; and ever increasing interest in the psychology of self, sexuality, and society. It adds to existing work on post-World War One masculinity by centring New Zealand discussions and understandings in a way that contributes to the broader literature on New Zealand twentieth-century masculinity, psychology and psychiatry, eugenics, and male sexuality.</p>

‘The Menace of Effeminacy’: Medical and Popular Discussions of Masculinity in Interwar New Zealand, c.1918-1939

<p>In January 1932, the Sydney-based lifestyle magazine Health and Physical Culture published an article titled ‘The Menace of Effeminacy’. This article, written by Carl Hertzig, and read by magazine-subscribers across the Tasman, documented anxieties around the state of men and masculinity following the upheaval of the Great War. Touching on topics such as gender, psychology, eugenics, and sexuality this article and its concerns represent those that this thesis explores in order to understand what the ‘fear of effeminacy’ actually meant for New Zealanders during the interwar years (c.1918-1939). This thesis documents and analyses contemporary discussions of male sexuality and masculinity through a series of sources in order to establish the ways in which these concepts were understood in interwar New Zealand. Firstly, it examines some of the key pieces of legislation and reports that demonstrated official approaches, and ways of thinking, towards mental defectives, sexual offenders, and those with war neuroses. It then explores medical journals, and the dissertations of medical students; and finally, it analyses parts of popular print culture in Aotearoa/New Zealand, such as magazines and newspapers, in order to investigate and piece together the landscape in which said anxieties around effeminacy, masculinity, mental stability, and other deviations from the societally prescribed norm met. This thesis approaches these primary sources in such a way that acknowledges the evolutionary framework of understanding that was pervasive in medical circles during this era. By thus examining the connections between constructions of the male body, homosexuality and effeminacy, late nineteenth to early twentieth century ideas around eugenics, and psychology and psychiatry, this work further uncovers the state of masculinity and male sexuality in New Zealand during the interwar period. This thesis argues that the ‘threat’ to masculinity perceived in a variety of venues was a mixture of anxieties around physical and mental wounds inflicted by the Great War; population concerns exacerbated by the exposure of the health-standards of troops, and worries of how to recover and reconstruct a virile society following four years of strife; concerns at the apparent loosening of sexual mores, and the changing manifestations of both masculinity and femininity; and ever increasing interest in the psychology of self, sexuality, and society. It adds to existing work on post-World War One masculinity by centring New Zealand discussions and understandings in a way that contributes to the broader literature on New Zealand twentieth-century masculinity, psychology and psychiatry, eugenics, and male sexuality.</p>

Throwing Away the Key: An Examination of the Renaissance of Preventive Detention in New Zealand

<p>The indeterminate sentence of preventive detention has experienced a renaissance in New Zealand since the 1980s. What was once a seldom used, emergency provision intended for application to the most dangerous offenders in our society, is now used with alarming frequency: while fifteen offenders served sentences of preventive detention in 1981, the number had risen to 263 by 2014. This thesis seeks to explore the forces driving the renaissance of preventive detention in New Zealand. Throughout advanced liberal democracies, there has been a shift toward risk driven penal policy. Significant social, political, and economic changes in these societies from the 1980s onwards - such as the neoliberal reforms, and the associated uncaging of risk; social liberation and restructuring; and the cultivation of lifestyles; have contributed to, and exacerbated ontological insecurity and anxiety. The delegation of risk by the state to the individual has produced the variety of benefits and opportunities it was intended for, however it has also left people feeling insecure about their safety and wellbeing within the modern society, knowing that the shrunken state is unwilling, or unable to intervene and protect them. The expansion of preventive detention is an example of the state stepping in and performing a ‘spectacular rescue’ (Pratt and Anderson, 2016: 12). The revival and expansion of preventive detention has been part of the response of the New Zealand government to the intolerable risk of irreparable and irredeemable harm, posed by violent and sexual offenders in particular. The significant increase in the use of preventive detention is representative of a wider trend of risk driven penal policy throughout the main English speaking societies. While the parallel strand of punitive penal policy has been explored in great depth, the trend toward risk driven penal policy has elicited less focus. Within the literature, there is a lack of identification of risk driven penal policy as a separate strand of development, subject to a separate line of inquiry. This thesis seeks to add to the literature on the influence of risk, exploring it as the driving force behind the revival of preventive detention.</p>