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Denial, Response Styles, and Admittance of Offenses Among Child Molesters and Rapists

NCJ Number
164854
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 475-486
Author(s)
P M Nugent; D G Kroner
Date Published
1996
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined the correspondence of six measures of denial and response styles with the level of admittance of offense among child molesters (n=49) and rapists (n=49).
Abstract
The child molesters group included both familial and extrafamilial child molesters. For both groups, more than 90 percent were Caucasian. The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding is a 40-item inventory with 7-point Likert-type responses developed to measure two components of desirable responding: self-deception and impression management. The Basic Personality Inventory is a 240-item inventory of psychopathology. Two response style measures -- denial and social desirability -- were used. To assess the hypotheses that compared different levels of offense admittance, orthogonal planned comparisons were conducted. Ratings of offense admittance involved reviewing the inmates' accounts of their offenses and comparing them to the official versions of the offenses. Each offender's account was rated according to four categories. The comparison of child molesters with rapists showed that child molesters incorporated more impression management and denial tactics. There were no differences between partial admitters and nonadmitters for both groups on self-report measures. Differences occurred between admitters and nonadmitters for the rapists, but not for the child molesters. The results have implications for treatment and the use of self-report with sex offenders. 4 tables and 29 references

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