Pathways Model Of Child Sexual Abuse

1561 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effect of child abuse on society

Child sexual abuse is a serious and treacherous offence. It is important to look at this crime because many cases of child abuse are under-reported, hence, the issue does not receive media publicity and individuals remain unaware about the seriousness of this crime and its implications on children and society. It is no doubt that child sexual abuse is a crime throughout the world. However, slight emphasis is given to the causes of this crime. The goal of this essay is to give an intricate understanding of child sexual abuse by discussing the Routine Activities Theory, Judgement Model of Cognitive Distortions and Pathways Model as possible theories that explain the crime. The essay will argue that the Pathways Model is an improved theory of …show more content…

He falsely believes that he has no control over his behaviour and that “it was God who allowed their sexual offending to happen.” (Ward, Gannon and Keown, 2006, p.332) The value associated with this theme is autonomy. Autonomy is the ability to self-regulate and control our desires. Sexual offenders lack this trait which is why they falsely believe they did not have control over themselves. The offenders justify their actions by saying they had no control or they were forced to commit crime because of their sexual desires. The second theme is called dangerous world in which the offender falsely believes that people are hostile and will inflict pain on them. The value associated with this belief is about safety, trust, and justice. The offender is protecting himself and looking for trustworthy individuals. Children are perceived as loving and trustworthy, so they easily become the target of sexual offense. In the third theme entitlement, the offender feels superior to the victim and tries to assert himself on his target to seek gratification. In the fourth theme, the offender sees children as sexual beings and falsely believes that they are “active seekers of sex.” (Ward, Gannon and Keown, 2006, p.334) The offenders justify their actions by saying that they were educating the child. The fifth theme is the nature of the harm where the offenders falsely believe that they are not harming the child by having sex with them because they believe sex is naturally good and there are other ways to harm a child, for example physical abuse. (Ward, Gannon and Keown, 2006,

Show More
Related

  • Will I Be an Abuser?

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    It has been suggested that children who are victims of sexual abuse also become abusers themselves. Children of abuse have a higher probability of becoming a future abuser. Child abuse is characterized as any act that jeopardizes or impairs a child’s physical or emotional health and growth. These acts include any harm done to a child who cannot be rationally explained and is often characterized by an injury or series of injuries seeming to be non-accidental in nature. The behaviors of child abuse can happen in both boys and girls leaving them with severe lifetime symptoms. Treatment is often necessary for them to overcome the actions done to them, but it is not always successful in curing the mutilation. However, the existence of one sign of child maltreatment does not mean child abuse is occurring within a home. Even with proper education, therapy, and validation one has the probability to become an abuser himself/herself.

    Read More

  • A Child Molester's Mind: How They Choose Their Victims

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    Offenders are able to identify weaknesses in a child’s personality or life circumstances and then exploit them. There can be many different characteristics a Child Molester or Pedophile uses for their selection process. The characteristics are the foll...

    Read More

  • Sexual Disorders: The Woodsman

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our text describes pedophilia as a person who “gains sexual gratification by watching, touching, or engaging in sexual acts with prepubescent children, usually 13 years old or younger” (Comer, 2013, p. 411). The movie, The Woodsman describes the story of a convicted sex offender recently released from prison. Walter, depicted by Kevin Bacon shed some insight into the motivations and thought processes that a sex offender, specifically a pedophile might have.

    Read More

  • Unveiling Child Sexual Assault: Causes and Prevention

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    A pervert is not always just sexually molesting children but also women and men in their mature ages. Most guilty pedofiles claim they rape children and individuals because they are afraid of rejection of individuals their own age so they resort to an easily attainable human being (McLeod). Therapy to try and curve the direction of pedofiles sexual needs can help them cope with their abnormal sex drive and mental imperative. Some children experience a situation with their own father. It is actually common for a daughter’s father to rape her starting at a young age. A young woman by the name of Fran Henry, experienced sexual abuse by her own father (“Shedding Light”). She spoke out against child molesting and wanted to create a helpline for those who were victimized or the rapists themselves. Henry stated, “The abuse I suffered was egregious and affected every aspect of my life. But as an adult, I confronted my father. I realized that what I really wanted was not to see him in jail but to make it less likely to see other children suffer from what I had.” The importance of growing up in today’s society and being educated about sexual abuse is an important aspect of knowledge everyone should have. Many parents also do not recognize the warning signs from their children early on to

    Read More

  • Female Sex Offenders: Perception is Not Reality

    1632 Words  | 4 Pages

    Generally, the public views women as nurturers, motherly and incapable of harming a child. Research indicates that female sex offenders capable of committing such acts have serious psychiatric and psychological problems. In comparison, research indicates male sex offenders are more callous, more antisocial, and promiscuous, involved in the criminal justice system, and have more victims (Miccio-Fenseca, 2012, slide 7). The consensus is that men commit their acts for sexual pleasure while women commit their acts due to psychiatric and psychological problems. Law enforcement, juries, and judges tend to empathize more when there are additional mitigating factors, such as emotional or psychological problems.

