Male Sexual Offenders' Emotional Openness With Men and Women

• Author: James Underhill,Ruth E. Mann,Helen C. Wakeling,Stephen D. Webster
• Published date: 01 September 2008
• Date: 01 September 2008
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854808320268
• Subject Matter: Articles

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MALE SEXUAL OFFENDERS’ EMOTIONAL

OPENNESS WITH MEN AND WOMEN

JAMES UNDERHILL

HELEN C. WAKELING

RUTH E. MANN

STEPHEN D. WEBSTER

Her Majesty’s Prison Service, London, England

This study explored male sexual offenders’openness and intimacy with adult males and females. Two measures developed to

examine intimacy with adults (Openness to Women and Openness to Men) were validated on sexual offenders (N=1,857)

undergoing cognitive-behavioral treatment in Her Majesty’s Prison Service. Both measures had good reliability and validity,

although they correlated with socially desirable responding. All offenders reported lower intimacy with men compared with

nonoffenders, but child molesters also reported lower intimacy with women than nonoffenders and rapists. Openness to adults

was related to risk, with higher risk offenders having greater problems with intimacy than lower risk offenders. However, the

authors did not find a relationship between low openness to women and high emotional congruence with children.

Keywords: emotional openness; emotional congruence with children; intimacy deficits; sexual offender; scale validation

Acommon stereotype of sexual offenders is that they are socially awkward and unable

to develop and maintain warm, reciprocal adult relationships. Although there does not

seem to be a direct link between deficient social skills and sexual offending risk (Hanson

& Morton-Bourgon, 2004), research has indicated that deficits in intimacy can predict

sexual recidivism. Sexual offenders consistently score lower on measures of intimacy when

compared to violent nonsexual offenders and community controls (Bumby & Hanson,

1997; Cortoni & Marshall, 2001; Fisher, Beech, & Browne, 1999; Seidman, Marshall,

Hudson, & Robertson, 1994). Sexual offenders also often report profound emotional lone-

liness (Garlick, Marshall, & Thornton, 1996), a key state preceding deviant sexual fantasies

(Proulx, McKibben, & Lusignan, 1996) and strongly linked to aggression (Check, Perlman,

& Malamuth, 1985). In their meta-analysis of 95 different studies, Hanson and Morton-

Bourgon (2004) found intimacy deficits to be the third most reliable predictor of sexual

recidivism.

Marshall and Barabaree’s (1990) theory of sexual assault attempted to explain how inti-

macy deficits relate to sexual offending. In their multifactorial model, they described inti-

macy as a basic and critical human need (see Ward & Mann, 2004). The ability to form and

maintain intimate relationships is largely dependent on the process of socialization during

early life and the style of attachment with the caregiver. If insecurely attached, the confi-

dence necessary to achieve intimacy fails to develop, and deficits begin to emerge during

adolescence. A lack of intimate relationships can result in emotional isolation and in the use

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 35 No. 9, September 2008 1156-1173

DOI: 10.1177/0093854808320268

© 2008 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

AUTHORS’ NOTE: James Underhill is now at Camden NHS, London. Stephen D. Webster is now at the

National Centre for Social Research, London. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to

Helen C. Wakeling, Interventions Group, Room 108, Cleland House, Page Street, London, SW1P 4LN; e-mail:

helen.wakeling@hmps.gsi.gov.uk.

Underhill et al. / SEXUAL OFFENDERS’ EMOTIONAL OPENNESS 1157

of maladaptive methods to seek intimacy with various or less threatening partners

(Marshall, 1989, 1993). Later theories of sexual offending also included intimacy deficits

as etiological pathways to abuse (Ward & Beech, 2006; Ward & Siegert, 2002). Ward and

Siegert (2002) argued that intimacy and social skills deficits are included in one of four

clusters of problems typically found among child molesters. In their theory of sexual abuse,

they emphasized that impaired attachment can cause problems in the development of skills

needed to establish intimate relationships. Ward and Beech’s (2006) integrated theory of

sexual offending knits together theories relating to single factors thought to be particularly

important in the commission of sexually abusive behavior (including intimacy deficits)

with theories that explain the offense process.

One way in which emotionally lonely men may cope with emotional isolation is to seek

intimacy elsewhere than in an emotionally committed relationship with another adult. Part

of the motivation for child molestation may be a desire to create a quasiromantic relation-

ship with victims, modeled on an adult intimate relationship (Marshall, 1989). This has

been termed “emotional congruence with children” (Finkelhor, 1984; Wilson, 1999).

Congruent with this hypothesis, Hanson and Morton-Bourgon (2004) found that emotional

identification with children predicted sexual recidivism. They defined four components to

this phenomenon: feeling emotionally closer to children than to adults, having children as

friends, having child-oriented lifestyles, and feeling like children themselves.

Beckett, Beech, Fisher, and Fordham (1994) noted that moderate levels of emotional

congruence with children are normal, especially for parents, and may even be desirable (in

that such adults are sensitive and caring to children’s needs). Emotional congruence with

children becomes problematic only when accompanied by emotional isolation from adults.

In this situation, children may serve as a substitute for adult relationships. To separate this

pattern from normal emotional congruence with children, some have chosen to use the

phrase distorted intimacy balance to describe the particular pattern of turning to children

to compensate for lack of adult intimacy (e.g., Thornton, 2002). Beckett et al. (1994) con-

cluded that “such beliefs and feelings are perhaps the very essence of paedophilia: child

love” (p. 163).

MEASURING INTIMACY IN SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Published studies of intimacy in sexual offender populations have mainly used three

measures: the Miller Social Intimacy questionnaire (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982), the Fear of

Intimacy Scale (FoI; Descutner & Thelen, 1991), and the Waring Intimacy Questionnaire

(WIQ; Waring & Reddon, 1983). Studies have usually found that sexual offenders report

lower levels of intimacy compared with nonoffenders (e.g., Bumby & Hanson, 1997;

Seidman et al., 1994). There are several limitations to these measures, however. The Miller

Social Intimacy questionnaire and WIQ are limited to heterosexual, marital-type relation-

ships only, and the FoI measures fear of intimacy rather than actual experience of intimacy.

Additionally, these measures were not designed specifically for use with incarcerated

sexual offenders. An ideal measure would be broad enough to be relevant to a variety of

relationship patterns but not so broad that it overlaps with measures of social competence

and fails to capture the quality of emotional intimacy.