Criminal and noncriminal sexual aggressors: integrating psychopathy in a hierarchical-mediational confluence model.

ABSTRACT

In contrast to widely held beliefs, I suggest that research conducted with either criminal or noncriminal samples of sexually aggressive men actually reveals many similar characteristics shared by both groups. The Hierarchical-Mediational Confluence (HMC) model is presented here to integrate these findings. As relatively distal risk factors, it includes personality and behavioral characteristics associated with psychopaths and predictive of antisocial behavior generally. As more proximate risk factors, it includes personality and behavioral characteristics specifically associated with sexual aggression, such as attitudes condoning sexual aggression, dominance for sexual arousal, and heavy pornography consumption. In addition, the model predicts that the interactive combination of the various risk factors results in higher sexual aggression than expected by the additive combination of these risk factors, a prediction similar to the distinction between "primary" and "secondary" psychopaths. A series of studies supporting the HMC model is presented. Finally, some differences between criminal and noncriminal sexual aggressors are also noted. In particular, criminal sexual aggressors have often committed various other antisocial acts in addition to sexual aggression. In contrast, noncriminals primarily reveal only some elevation in personality characteristics potentiating such nonsexual antisocial behaviors, but report having committed only sexual aggression.