    Read More

  • Sex Offenders Should Never Be Released

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is a common stereotype that all sex offenders have some form of psychopathy, and therefore they cannot be treated, however most sexual offenders do not have major mental illness or psychological maladjustment (Ward, Polaschek and Busch, 2006), therefore it is not impossible to treat them. Finkelhor’s (1984) precondition model was made with the assumption that the psychopathology of an individual will only take us so far in explaining sexually abusive behaviour, Finkelhor states that 4 stages of preconditions must exist before sexual abuse can take place, these are; Primary motivation to abuse a child sexually, overcoming of internal and external inhibitions and dealing with a child’s resistance to sexual abuse, for each subsequent precondition to occur the previous one must be achieved. Finkelhor argues th...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Sex Offenders

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    The offender in both situations fantasizes, schemes, and determines how they are going to commit the crime all the while getting a great excitement from the whole process, from the planning to actually going through with the crime itself. He also states that for a rapist, “He spots his target,

    Read More

  • Girls in The Juvenile Justice System

    1187 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cauffman, E., Grisso, T., & Sickmund, M. Future of Children. (2009) Understanding the Female Offender, 18, 5. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from www.futureofchildren.org

    Read More

  • Adolescent Sex Offenders

    1262 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many topics nowadays that are still hard to talk about openly. Though we’ve opened the door on many controversies, some of the simplest parts of life can be the hardest to discuss. For most of us, sex in particular can be a taboo topic, which may be the reason why so many children and teens are misinformed on the inner workings of sexual relationships and how they develop as we grow and mature. For some adolescents, this can lead to an unhealthy fixation on the concept of sex, and in some cases, lead them to take action on a situation they do not fully understand. Sexual offenses are perceived as some of the most heinous crimes, but how could our views be affected if those acts were performed by a teenager? We may sometimes consider that they are the same as adult sex offenders; however our judgment can often be clouded by our lack of understanding. Adolescent sex offenders are different from adult sex offenders, are treated in a different way, and often have very different circumstances of their crime.

    Read More

  • Characteristics Of Sex Offender

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sex offenders come across every race, age, gender, socio-economic status, and mental health status (CSG, n.d.). According to CSOM (n.d.) many scholars do not take into consideration the age, gender and socio-economic status as far as the criminal behavior itself, however many scholars look at factors that may have caused these sexual deviant behaviors. These theories or factors are attachment, sociocultural, intimacy, behavioral, and biological (CSOM, n.d.). It is also worthy to note, that the difference between juveniles and adult are there recidivism rate. According to CSOM (n.d.), juveniles are more likely to reoffend than adult sex

    Read More

  • Sexual Assault Essay

    1660 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sexual fantasy had often been defined as being almost any form of mental imagery that can be viewed as being sexually arousing to that individual (Bartels, 2013, p. 7) which can result in deviant sexual behaviour. Many offenders have sexual fantasies and the sexual arousal gained from these fantasies sometimes isn’t enough which therefore leads the offender acting the fantasies out on another individual regardless of the trauma or pain they inflict. The mental imagery of the fantasy can become less arousing and this can lead to them performing these fantasies in real life to get the sexual gratification they had when they first developed the fantasy. The offender in the article, Marc, Ronald’s, made his victim wear nappies and plastic underwear while he was assaulting and raping her which portrays the idea that he was fulfilling a sexual fantasy he may have had; this could link back to previous childhood experiences that may have caused trauma to the offender. Law and Marshall’s (1990) account of sexual fantasy has shown to have a similar assumption as McGuire et al (1965) that sexual fantasies are a stimulus that is able to be conditioned and fantasizing is a deliberate act by an individual.

    Read More

  • Rehabilitation of Sex Offenders

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cognitive behavioral therapy is a promising outlook for the rehabilitation of sex offenders. The therapy is directed towards reconditioning the way a sex offender thinks and operates daily. This makes it possible for offender to apply learned treatment methods and tools to their every day life and more effectively recognize maladaptive thought patterns, which could lead to reoffending. The downside to the therapy is that it relies heavily on the offender to want to change; however, pre-screening into the program helps to ensure only those who want change may participate. In the future there may be more of a shift to the Good Lives Model, which focuses even more on self-worth and self-actualization to make the offender feel important and return to the community as a productive citizen.

    Read More

  • Child Abuse in America

    2800 Words  | 6 Pages

    According to Tennyson Center for Children, “A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds in the U.S.” (“Child Abuse in America”). One cannot fathom the idea of why anyone would intentionally hurt the innocent children of today’s society. Child abuse happens with children of all ages, gender, and religions. Likewise, the world can be identified as a harsh place, where child abuse occurs around the world, and is even evident in the United States. There are many factors that contribute to this repulsive behavior. Physical, sexual, and psychological cruelty are effects of child abuse.

    Read More

  • Long-Term Effects of Child Sexual Abuse

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper outlines the consequences of child sexual abuse (CSA) based on the examination of results from multiple researches previously fulfilled concerning the psychological and physical impact of this crime, information of statistics, warning signs detected, victims’ performances, and emotional state. Sexual abuse causes severe trauma on child victims that will last for the course of their lives, therefore it is critical to identify and improve the therapeutic methods utilized to treat CSA survivors.

    Read More

  • The Severity of Child Sexual Abuse

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sexual abuse cannot be clearly defined with ease. In fact, sexual abuse is an umbrella term for any sort of situation, whether or not it involves physical contact, in which a sexually immature child is exposed to anything sexual in nature. Because no child is psychologically mature enough for sexual stimulation, the complex feelings associated with it are mentally and emotionally disfiguring. Children who have been sexually abused experience an array of negative emotions such as shame, guilt and anger, and may display oddly withdrawn or distrustful behaviors. They cannot help but feel that they somehow brought the abuse unto themselves (Saisan, et al). One major contributing factor to these severe psychological consequences is the concept of trust. Sexual abuse is, in most cases, committed by a parent or other trusted adult figure. While children are naïve on such adult topics, they can still get an overwhelming feeling that the attention is wrong, yet they are unsure of how to cope with it. If the child has an emotional atta...

    Read More

More about Pathways Model Of Child Sexual Abuse

Open Document