After arguing that diverse etiological models of sexual offending behavior typically suggest that disruptions to psychological development may result in failures to inhibit the expression of infantile sexual interests, the authors describe the 22 rapists, 13 intrafamilial child molesters, and 13 extrafamilial child molesters whose autobiographies were used in this study of childhood attachment insecurity. The authors found that contrary to their expectations, as a combined group, the offenders in this study were not more likely to have experienced insecure maternal or paternal attachment. Furthermore, there were no appreciable differences among the three offender subgroups with respect to maternal attachment, and there were no differences among these offender subgroups in terms of the frequency with which childhood sexual abuse was reported. The authors also found, that those offenders with insecure paternal attachment were more likely to report having been sexually abused than were offenders with secure paternal attachments. Additionally, sexually abused offenders reported earlier onset of masturbation than did those who were not sexually abused. This study provides empirical evidence for positive associations between insecure paternal attachment and childhood sexual abuse, and between childhood sexual abuse and early onset of masturbation. References