Sexual Offenders' Settings Towards a Victim

The article describes cultural, social and individual psychological peculiarities of development of delinquent sexual behavior. Special emphasis in made on the factor of sexual offenders’ setting towards the victim. It was suggested that sexual offenders’ representations of a victim and her/his beliefs are often distorted: victim’s normal behavior, not associated with sexuality, is understood by offenders as provoking them to sexual intercourse. Different viewpoints on the reasons for development of such settings are discussed. The article also describes some negative sociocultural stereotypes in the sphere of sexuality. The results of empirical research aimed at investigation of sexual offenders’ settings towards the violated women as well as pedophilic actions are provided. These results allow concluding on differences in mechanisms of a victim’s representation in different types of sexual offenders.

1. Kon I. S. Seksologija. M., 2004.
2. Tkachenko A. A., Vvedenskij G. E., Dvorjanchikov N. V. Sudebnaja seksologija. M., 2001.
3. Burn May F., Brown S. A review of the cognitive distortions in child sex offenders: An examination of the motivations and mechanisms that underlie the justification for abuse // Aggression and Violent Behavior. 2006. № 11.
4. Hanson K., Harris A. The Sex Offender Need Assessment Rating (SONAR): A Method for Measuring Change in Risk Levels. 2000. http://www.violence-risk.com
5. Hucker S. Psychiatric Aspects of Risk Assessment, 2004. http://www.violence-risk.com
6. Pervan S., Hunter M. Cognitive distortions and social self-esteem in sexual offenders // Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice. 2007. № 3.
7. Webster C., Hucker S. Violence risk: assessment and management. 2007. http://www.violence-risk.com
8. Yamawaki N., Tschanz B. Rape Perception Differences Between Japanese and American College Students: On the Mediating Influence of Gender Role Traditionally // Sex Roles. 2005. Vol. 52. № 5−6.