Analysis Of Groth's Categorization Of Sex Offender

Groth’s Categorization of Sex Offenders that target Children
Similar to the MTC, Groth categorizes child offenders based on the longevity of the behavioral patterns and the offender’s psychological goals. If sexual preference for children has existed since adolescence, the offender is classified as immature or fixated. If the offender appears to have some normal relationships with adults but resorts to children when under stress, he is a regressed child offender. Groth identifies two categories based on the psychological goal of the offender: sex pressure offender and sex force offenders. The first one attempts to entice children into sexual behavior by persuasion. The latter exploits the helplessness of children or physically overpowers the

When the three-path model was tested, the pattern in relations among traits in adults and juvenile sexual offenders was consistent (Knight & Knight, 2005). The proposal is that three personality traits define the three paths that lead to violent sexual behavior: sexual drive/ preoccupation, anti-social behavior, and callousness/unemotionality. These traits are amplified by early childhood physical/verbal and sexual abuse. In one path, early childhood physical/verbal abuse strengthens the development of arrogance, deceitfulness, and emotional detachment. In another path, early childhood physical/verbal abuse augments aggressive and antisocial behavior, sensation seeking, impulsive acting out, and alcohol and drug abuse. The individuals who fit in this category typically commit multiple offenses that are not exclusive to sexual violence. Still, a third path is influenced by childhood sexual abuse and leads to sexual preoccupation and compulsivity that increases the risk of aggressive sexual fantasies and behavior. While a combination of risk factors and biological predispositions are causal to criminal offending, abuse is merely one of those factors but it does frequently show up in the background of sex offenders (Bartol & Batrol, 2014, p.

This theory asserts that pedophiles see themselves as children, and in turn feel most comfortable with children (Batrol & Batrol, 2014, p. 394). McaPhil and colleagues (2013) found that high emotional congruence with children was most strongly associated with sexual pre-occupation in which sex was used as a means to cope with negative emotions as well as deviant sexual interests and cognitions that support child molestation. Loneliness and social rejection were also found to be associated with emotional congruence with children. In support of previous theories, emotional congruence with children was also associated with problems in sexual self-regulation. Moreover, Stinson et al. (2008) found that self-regulatory deficiency was a significant causal predictor of both sexual deviance and anti-social