The Relation Between Sexual Fantasies and Offense-Supportive Cognitions in People Convicted of Sexual Offenses: A Preliminary Study.

The main objective of this research is to study the relationships of offense-supportive cognitions and sexual fantasies with sex crime. The research involved 48 men: 26 convicted of sexual offenses against minors and 22 convicted of sexual offenses against adults from different prisons in the Community of Madrid, Spain. We used the RAPE Scale and the Sex With Children Scale to evaluate offense-supportive cognitions and an ad hoc adaptation of the Multidimensional Developmental, Sex and Aggression Inventory to evaluate sexual fantasies with minors and sadomasochistic fantasies. The results show that both groups present similar offense-supportive cognitions, while each group had significantly more sexual fantasies related to their specific crime. Participants who had sexual fantasies about minors presented significantly more offense-supportive cognitions justifying child sexual abuse than those who did not present these fantasies, while participants with sadomasochistic fantasies did not present more offense-supportive cognitions about rape. After collecting this information, we ran four mediation models to assess potential relationships between fantasies, offense-supportive cognitions, and specific sexual crime. The mediation models showed that both sexual fantasies with minors and sadomasochistic fantasies had direct relationships with sex crimes. Upon further confirmation with studies with larger sample sizes, our findings support the importance of dealing with sexual fantasies in treatment of people convicted of sexual offenses and imply a need for differentiated treatment, since the content of sexual fantasies was different in each group.

Necesidades de Intervención en Prisión con Internos con Pedofilia / Intervention Needs in Prison With Pedophile Inmates

En prisión existen programas específicos de tratamiento para condenados por agresión sexual a menores; sin embargo, quienes además tienen pedofilia, requieren una atención específica. El objetivo del presente estudio es doble: primero, ofrecer una propuesta de intervención específica para pedofilia en el entorno penitenciario basada en la evidencia científica disponible y complementaria al Programa de Control de la Agresión Sexual y después, justificar dicha propuesta a través del caso de un interno con pedofilia. En concreto, proponemos una intervención individual y centrada en personas con pedofilia; trabajando la baja autoestima, evaluando la ideación suicida y reestructurando las distorsiones cognitivas con menores, facilitando la creación de relaciones personales funcionales con adultos, evaluando la polivictimización pasada y su posible influencia sobre la conducta sexual posterior, proporcionar a los internos psicoeducación sobre pedofilia; atender de forma específica las fantasías sexuales con menores, evitando las conductas disexuales y la eliminación del consumo de material abusivo.(AU)

There are specific treatment programs in prisons for those convicted of sexually assaulting minors; however, those who also have pedophilia require specific attention. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to offer a specific intervention proposal for pedophilia in the prison setting based on the available scientific evidence, and complementary to the Sexual Assault Control Program, and second, to justify this proposal through the case of an inmate with pedophilia. Specifically, we propose an individual intervention focused on people with pedophilia; working on low self-esteem, assessing suicidal ideation and restructuring cognitive distortions with minors, facilitating the creation of functional personal relationships with adults, assessing past polyvictimization and its possible influence on subsequent sexual behavior, providing inmates with psychoeducation on pedophilia; specifically addressing sexual fantasies with minors, avoiding dyssexual behavior, and eliminating the consumption of abusive material.(AU)